by Ann Tamaki Dion and Ken Yamashita
“Although Kiku was aware that he was suddenly living with his relatives in a strange new place, he did not know why.”
Kiku was only eight years old when he and his family were ordered to leave their home and imprisoned in Tanforan Assembly Center in 1942. They were subsequently moved to the Topaz Internment Camp.
Although Kiku was aware that he was suddenly living with his relatives in a strange new place, he did not know why. It’s possible he thought he was on “vacation”; Topaz seemed like an exciting adventure to a youngster who loved the outdoors and relished finding creepy crawly things which were abundant in his new desert surroundings.
He enjoyed sticking horny toads onto his Grandma Tomi’s window screens to “surprise” her and brought four lizards to school one day (to the delight or disgust of his Japanese American classmates). Every night before he went to bed, his mother Chizu routinely emptied his pockets, often filled with live creatures: a lizard, toad or centipede. Chizu was happy that Kiku seemed to be adjusting well. She wanted him to feel secure despite her own sense of loss and fear.
Kiku was a best friend to my husband and me for the last 30 years of his life. He shared so many memories, including those of Topaz. A post script on “Genga” his Christmas angel: his mother asked why she had dark hair instead of golden like so many pictures of angels. He explained to her that his angel was like all the girls that lived in Topaz, and therefore should have the same black straight hair. Ed never held a grudge against the US where he’d been born. He served a long career in the US Air Force, and retired as a Lt. Colonel. He and his parents were great Americans.
Thank you for sharing your memories of Kiku, Jane. It always enriches a story to learn something of the people in other aspects of their lives, outside of the Topaz experience.