I don’t remember how we got from the train to Topaz Internment Camp, but it was a strange and desolate landscape.
In the bright sunlight, the sand was dazzling white (from the salt, like in Salt Lake) and had a texture like flour. It “pouffed” up with every step. Later we found out that when it rained, it made the stickiest mud you ever felt.
About the contributor: Grace Mori Saito Tom grew up in Chinatown in Oakland, CA. She was 11 and attending Lincoln Elementary School when Pearl Harbor was attacked. The family was sent to Tanforan and later, Topaz. After the War, Grace’s family was among the last to leave Topaz, having nowhere to go. They returned to the San Francisco Bay Area, where the family lived in one room at a church hostel. Grace wrote her memoir in 1999 and passed away the same year.
Copyright 1999, Grace Mori Saito Tom. All rights reserved.