It was a typical teenage prank, stealing a sign and getting all one’s friends to sign it. It was the circumstances that were extraordinary.
In September 1942 Kazuo Takahashi was a 17-year-old, incarcerated in Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno, California with his dad and cousins’ family. They were about to be transferred to Topaz “Relocation Center” in Utah, which opened on September 11. On his last day in Tanforan before being transferred to Topaz, Kaz took down the cardboard “Exit” sign from the mess hall as a memento and had his friends sign it.
It was a kind of incarceration high-school yearbook.
There are more than 50 signatures on the sign; some are in Japanese, some illegible. We are happy to share a new story, “Exit From Tanforan,” contributed by Kaz’s daughter, Diane Yuen. Go to the Topaz Stories website to read it and to see a partial list of names.
The Topaz Stories Team
Plan to visit the Topaz Stories Exhibit in Salt Lake City.
Contact us if you have a Topaz Story to share.
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Media Coverage:
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)