We lost a mensch on New Year’s Day. Tom Kawakami, who gave us the story “Better Than Crystal City,” passed away at his home in San Mateo.
I knew Tom from my junior high/high school days as a member of the congregation of Pine Methodist Church in San Francisco, where he and his wife Hana were stalwarts. My mom, aunt and grandparents were long-time friends of Hana’s San Francisco family, the Abes. Every year we got the Kawakamis’ Christmas card with a picture of their four boys.
Tom himself was never in camp. His family was in Utah already when the war began, and he told me he remembered playing high school basketball against “a bunch of Niseis” from Topaz.
I didn’t see the Kawakamis very often once I went to college and my church-going days dwindled to a once-a-year appearance on the graveyard shift of the chicken teriyaki pit crew; but we reconnected in 2018 because of Topaz Stories. Tom wanted to tell me about Hana’s family’s experience in Crystal City. After that, we had lunch a couple of times just to stay in touch. He had funny stories about my aunt Kiyo’s friendship with Martha, Hana’s older sister, and as by that time Hana, Martha and Kiyo were all gone, it was wonderful to remember them and laugh.
Tom was a loving husband and father; a lifelong educator; and an active fellow who remained engaged in the community and swam every day into his 90s. We lost a good one.
Ruth Sasaki
Topaz Stories Editor
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Media Coverage:
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)