Topaz Oral History Project research files: Published articles (1920s-1980s)

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Utah Historical Quarterly The northeast corner of Topaz, Utah, with the hospital and military police barracks in the background. Photograph courtesy of Leonard]. Arrington. In September the first residents of the Tanforan Assembly Center, south of San Francisco, were moved to the Topaz relocation center at Delta. The Keetley community was happy to have friends and relatives so near; the internees included one of Tsujirnoto's brothers. Keetley residents visited the camp many times. Tsujimoto commented only that he now knew what life must be like at Heart Mountain where his friend was interned. Gradually some of the residents of the camps at Topaz, Grenada, Minidoka, and Manzanar who were furloughed for agricultural work carne through the Keetley colony on their way to other farrns. 43 Wada's impressions of internment were harsh; he thought most internees lazy for not wishing to join him, and he recollected that they all sat around being entertained and fed. 44 The games and frolics of summer soon passed. Although many members of the Keetley group had been strangers when they came to Utah, they were now becoming close friends. But they were not without their own divisions. Tsujimoto told his friend how they had sent a Hpoor Kibei sucker" out into the woods with a sack to "hunt for snipe," and he stayed out half the night before catching onto the practical joke.45 Kibei,. educated in Japan, often got along poorly with the very American Nisei. But aside from such jokes, the community was harmonious. u Ibid.; additional information from Ted Nagata. 44 Oral History, Fred lsamu Wada, p. 70. •s Tsujimoto, "Letter to Ophelia." ( ll c r