Kiyoshi Katsumoto was a seven-year-old child in Topaz when Mr. James Hatsuaki Wakasa was shot and killed by a Topaz guard while walking his dog near the camp fence. Mr. Wakasa was an elderly bachelor and known to be devoted to the dog. He could be seen walking with it most nights. One evening near the perimeter of the camp the dog evidently scampered away from him. Mr. Wakasa was shot by the guard in the watchtower while trying to retrieve his dog.
The guard who killed Mr. Wakasa claimed that he shouted out four warnings to Mr. Wakasa and shot him as he was trying to crawl out; however, the autopsy showed that he died of a bullet wound to the front of his chest and not to his back. The guard was court-martialed but found not guilty.
It was shortly after Mr. Wakasa was shot that incarcerees started to see the hinotama (fireball)—a luminous white ball 200-300 feet in the air in what appeared to be the general direction of where Mr. Wakasa had died. Small crowds would gather to watch this small ball of white light dance and bounce eerily across the desert for several minutes. It happened long ago, but Kiyoshi remembers it so clearly because it sent chills up his spine. The hinotama came out for several evenings after sunset; then it stopped.