A return to Topaz, Utah

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The most vivid description of Topaz life was documented by Harue Minamoto, Gay’s mother, which every family member read in advance. Even today, most Japanese-Americans don’t like to talk about being arrested, taken far from their homes and placed in camps. They consider it a shameful experience. Some even hide it from their children and grandchildren. But not Harue Minamoto. She wanted people to know what happened, not only during the internment but afterward, when they returned to the family home in Oakland in 1946-47 and found it pillaged. She wasn’t shy about calling Topaz a concentration camp in contrast to her husband who was drafted toward the end of the war, sent to Europe on V-E Day, where he was stationed in Germany as part of the “occupation forces,” and learned firsthand of the German concentration camps.

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Harue was married shortly after Pearl Harbor and the roundup began. The rest of her family moved to Del Rey, an allowable California site. But she and husband Toshi remained to finish up business affairs.

For some time, the news media had been fanning “anti-Japanese sentiment and the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West and the powerful American Legion added pressure by demanding the deportation of all Japanese aliens and depriving those born in the U.S. of citizenship.” President Franklin Delano Roosevelt succumbed to the political pressure. Gen. John L. DeWitt, the California commander, proclaimed “ A Jap is a Jap, whether he’s an American citizen or not.” That led to expulsion of all Japanese from the West Coast states and parts of Arizona.

The young couple were allowed to take two suitcases and one duffle bag each, no knives over 8 inches and no radios with short wave. “We were forced to sell many of our household goods at a low price to people who took advantage. We stored as much as we could on the upper flat and padlocked every door,” she said.

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“One-hundred-and-ten-thousand Japanese, two-thirds American born, were herded into centers — fairgrounds, race tracks and live stock exhibit halls. Our destination was the Tanforan race track in San Bruno ... . We were ushered in under the grandstand, like cattle going to market. We were searched, given a typhoid shot and assigned buildings … . The stall was divided in half with a Dutch door and the interior strongly smelled of disinfectant and horse manure. There were two cots with army blankets and we were handed a sack to fill with hay as our mattress. I had to fight back the urge to vomit, as I was pregnant.

“On Oct. 9, 1942, in shade-drawn trains, we were sent to the flat, windy desert area of Topaz, 150 miles south of Salt Lake City. We arrived in the midst of a blinding, black dust storm. Our bleak barrack apartment consisted of two army cots with mattresses and a black potbelly stove. We had no shelves or chairs to sit on. People were tearing off the tabletops from the mess hall to make do.”

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The baby was born in December on a very cold snowy day. It was a difficult birth under harsh conditions but both mother and daughter survived. The very cold winter and the shortages of food were the top concern. Then innovation became critical because of the need for baby food. “We brought back portions of our own meals which we mashed or watered down. I made a grater from a discarded sardine can to prepare the baby food and to this day it serves its purpose.”

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The Minomotos, now both deceased, were able to return to Oakland and eventually re-established their lives. But the bitter memories like the grater survive.

Sue Lempert is the former mayor of San Mateo. Her column runs every Monday. She can be reached at sue@smdailyjournal.com.