September 3, 2022: Featuring “Topaz Trucker”

On this Labor Day weekend, we salute all the Issei and Nisei workers who kept the camps running to make life more tolerable for their families and friends who were incarcerated there: the mess-hall workers, firemen, butchers, teachers, agricultural workers, truck drivers, journalists, doctors, nurses and hospital staff, and countless others.

Eleven Japanese American men and one Caucasian man pose in white coats in front of a shed in Topaz. — Topaz butchers. Courtesy of the Morizono/Eto family.

30 or so Japanese American men dressed in black jackets and rolled-up jeans pose in the desert. — Topaz Fire Brigade. Courtesy of the Morizono/Eto family.

Japnese American women sing with Topaz preschool children, all seated on the floor of a barrack, except for one teacher, who is playing the piano. — Preschool teachers lead singing in Topaz. Courtesy of the Topaz Museum, from the collection of Eleanor Sekerak Girard.

Loading incarcerees onto a truck in Topaz. — Truck drivers picking up transferees in the block. Topaz, Utah. War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement. From Calisphere: UC Digital Collection.

Yoneo Kawakita, just out of high school, couldn’t go to college when he arrived in Topaz in September 1942. So he became a truck driver, delivering coal to the camp and transporting people from place to place.

Read Yon’s story, “Topaz Trucker,” on our website.

If you have a story about a job that you or a family member/friend had in Topaz, contact us. If you recognize any of the men in the firemen or butcher photos, let us know!

The Topaz Stories Team

Plan to visit the Topaz Stories Exhibit in Salt Lake City.

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)

September 3, 2022: Featuring “Topaz Trucker”

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