Seventy-nine years ago almost to the day, a 27-year-old mother of two incarcerated in Topaz named Ann Ichiyasu wrote a letter to LoVerne Wilson Brown, a dear friend from Berkeley days.
The 12 handwritten pages contained a remarkably detailed, personal first-hand account of the forced removal and adjustment to incarceration in Topaz. We are able to share “Ann’s Letter” with you today because LoVerne’s daughter, Jonnie Wilson, found it after her mother died in San Diego in 2000 and tracked down Ann’s daughter, Diane, to return it to Ann’s family.
We are grateful to LoVerne for saving the letter; to Jonnie for recognizing its importance and making the effort to find Diane; to Amy Mass, Diane’s friend and neighbor, who urged Diane to share the letter with the community, and who reached out to J-Sei; and to Jill Shiraki at J-Sei, who contacted us. Thanks most of all to Ann, for writing the letter, and to Diane, for donating the original to the Topaz Museum. Sometimes it takes a village for a treasured artifact to find a home.
The Topaz Stories Team
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