We are happy to share a new Topaz Story with you this week.
Michiko Takeshita Mukai was six years old when her family was incarcerated in Tanforan. After being transferred to Topaz, they spent a year there before being sent to Tule Lake.
It was in Tule Lake that Michiko, ironically, learned to speak Japanese. It is ironic because the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII was meant to disperse Japanese American populations, eradicate Japantowns, and erase Japanese culture. However, given the family’s transfer to Tule Lake in 1943, they felt it was advisable to become conversant in Japanese in preparation for possible deportation to Japan.
But when the War ended, the Takeshita family (except the eldest son) returned to San Mateo. Michiko’s account of the family’s resettlement in a state that still harbored hostility toward those with Japanese faces is achingly personal and details the impact that camp had on many lives, for years after the War ended.
Read Michiko’s story, “A Topaz Childhood.“
The Topaz Stories Team
Plan to visit the Topaz Stories Exhibit in Salt Lake City (through December 2022).
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Media Coverage:
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)