Tribute to a Topaz teacher
Helen Fukuchi Ogawa was born in 1920 in Martinez, CA, where her father was the caretaker of a pear orchard. After Pearl Harbor, her father’s boss paid him in cash so that he would not have to go to the bank in Martinez, which was in an area restricted to Issei, who had never been allowed to become U.S. citizens.
In Topaz, Helen became a preschool teacher. She is shown in this group photo of Topaz preschool teachers, sitting in the front row, third from the left (in saddle shoes). She is seated next to my mother (in the gray tweed dress and black ankle socks), who was the supervisor of preschools. The two stayed in touch after the War.
Helen visited San Francisco in 1947 and is in this photo taken at Ocean Beach near the Cliff House. Left to right: Harry Fukuhara (my dad’s cousin); Helen’s son Gregory; Helen; my mother, Tomi Takahashi Sasaki; my dad, Shigeru Sasaki; and my sister Joan.
In 2021 Dana Shew interviewed Helen as part of the “Topaz Toddler” project. Helen passed away in January 2024 at the age of 103.
Read about the Topaz preschool teachers in “Structuring Chaos.”
Ruth Sasaki
Topaz Stories Editor
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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)