Join us for a Topaz Stories program in Monterey!
Topaz Stories:
Echoes in the Present
Saturday, March 28, 2026, 2-3:30 pm
JACL Hall, 424 Adams St., Monterey, CA (831)648-8830
Every day, news headlines remind us that we seem doomed never to learn the lessons of history, as immigrants and other groups are demonized and persecuted without due process. The Friends of Topaz Museum is honored to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Monterey JACL Hall by presenting “Topaz Stories: Echoes in the Present” on March 28, 2-3:30 pm. Moderated by Topaz Stories Editor Ruth Sasaki, we will share from our collection of over 100 stories of the WWII Japanese American incarceration, told by Topaz survivors and descendants–as a reminder of the human consequences of injustice.
Guest speakers include Topaz survivors May Saito Takashima, Kyoko Nozaki, and Norm Hayashi. May was incarcerated at age 10 from San Francisco. Kyoko is a Topaz survivor born in Oakland, CA, who joins us all the way from Kyoto, Japan, where her family repatriated after the War. Norm Hayashi was only two when his family was forcibly removed from their home in Oakland. In addition, although they cannot attend in person, we will frame our program with stories by Ritsuko Furuya, whose family was from Lompoc, and Jon Yatabe, whose extended family was incarcerated from Berkeley and Redwood City.
Admission is free; but donations to support the JACL Hall are appreciated. Many thanks to the JACL Monterey Peninsula for hosting us!
The Topaz Stories Team
Contact us if you have a Topaz Story to share, or if you would like to receive (at most) weekly emails from us about new stories or events.
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Media Coverage:
Watch “Utah Historians Run Exhibit on Japanese American Internment,” abc4 News, 2/19/2025).
Read “Utah Once Said ‘Never Again’–Do We Mean It? Deseret News, (2/26/2025).
Read “Topaz Stories Exhibition: A Way to Remember the Past.” SUU News, 2/7/2025.
Read ‘Topaz Stories’ exhibit travels Utah showing human side of WWII internment (KSL.com, May 24, 2024)
Read ‘Topaz Stories’ mines the history of a Japanese American internment camp (ParkRecord, May 18, 2024)
Read Remembering Japanese American Internment–Day of Remembrance (Rosie the Riveter Trust blog, March 24, 2024)
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 on Brad Westwood’s “Speak Your Piece” podcast featuring Ruth Sasaki and Jonathan Hirabayashi (6/2/2021)