Topaz Times (publication)

Last updated
Topaz Times
Topaz Times.jpg
Topaz Times, September 17, 1942
Type Daily newspaper
FormatMimeograph
Editor-in-chiefEvelyn Kirimura
FoundedSeptember 17, 1942
LanguageEnglish, Japanese
Ceased publicationAugust 9, 1945
HeadquartersTopaz War Relocation Center

The Topaz Times was a mimeographed newspaper published in the Topaz War Relocation Center (Topaz) during the period of Japanese Internment in World War II. The publication of the Times was mandated by the War Relocation Authority (WRA) to ensure proper communication from WRA leaders to residents of the camp. The newspaper was written in both English and Japanese. The Times published daily between September 17, 1942, and August 9, 1945, [1] ceasing publication five months prior to the date the camp closed.

Contents

History

In February 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, [2] ordering the incarceration of Japanese-born US residents ( Issei ) and American citizens of Japanese descent (Nisei or Sansei) living in California and the Pacific Northwest, conducted by the WRA. While camps were being built to house people more permanently, many internees were housed in the Tanforan Assembly Center and were later relocated to a total of ten concentration camps throughout the United States. [3] Topaz, the camp located in Delta, Utah, officially opened on September 11, 1942, drawing in internees largely from Tanforan and the San Francisco Bay Area.

One of the major concerns held by the WRA was the means by which it could convey important information to camp residents in Topaz. This concern resulted in the creation of the Topaz Times as a practical means of mass communication of government statements and information for internees, with camp newspapers like the Times being produced under varying levels of supervision and support by the WRA. [4] Because of WRA supervision, the Topaz Times was often considered constrained in the extent of its publication and messaging, leading to the creation of TREK, an incarceree-created literary magazine published in addition to the Times, in which editors tended to have more freedom to express ideas and protest their treatment and incarceration. [5]

The first issue of the Topaz Times was published on September 17, 1942, six days after the camp opened to incarcerees and while the camp was still under construction. Issues were continually published in both English and Japanese until August 9, 1945, when the paper ceased publication. In October of the same year, Topaz closed.

Organization

Rose Nakagawa, former student from San Francisco, California, working as a mimeograph operator on the Topaz Times. Topaz, Utah. Rose Nakagawa, former student from San Francisco, California, now works as a mimeograp . . . - NARA - 536982.jpg
Rose Nakagawa, former student from San Francisco, California, working as a mimeograph operator on the Topaz Times.

A majority of internees at Topaz were transferred from Tanforan Assembly Center, which originally drew incarcerees from the San Francisco Bay Area. The largely urban camp population had a high level of education and professional training. As a result, editors and journalists who had worked on professional newspapers prior to their incarceration were often hired to contribute to both the English and Japanese sections of the newspaper. [4] Contributors were paid monthly by the WRA, receiving either $12, $16, or $19 a month depending on their level of expertise and the position they held. [1]

In December 1942, an issue of the Topaz Times included a list of contributors, which remained throughout subsequent issues. The initial list named Evelyn Kirimura as Editor-in-Chief with Alex Yorichi, Iwao Kawakami, Harumi Kawahara, Haruno Wada, Dan Ota, and Iwao Shimizu as additional editors. Yuri Sugihara, Bennie Nobori, and Hiroshi Tatsuta were also listed as contributors. Later issues introduced others including but not limited to: staff members, artists, language translators, and religious writers. [6] Editors and journalists worked under the supervision of WRA leaders to produce issues of the Times using mimeograph machines to duplicate issues for distribution. [7]

The Topaz Times was published in both English and Japanese for the duration of its publication. The Japanese-language sections were essential for the purposes of the WRA to ensure that internees would be able to read the messages written; however, authorities could not understand what was written in the Japanese portions of the newspaper. WRA authorities, concerned that journalists might write articles outside of approved messages, conducted extensive background checks on translators like Iwao Shimizu and Kiyoshi Yamamoto. Translators could not work until after WRA confirmation of their loyalty to the United States. [8] Their translations of the Japanese sections were later reviewed by authorities before publication.

Content

Although the Topaz Times was permitted relative autonomy in its written messages, the WRA had the ability to cease its publication at any time, and as a result, editors and journalists operated under a level of non-explicit censorship. [9] Because of its reliance on government authorities, publications in the Times tended to take a favorable tone toward the WRA and camp policies, lacking political or highly opinionated messages in an attempt to uphold the Times and conserve its ability to publish content. [10] Its publications describing daily activities at Topaz offer a window into the daily lives of internees in the camp.

Some articles in the newspaper surrounded more controversial topics, such as the Times' report on the WRA-issued "loyalty questionnaire" which internees were required to complete, [11] a survey that included questions regarding the loyalty of incarcerees to the United States government and their willingness to serve in the United States military. [12] [13] The article was followed by two pages of answers from the WRA regarding common questions about the survey before the Japanese translation.

Articles noted that incarcerees were not cut off from those living outside the camp in the surrounding Utah area. In fact, journalists from the Topaz Times were invited to visit the site of a local newspaper, the Millard County Chronicle, a trip that was later reported on in both the Chronicle and the Times. [14] At the end of World War II, when incarcerees were being released from Topaz and other camps, articles reported on anti-Japanese sentiment in the surrounding area and throughout the United States. [12]

Many articles in the Times reported on camp sports, both by announcing information to interested athletes and reporting on games and scores. Because of the WRA's influence, many articles encouraged cultural assimilation through typical American activities and recreation, such as baseball, softball, and tennis rather than Japanese sports like judo. [15]

Other typical articles in the Times included information regarding camp events and activities, WRA announcements, and instructions to incoming incarcerees. [16]

Bennie Nobori, former animator in a Hollywood film studio and cartoonist on the Topaz Times. Topaz, Utah. Bennie Nobori, former animator in a Hollywood film studio, is now a cartoonist on the . . . - NARA - 536983.tif
Bennie Nobori, former animator in a Hollywood film studio and cartoonist on the Topaz Times.

Comic strip "Jankee"

The newspaper was largely written to communicate information broadly, not to make political commentary. Even so, some publications attempted to subtly protest incarceration and the WRA, such as the comic strip by Bennie Nobori, titled "Jankee" (a combination of the words Japanese Yankee ). [17] The main character of the strip was a young incarceree at Topaz named Jankee who encountered unexpected in-camp mishaps and misadventures. In "Jankee," Nobori utilized situational humor unique to Topaz and the experiences of interned Japanese Americans to respond to and critique the Americanization often pushed by the WRA, such as the publication of a strip poking fun at the government-issued clothing provided to internees. [18] Other comics included short plots such as Jankee's run-in with camp security while looking for scrap lumber to make furniture, his dislike of dining hall food, and his budding romance with another young incarceree named Topita (a diminutive form of the name Topaz ).

Reports on the death of resident James Wakasa

On April 12, 1943, the Topaz Times published an extra report on the death of a 63-year-old man named James Hatsuki Wakasa, who had been shot by a Topaz guard the day prior, on April 11. The article appeared beneath a statement from the administration by Lorne Hall, Chief of the Community Services Division, which asserted the intention of the WRA to conduct an investigation of Wakasa's death. [19] The story was published in both English and Japanese and was subject to WRA censorship. [18] The Times falsely reported that Wakasa was shot while attempting to crawl through the camp fence, an error which was never corrected in subsequent articles. [20]

James Wakasa funeral scene. Topaz, Utah. James Wakasa funeral scene. ( The man shot by military sentry). - NARA - 538191.jpg
James Wakasa funeral scene.

Throughout the days leading up to Wakasa's funeral, the Topaz Times published reports on the investigation, camp protests, and information regarding his funeral. Although Wakasa had no living relatives, his funeral was attended by thousands of incarcerees, who made paper wreaths and built a stone monument to his memory. They later buried the monument to preserve it from camp authorities who ordered it destroyed. [21] It was later rediscovered and in 2021 was moved to the Topaz Museum. Its relocation sparked significant controversy and debate regarding the proper means of handling the monument. [22]

Concern over the potential response of residents to Wakasa's death led military leaders to issue an emergency alert for increased weaponry as a precaution against violence in the camp. The alert was canceled two days after its initial release. Some Utah newspapers reported briefly on Wakasa's death, though none ran consistent stories following updates on the WRA investigation other than the Topaz Times. [20]

Legacy

In August 1945, the Topaz Times ceased publication, just a few months before the camp was closed entirely and incarcerees were sent to return to their homes or move to new places around the country. Since then, the newspaper has been used to understand the daily lives of internees at Topaz to a greater degree. [16] [23] Alongside TREK and various works of art created in the camp, it provided incarcerees a means of self-expression and identity within the confines of internment. [24]

After incarceration, artist Miné Okubo wrote Citizen 13660, a book with various works art designed to portray daily life at Topaz. Many of her pieces reflect the articles published in the Times and provide additional means of understanding the newspaper and its purpose. [25]

See also

Newspapers similar to the Topaz Times were published by order of the WRA throughout the ten War Relocation Camps across the United States. [26] [27] Other internment camp newspapers include the following:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manzanar</span> World War II Japanese-American internment camp in California

Manzanar is the site of one of ten American concentration camps, where more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II from March 1942 to November 1945. Although it had over 10,000 inmates at its peak, it was one of the smaller internment camps. It is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California's Owens Valley, between the towns of Lone Pine to the south and Independence to the north, approximately 230 miles (370 km) north of Los Angeles. Manzanar means "apple orchard" in Spanish. The Manzanar National Historic Site, which preserves and interprets the legacy of Japanese American incarceration in the United States, was identified by the United States National Park Service as the best-preserved of the ten former camp sites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internment of Japanese Americans</span> Mass incarceration in the U.S. during WWII

During World War II, the United States forcibly relocated and incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese descent in ten concentration camps operated by the War Relocation Authority (WRA), mostly in the western interior of the country. About two-thirds were U.S. citizens. These actions were initiated by Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, following the outbreak of war with the Empire of Japan in December 1941. About 127,000 Japanese Americans then lived in the continental U.S., of which about 112,000 lived on the West Coast. About 80,000 were Nisei and Sansei. The rest were Issei immigrants born in Japan, who were ineligible for citizenship. In Hawaii, where more than 150,000 Japanese Americans comprised more than one-third of the territory's population, only 1,200 to 1,800 were incarcerated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War Relocation Authority</span> U.S. government agency created to intern Japanese Americans during WWII

The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was a United States government agency established to handle the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It also operated the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, New York, which was the only refugee camp set up in the United States for refugees from Europe. The agency was created by Executive Order 9102 on March 18, 1942, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and was terminated June 26, 1946, by order of President Harry S. Truman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Civil Liberties Act of 1988</span> Law granting reparations to interned Japanese Americans

The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 is a United States federal law that granted reparations to Japanese Americans who had been wrongly interned by the United States government during World War II and to "discourage the occurrence of similar injustices and violations of civil liberties in the future". The act was sponsored by California Democratic congressman and former internee Norman Mineta in the House and Hawaii Democrat Senator Spark Matsunaga in the Senate. The bill was supported by the majority of Democrats in Congress, while the majority of Republicans voted against it. The act was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gila River War Relocation Center</span> Internment camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II

The Gila River War Relocation Center was an American concentration camp in Arizona, one of several built by the War Relocation Authority (WRA) during the Second World War for the incarceration of Japanese Americans from the West Coast. It was located within the Gila River Indian Reservation near the town of Sacaton, about 30 mi (48.3 km) southeast of Phoenix. With a peak population of 13,348, it became the fourth-largest city in the state, operating from May 1942 to November 16, 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tule Lake War Relocation Center</span> National Monument of the United States in California

The Tule Lake War Relocation Center, also known as the Tule Lake Segregation Center, was an American concentration camp located in Modoc and Siskiyou counties in California and constructed in 1942 by the United States government to incarcerate Japanese Americans, forcibly removing from their homes on the West Coast. They totaled nearly 120,000 people, more than two-thirds of whom were United States citizens. Among the inmates, the notation "Tsurureiko (鶴嶺湖)" was sometimes applied.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Granada War Relocation Center</span> National Historic Site of the United States in Colorado

Granada War Relocation Center, known to the internees as Camp Amache and later designated the Amache National Historic Site, was a concentration camp for Japanese Americans in Prowers County, Colorado. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese Americans on the West Coast were rounded up and sent to remote camps.

Yoshiko Uchida was a Japanese American writer of children's books intended to share Japanese and Japanese-American history and culture with Japanese American children. She is most known for her series of books, starting with Journey to Topaz (1971) that took place during the era of the mass removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII. She also authored an adult memoir centering on her and her family's wartime internment, a young adult version her life story, and a novel centering on a Japanese American family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Topaz War Relocation Center</span> United States historic place

The Topaz War Relocation Center, also known as the Central Utah Relocation Center (Topaz) and briefly as the Abraham Relocation Center, was an American concentration camp in which Americans of Japanese descent and immigrants who had come to the United States from Japan, called Nikkei were incarcerated. President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, ordering people of Japanese ancestry to be incarcerated in what were euphemistically called "relocation centers" like Topaz during World War II. Most of the people incarcerated at Topaz came from the Tanforan Assembly Center and previously lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. The camp was opened in September 1942 and closed in October 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poston War Relocation Center</span> Detainee camp in Arizona, United States

The Poston Internment Camp, located in Yuma County in southwestern Arizona, was the largest of the 10 American concentration camps operated by the War Relocation Authority during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rohwer War Relocation Center</span> World War II internment camp for Japanese-Americans

The Rohwer War Relocation Center was a World War II Japanese American concentration camp located in rural southeastern Arkansas, in Desha County. It was in operation from September 18, 1942, until November 30, 1945, and held as many as 8,475 Japanese Americans forcibly evacuated from California. Among the inmates, the notation "朗和" was sometimes applied. The Rohwer War Relocation Center Cemetery is located here, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Propaganda for Japanese-American internment</span> Propaganda efforts to rationalize and justify Japanese-American internment

Propaganda for Japanese-American internment is a form of propaganda created between 1941 and 1944 within the United States that focused on the relocation of Japanese Americans from the West Coast to internment camps during World War II. Several types of media were used to reach the American people such as motion pictures and newspaper articles. The significance of this propaganda was to project the relocation of Japanese Americans as matter of national security.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miné Okubo</span> American artist and writer (1912–2001)

Miné Okubo was an American artist and writer. She is best known for her book Citizen 13660, a collection of 198 drawings and accompanying text chronicling her experiences in Japanese American internment camps during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crystal City Internment Camp</span> United States historic place

Crystal City Internment Camp, located near Crystal City, Texas, was a place of confinement for people of Japanese, German, and Italian descent during World War II, and has been variously described as a detention facility or a concentration camp. The camp, which was originally designed to hold 3,500 people, opened in December 1943 and was officially closed on February 11, 1948.

Toyo Suyemoto was a Japanese-American poet, memoirist, and librarian.

The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study (JERS) was a research project funded by the War Relocation Authority (WRA), an agency responsible for overseeing the relocation of Japanese Americans, The University of California, the Giannini Foundation, the Columbian Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation with the total amount of funding reaching almost 100,000 U.S. dollars. It was conducted by a team of social scientists at the University of California, Berkeley. The team was led by sociologist Dorothy Swaine Thomas, a Lecturer in Sociology for the Giannini Foundation and a professor of rural sociology, and included anthropologists John Collier Jr. and Alexander Leighton, among others. The study combined each of the major social sciences such as sociology, social anthropology, political science, social psychology, and economics to effectively illustrate the effects of internment on Japanese Americans. The terminology of "relocation" can be confusing: The WRA termed the forced removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast an "evacuation" and called the incarceration of these people in the ten camps as "relocation." Later it also applied the term "relocation" to the program that enabled the evacuees to leave the camps (provided they had been certified as loyal.

The Merced Assembly Center, located in Merced, California, was one of sixteen temporary assembly centers hastily constructed in the wake of Executive Order 9066 to incarcerate those of Japanese ancestry beginning in the spring of 1942, following the attack on Pearl Harbor and prior to the construction of more permanent concentration camps to house those forcibly removed from the West Coast. The Merced Assembly Center was located at the Merced County Fairgrounds and operated for 133 days, from May 6, 1942 to September 15, 1942, with a peak population of 4,508. 4,669 Japanese Americans were ultimately incarcerated at the Merced Assembly Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dalton Wells Isolation Center</span> American internment camp in Utah

Dalton Wells Isolation Center was an American internment camp located in Moab, Utah. The Dalton Wells camp was in use from 1935 to 1943. The camp played a role in two significant events during the twentieth century. During the New Deal programs under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the camp was built as a CCC camp to provide jobs for young men. Starting in 1942 after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the beginning of World War II, the camp was used as a relocation and isolation center for Japanese Americans. The camp never housed large numbers of Japanese Americans since the camp's function was only to house internees deemed "troublemakers" from other relocation camps after problematic events such as the Manzanar riot. Some consider the camp illegal because it was not authorized by Executive Order 9066.

Taneyuki “Dan” Harada was a Japanese-American painter and computer scientist who was incarcerated at Tanforan Assembly Center, Topaz War Relocation Center, Leupp Isolation Center, and Tule Lake Segregation Center during World War II. His paintings capture the experience of Japanese-Americans in concentration camp life, including the segregation, isolation, and discrimination they faced. He learned to paint at various art schools while detained, and continued studying at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California, after being released at the end of the war. He was the recipient, in 1949, of the James D. Phelan Art Award, which was established to recognize the achievements of California-born artists across many disciplines. Today, pieces of his collections are held at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Citizen 13660 is a book about internment of Japanese Americans written by Miné Okubo. It is a graphic novel completely illustrated by Miné that depicts the life and community within the Japanese internment camps in the United States. Miné was placed in two camps, first Tanforan Assembly Center and then moved to Topaz War Relocation Center. The book was published in 1946 and was a first real look into the camps because cameras were not allowed.

References

  1. 1 2 Wakida, Patricia (16 April 2014). "Topaz Times (newspaper)". Densho Encyclopedia. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
  2. ↑ "Executive Order 9066 (1942-1945)". Immigration History. Retrieved 2024-11-07.
  3. ↑ Kawahara, Lewis (12 September 2024). "Tanforan (detention facility)". Densho Encyclopedia.
  4. 1 2 Stevens, John D. (June 1971). "From Behind Barbed Wire: Freedom of the Press in World War II Japanese Centers". Journalism Quarterly. 48 (2): 279–287. doi:10.1177/107769907104800212. ISSN   0022-5533 – via Sage Journals.
  5. ↑ Hathaway, Heather (2022). "Writing as Resistance: Topaz's TREK and All Aboard". That Damned Fence: The Literature of Japanese American Prison Camps. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 41–46. ISBN   9780190098339.
  6. ↑ "Incarcerated Quotidian: Editors | Staff | Contributors". Incarcerated Quotidian: Everyday History in a Japanese American Incarceration Camp Community Newspaper. Retrieved 2024-11-12.
  7. ↑ Mizuno, Tayeka (2001). "The Creation of the "Free" Press in Japanese-American Camps: The War Relocation Authority's Planning and Making of the Camp Newspaper Policy". Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. 78 (3): 503–515. doi:10.1177/107769900107800307 – via SageJournals.
  8. ↑ Mizuno, Tayeka (8 October 2015). "Press Freedom in the Enemy's Language: Government Control of Japanese-Language Newspapers in Japanese American Camps During World War II". Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. 93 (1). doi:10.1177/1077699015607337 – via SageJournals.
  9. ↑ Kessler, Lauren (1988). "Fettered Freedoms: The Journalism of World War II Japanese Internment Camps". Journalism History. 15 (2): 70–79. doi:10.1080/00947679.1988.12066665 – via ProQuest.
  10. ↑ Friedlander, E. J. (1985). "Freedom of Press behind Barbed Wire: Paul Yokota and the Jerome Relocation Center Newspaper". The Arkansas Historical Quarterly. 44 (4): 306. doi:10.2307/40027735. JSTOR   40027735 – via JSTOR.
  11. ↑ "Residents Hear Proclamation on Combat Team". Topaz Times. 9 February 1943. pp. 1–3.
  12. 1 2 Ivey, Linda L.; Kaatz, Kevin W. (2021). Documents of Japanese American Internment. ABC-CLIO, LLC. pp. 117–118, 196–197. ISBN   978-1-4408-5390-6.
  13. ↑ "Topaz Relocation Center". www.javadc.org. Retrieved 2024-11-25.
  14. ↑ Pabst, Heather (2024-03-13). ""Are They Our Enemies?" Delta Interaction with the Japanese-American Internment Camp at Topaz". The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing. 30 (1).
  15. ↑ Regalado, Samuel O. (2000). "Incarcerated Sport: Nisei Women's Softball and Athletics During Japanese American Internment". Journal of Sport History. 27 (3): 431–444. ISSN   0094-1700. JSTOR   43609778.
  16. 1 2 Yeates, Kimball; University, Brigham Young. "Times in Topaz: Daily Life in Utah's Japanese Internment Camp". Intermountain Histories. Retrieved 2024-11-22.
  17. ↑ "Incarcerated Quotidian: Bennie Nobori's "Jankee"". Incarcerated Quotidian: Everyday History in a Japanese American Incarceration Camp Community Newspaper. Retrieved 2024-11-20.
  18. 1 2 Stanutz, Katherine (2018). "Inscrutable Grief: Memorializing Japanese American Internment in Miné Okubo's "Citizen 13660"". American Studies. 56 (3/4): 54–55, 58. doi:10.1353/ams.2018.0002. JSTOR   44982638 – via JSTOR.
  19. ↑ "Resident Killed". Topaz Times. 12 April 1943. p. 1.
  20. 1 2 Taylor, Sandra C. (1993). Jewel of the Desert: Japanese American Internment at Topaz. Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 136–144.
  21. ↑ Ogino, Yoshihiri (14 March 2023). "Ex-journalist brings to life man killed in wartime internment camp". The Asahi Shimbun.
  22. ↑ "Long-lost monument brings up a painful legacy for Utah Japanese internment camp descendants". KUER. 2021-12-06. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
  23. ↑ "Incarcerated Quotidian: Introduction". Incarcerated Quotidian: Everyday History in a Japanese American Incarceration Camp Community Newspaper. Retrieved 2024-11-25.
  24. ↑ Wadsworth, Reuben (2022-10-16). "Topaz history day; the sobering story of Utah's version of the World War II concentration camp". St. George News. Retrieved 2024-11-26.
  25. ↑ Kuramitsu, Kristine C. (1995). "Internment and Identity in Japanese American Art". American Quarterly. 47 (4): 619–658. doi:10.2307/2713369. ISSN   0003-0678. JSTOR   2713369.
  26. ↑ "Japanese American WWII Incarceration Camp Newspapers | Special Collections & University Archives | CSUSB". www.csusb.edu. Retrieved 2024-11-12.
  27. ↑ Mizuno, Tayeka (17 March 2024). "Newspapers in camp". Densho Encyclopedia.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.