I never knew my grandmother. She died before I was born. My dad seldom talked about her, about any of his past… Here are my grandparents with a child who is probably my aunt, Momoko, circa 1910. They were living in Berkeley, CA around that time. Their eldest child, a son, was with his grandparents […]
Topaz Stories: Utah Exhibit Update
The expanded Topaz Stories Exhibit, which was scheduled to open in the Salt Lake City Utah State Capitol Building on June 6, 2020 and run through December 18, will be postponed due to the coronavirus situation. All plans are in limbo, so will keep you posted on updates. About the new exhibit Nine new stories […]
Wrong then; wrong now
[Originally published on February 16, 2017 during the Trump administration. Republished to commemorate February 19, the “Day of Remembrance” marking the date on which President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066.] This Sunday marks the 75th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066. On February 19, 1942, in the wake of the bombing of Pearl […]
Topaz Stories Exhibit: Update
See recent coverage in the Mercury News, July 8, 2019. The Topaz Stories Exhibit opening took place on June 1, drawing about 90 people to hear four contributors share their stories. Gail Hoshiyama Nanbu read her story, “The Quality Market,” about a Mormon couple in Delta, Utah, who took a pair of Japanese-American brothers from […]
Letting go
(Written in 2017) On Tuesday, I dropped the key to my childhood home into an envelope and slipped it into my sister’s mail slot. She was signing the final papers to close the sale, and by the end of the week, our parents’ house in the Richmond District would belong to someone else. Without my […]
Over the moon
Fifty years ago, the U.S. landed men on the moon. It was summer on Earth, and I was taking a physics class at Lowell High School’s summer session. The previous semester, I had been introduced to chemistry by a fabulous teacher at George Washington High School (Mr. Jones), and I, a lifelong avid reader and […]
Sakaye’s story
In 1935, the Takahashis’ next-door neighbor on Pine Street brought one of his younger sisters to San Francisco from the family home in Hiroshima. Sakaye was nineteen. Like her three sisters (Momoko, Misao, and Masako) and younger brother, Shigeru (my dad), Sakaye had been born in Berkeley, where her parents ran a grocery store on […]
Topaz Stories Exhibit
The pieces in this collection came from a variety of sources: some were excerpted from longer memoirs left by Nisei survivors; others were passed down orally to family members or friends, and on to us by e-mail; still others, related directly to us in face-to-face interviews. It has been a privilege to receive and share […]
Kiyo’s Story: Introduction
My aunt Kiyo died three years ago at the age of 102. For most of the last few years of her life, she was no longer herself. It was hard to reconcile the frail, somewhat vacant woman who seldom spoke with the incessantly verbal, independent, and rather bossy dynamo who had presided over the Takahashi […]
O-josan
Kiyo’s story (1913-1924) My aunt Kiyo was 29 years old when her family was interned in Topaz, Utah during the war. In those days, 29 was an age at which most Nisei women were expected to be married. Kiyo, despite having had a number of admirers through the years, had steadfastly resisted, perhaps influenced by […]