This week we invite you into the world of a teenager in Topaz.
Steve Fujioka grew up in an agricultural community in Placer County, near Sacramento, CA. When the forced removal began in 1942, everyone west of the highway went to temporary detention centers; a couple of months later, those east of the highway, including Steve’s family, were taken directly to Tule Lake.
In September 1943 they were transferred to Topaz, UT as part of the post-loyalty questionnaire prisoner exchange. In his memoir, “Confinement,” Steve writes of being a typical, bored teenager lacking motivation and trying to find ways to fill his days.
In looking back on his time in Topaz, Steve invites us into the mindset and world view of one teenager behind barbed wire.
Many thanks to Marjorie Fujioka, Steve’s wife, for sharing his memoir, ”Confinement,” from which we excerpted this story. Read “A Teen in Topaz.”
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)