In the 1980s I wrote a piece of creative nonfiction called “Osewa Ni Natta.” It mourned the loss of community memory, the gradual loss of connections that bound us all together as older generations passed away.
Of course, the biggest memory blaster was the WWII incarceration. It did a job on the past, that’s for sure.
Over the past six years, the Topaz Stories project has occasionally unearthed some of those lost connections. It could be a mundane connection that once might have been ignored or completely taken for granted–but now, buried for decades in the rubble of the incarceration, its discovery takes on the emotional force of unearthing the Holy Grail. Or just an eerie coincidence that suddenly connects the past with the present. And this is why I often refer to writing as “excavation”–digging, sifting, searching for the remnants of a lost civilization.
One of the earliest Topaz Stories “small world” discoveries occurred at the opening reception of our exhibit at J-Sei in 2019. Jonathan Hirabayashi, a recent acquaintance who I’d met when he attended our Topaz Stories workshop the previous fall, had given us a story about his parents’ courtship and marriage in Tanforan. Illustrating the story was an iconic Dorothea Lange photo of Japanese Americans, including his mother, waiting in line for dinner. Attending the reception was an old friend of mine from junior high days in San Francisco, Joe Yoshino. Joey saw the photo and spotted his parents in the line. Jonathan and Joey met for the first time at the 2019 exhibit. But in June 1942, their parents stood a few feet apart at the beginning of their long confinement behind barbed wire. Read Jonathan’s story, “The Proposal.”
Ruth Sasaki
Topaz Stories Editor
Contact us if you have a Topaz Story to share.
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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)