The UC Berkeley Bancroft Library Oral History Center has unveiled its work on “Japanese American Intergenerational Narratives.” The collection includes: For an overview of the project and links to all interviews, click here.
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Tag: Japanese-American internment
Day of Remembrance 2022
Utah Exhibit 2022
The Topaz Stories Exhibit in the Utah State Capitol is on! January 18-December 31, 2022 Utah State Capitol Building, 3rd floor mezzanine Salt Lake City, Utah The exhibit, postponed from a planned run in 2020 due to COVID, has been rescheduled to January 18-December 31, 2022 through the kind efforts of Max Chang, Brad Westwood […]
Topaz Stories: Podcast
On June 2, 2021, Jonathan Hirabayashi (the Topaz Stories exhibit designer) and I were interviewed for a podcast produced by the Utah Department of Cultural and Community Engagement. It was part of a series on Utah history and culture called “Speak Your Piece.” Brad Westwood, our host, along with Max Chang, has been instrumental in […]
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 […]
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 […]
V-mails to Topaz
(This is Part 2 of “The Oda Boys”) V-mails (Victory mail) slowly made their way to barrack 4-5-E in Topaz from my mother’s foster brother Harry in the 442 in Italy: June 30, 1944 To Eddie (Harry’s brother), 4-5-D, Topaz, Utah From: Harry, Co. L, 442 I haven’t heard from you in so […]
Everything must go
Kiyo’s story: 1942 Mr. Hudson, the Oldsmobile salesman who sold Kiyo her first car and taught her to drive, had continued to check in with her every three years, and she loyally followed him to Plymouth when he changed companies. The Takahashis’ third car was a Dodge, bought from Mr. Hudson. In October of 1941, […]
The Oda Boys
(From a few photos, a few letters, and a few stories told over lunch with my mom and aunt, I have pieced together the story of the Oda boys. If at times my imagination ventures into the realm of fiction, please forgive me.) Sometime around 1932, Bachan went to the funeral of a family friend […]
Topaz
Kiyo’s story, part 8: 1942-1944 In Topaz, the Takahashi family consisted of nine people: Jichan, Bachan, Kiyo, Tomi, and Edwin (the youngest child); Yone-yan (Jichan’s younger brother) and his son, Kaz; Eddie Oda (an orphan informally adopted by my grandparents); and Yokoyama-san, a family friend and contemporary of Kiyo’s other brother Shig (who was a […]