It’s just the kind of thing that a quietly mischievous 17-year-old might do: steal a sign and get all his friends to sign it. Except that this 17-year-old, Kazuo Takahashi, was in a detention center, about to be transferred to a concentration camp in the Utah desert.
81 years ago, on Sept. 11, 1942, a small, advanced contingent of about 200 Tanforan incarcerees arrived in Topaz to assist in preparing the camp for the rest of the more than 8,000 transferees who would begin arriving the following week. As Tanforan began to close down, “Kaz” pulled the “Exit” sign from the mess hall and got all of his friends to sign it.
It was a kind of incarceration high-school yearbook.
Kaz collected signatures from “Messmate Walt,” “Spider,” “Fido,” and dozens of other pals and acquaintances. He would go on to serve in the U.S. Army in postwar Japan; but he kept the cardboard sign as a treasured token of his 17-year-old self and his displaced but resilient community of friends, who, by signing their names, sent a message for the ages: “We were here.”
Read Diane Takahashi Yuen’s story, “Exit from Tanforan” on our website.
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)