I knew of the Abes when I was growing up. Hana went to our church; Martha and Sophie were my aunt Kiyo’s friends. But I never wondered why Mr. Abe wasn’t in any of the stories.
Before the War, Toyoji Abe was the influential newspaper publisher of the Shin Sekai, one of two main bilingual Japanese newspapers in San Francisco.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Mr. Abe was arrested as a “dangerous enemy alien.” He was sent to Ft. Missoula, MT along with other Issei community leaders from the West Coast.
His family was incarcerated in Tanforan, CA and Topaz, UT. By early 1944, most of the Abe children had left camp for the Army, university, or jobs. Mrs. Abe (Yuka) and Hana, the youngest, joined Mr. Abe in Crystal City, TX, an INS detention camp for “enemy aliens” of Japanese, Italian and German descent and their families.
There Mr. Abe was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Read Hana’s husband, Tom Kawakami’s story, “Better Than Crystal City.”
Note: The 2023 Crystal City Pilgrimage will take place on October 26-29. Click here for more information.
Image 1: Abe family. Courtesy of Tom Kawakami.
Image 2: Hana and friends at Topaz. From the Topaz High School yearbook, 1943.
Image 3: Aerial view of Crystal City Family Internment Camp. © Texas Historical Commission. Used with kind permission.
The Topaz Stories Team
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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)