In 2021 a woman named Cynthia Wright reached out to us with an amazing story.
She had always kind of known that her grandparents lived in Topaz. Her grandmother Ella was a sketch artist, and her grandfather, Walter, worked in Operations. Ella used to tell her granddaughter that she had many Japanese friends in Topaz. Cynthia, once she understood what Topaz was, thought to herself, “Yeah, right!” feeling it would be difficult for incarcerees to feel friendship with those in the administration of the camp.
But the Topaz stories she read on our website motivated her to dig into her family’s history. And this is some of what she found out:
Ella Halgren was a young woman when she emigrated from Sweden to Washington State in 1937. “She came to the U.S. to study art,” Cynthia said in an interview with Brad Shirakawa of the Alameda Japanese American History Project1. She met and married Walter Honderich, a fellow student at the University of Washington, who created the first student co-op there—an experience he put to good use later as the manager of the Topaz Co-op.
Walter managed many Co-op employees, including Dave Tatsuno, a Nisei from San Francisco. Dave was an avid home movie buff, but cameras were considered contraband in camp, and before incarceration, he had lent his 8mm movie camera to a Caucasian friend to avoid having it confiscated by the government. Walter, a home movie enthusiast himself, was sympathetic, and suggested that Tatsuno have his friend send the camera to Walter, who then passed it to Dave, warning him not to point it at the guard towers or barbed wire.2 The home movies that Dave Tatsuno surreptitiously shot are the most important record on film of life in Topaz, and the compiled footage was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1997.
Ella accompanied her husband to Topaz, and they lived in one of the barracks reserved for administrators. Their daughter, Valerie, was born in Topaz.
Brad Shirakawa writes, “Ella had a heavy Swedish accent and because of that, she perhaps found herself more at home with the Issei incarcerees. She spent hours sketching the everyday life of a woman at an ironing board in her barracks, or of people at work.”1
“She knew at the time it was important to capture what was happening,” Cynthia says. “After Topaz closed, the WRA (War Relocation Authority) came and took pictures of all of her sketches for their records. She was told not to publish them.”3
Thanks to Ella and Walter Honderich, we have two important records of daily life in Topaz.
In 1988, Daisy Satoda, organizer of the first all-Topaz reunion, wrote to Ella, inviting her to attend. “We are indeed grateful to people like Mr. Honderich and yourself who cared enough to do something to ease the injustice of impounding a whole group of innocent people which was in violation of the U.S. Constitution.”4 Several of Ella’s sketches that she had entrusted to Dave Tatsuno would be displayed at the reunion. These sketches were subsequently donated to the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) in Los Angeles with Ella’s blessing.
Ella died in 1999, Walter in 1985.
Knowing her grandparents’ story has made all the difference:
“I…knew that my grandparents were very fond of the people at Topaz and thought of them as friends,” writes Cynthia. “Given the situation, I had a hard time understanding if the friendship was mutual. I wondered if my grandparents were naïve to think their fondness was reciprocated. Now I understand, and it makes me proud.” 3
In 2022, Cynthia brought her daughters to the Topaz Stories Exhibit at the Utah State Capitol. “I want to make sure my children know and understand the significance (of this story, in which their great-grandparents played a small but important part).”
In April 2023 Cynthia joined other Topaz descendants along with a few survivors at the ceremony at the Topaz site commemorating the 80th anniversary of the killing of Hatsuaki Wakasa, an elderly Japanese American, by a Topaz guard.
Cynthia is not Japanese American, but in her own journey of discovery of her family’s history in Topaz, she is a Topaz descendant like the rest of us.
From 1942-1945 Ella created about 80 drawings at Topaz. Only a few of the original drawings have been located, including the 13 donated to JANM. To see images of 25 of Ella’s Topaz sketches, click here.
Cynthia is searching for the whereabouts of the remaining drawings, which were last held by the Japanese American Citizens’ League in Hollywood, CA, in the mid 1970s, but are now unaccounted for.
If you know of the whereabouts of any of the lost sketches of Topaz by Ella Honderich, or if you can identify any of the people in these sketches or photos, please contact us or send us an email at topazstories@gmail.com.
Grateful acknowledgment to Cynthia Wright for sharing her family photos and stories, and for hunting down images of her grandmother’s drawings; also, to Brad Shirakawa of the Alameda Japanese American History Project, for sharing his research.
Sources:
1 Shirakawa, Brad. “The Shoemakers of Topaz,” Alameda Japanese American History Project. 2023.
2 Niiya, Brian. “Dave Tatsuno.” Densho Encyclopedia. Accessed on 8/13/2023: https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Dave_Tatsuno/
3 Correspondence from Cynthia Wright to Ruth Sasaki. November 7, 2021. Courtesy of Cynthia Wright.
4 Excerpt from letter written by Daisy Satoda to Ella Vandela Honderich-Zaff, dated July 15, 1988. Excerpt courtesy of Daisy Uyeda Satoda.
About the contributor: Cynthia Wright was born in Southern California and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. She worked in high tech for 15 years until moving to Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband Joe in 2005. They have three daughters. Cynthia became interested in learning more about her grandparents’ history at Topaz after coming across a Topaz Story on Instagram that sparked her curiosity, having only vaguely known about Topaz. She has since spent the past two years researching and learning about the history in order to preserve and share the story.
Copyright 2023, Cynthia Wright. All rights reserved.
Thank you, Cynthia, for sharing your story about your grandmother. She was very good at portraying life in Topaz; her artistry was superb. Hope her other artwork can be found somewhere.
I was 7, going on 8, the year we were interned. I do remember some things, but not all. So every artwork/photos help to bring back some memory of that era.
In the meantime, Happy New Year and all the best for 2024. — jun, san francisco, ca
Thank you for the kind words Jun. I appreciate you reading and commenting on the story and am happy to have been able to share with the help of Topaz Stories.
My mother was just a baby and my grandparents have past. It’s so nice to hear from someone that experienced it first hand. It’s so important to remember, understand and share so it never happens again.
Have a wonderful New Year-