In 2022 I wrote about John Harano, a Berkeley boy who fought in Europe with the 442nd RCT in WWII while his family was incarcerated in Topaz. At the time, I did not know where his surviving family members were, so the story was written based on research and a few recollections of the Harano family’s neighbors in Block 20.
About a year later, John’s nephew, Ross Harano, reached out to our website from Chicago to thank us for sharing John’s story. He connected me to other Harano family members, spread all over the country.
He also sent me a copy of a memoir by John’s niece, Helen Harano Christ, entitled Legacy, about her Topaz childhood. Thanks to Ross and Helen’s daughter, Mary Kay Hilmoe, we are happy to share an excerpt from Helen’s memoir.
Craving a sense of purpose, or at least adventure, fourth-grade Helen and her friends decide to form a “girl gang” and come up with an ambitious list of mischief to get up to. Their plans meet obstacle after obstacle, not the least of which is the watchful eye of family members and neighbors in the crowded “camp.”
Read Helen’s story, “The Rowdies.”
The Topaz Stories Team
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Media Coverage:
Read ‘Topaz Stories’ exhibit travels Utah showing human side of WWII internment (KSL.com, May 24, 2024)
Read ‘Topaz Stories’ mines the history of a Japanese American internment camp (ParkRecord, May 18, 2024)
Read Remembering Japanese American Internment–Day of Remembrance (Rosie the Riveter Trust blog, March 24, 2024)
Read Internee’s story told with ‘Topaz Collages’ (Wheel of Dharma, Vol. 5, Issue 3, March 2023).
Watch Topaz survivors tell their stories (abc4 news, 4/22/2022)
Listen to the “In the Hive” podcast with interviews with Ann Dion, Jonathan Hirabayashi, and Topaz survivors Jeanie Kashima and Joseph Nishimura (KCPW, 4/28/2022)
Read How a Utah exhibit about Topaz Camp looks to find empathy in ‘an ugly stain on American history (ksl.com, 4/22/2022)
Read “Topaz Stories rise from the dust,” (Department of Culture & Community Engagement, 4/2022)
Listen to KQED Forum, Day of Remembrance interview with Ruth Sasaki, 2/15/2022
Listen to Max Chang and Ruth Sasaki interviewed (KRCL RadioActive, 2/9/2022
Read On Topaz Stories and ‘Authentic Voice’, the Discover Nikkei interview with Ruth Sasaki (10/14/2022)
Listen to Remembering the Japanese American Incarceration, the Topaz Stories podcast with Ruth Sasaki and Jonathan Hirabayashi (6/2/2021)