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E The Utah Jnp~c~o A~ericnn i8 rub1ishedby the :'~'. Ol~",pus, Snlt %.'\ke and Wn~atch Front North . el':; of the Japnncso AmericM Citizens ~,,"gue, covering ne'~s from tho ctateW"lde JapAnes~ Community both in and out of JACL. - Topaz 1976 Reflections Of ·A Child Frank K. Yoshimura, Chairman ,- .. November, 1976 Top~z ProJe~t ', i <•• ' , .~ •,._ ....0 .. . .. "~."" " '''l'''': ~.-<, .: ,._.~ ~ 'l:"'~"; ' .~"""";"~~ .~~'~ '. ,.; i''"':';; ... . > J ··.,.i ~o weeks of prepRr~tion8, letter writing, viSitations, telephone calls lind " ono hour dedication program ended the h'O and one-holf yel\r Topaz Project. There nrc a tew things which need to ·be done'next year, but the main part is complcted. . Whitt did we get out. of it? . We received an ncre of lond nod hnve two monument.s, however, more important th:,n the mnterinl things, we were c.ble t.o give to the people of Utnh, pnrt of the history of the Jnpnne&e people. The deecl to Tcpnz one "cre is in the JACL Credit Union snfe. A documentary film ~s produced nnd shown on the Drj~hnm Young Universit.y nnd University of Utfili educntion"l chnnnels. Other TV etations cnrried similar films. A ~~nu:;cript written by Lt. M:lchncl St.rodc, bo.ed on the history of 'Topnz was Ilhtrlhut.ed to the ::chool libraries of :>nlt Lnke City nnd Crenite School Districts nod the University of Utah I~f\rriott Llbrory. Newspopertl fe~turcd :\rticles on the Top"z hi story, The Utllh State ~:du­ c'ltionol Boord produced two series of fllm strips on Topaz which will be dictributed to all of the secondary schoole in Utah. • Our co"~ttee wns held strongly together by the common goal "that this lMy never hoppen again". The plnques on the monuments delivers tlliG ".eesage very well. What did I get. out of this? My answer i8 in an open letter to my eommittee members: Carl 1noway, Mus Inouye, Alice KaGn!, T'lka Kida, . Ted Noglltn, Sruni Tadehara, Shigekl . UGhio, conti Sadie Yoshimura. Tll'mk you '/r.ry mueh ror the ml\ny W'lys in which you contributed your t'llcntr. unci tirr.e to lllc T::p~7. ProJect. ThIs project woulrl nevltr Io"vc been eo:r.l'tet"d ~ lone nn,1 cnch of yOU Tll":led on lr.1rort~nt pnrt t.ownro:: the Col1CCCSr. ot the projee~ • . Aa t:1;'1 rm'lIl 0 1 1 ~'nefH('d p;rerltly from . t. l;~ l\r.~oci(OLlon "nIl !lclpl'I~'lC:r.~ or e~ch rr.crnbilr of my eo~ttee; l'here ...... ,-.. ' . ~ ~. I·I · ·· ·;~l · t_ T '°1 ,'r,":'; : ." . .• .• t. t.t' fnr ot; . " ~'" h"1,-,- Like other children my lliJe, September was my favorite month. For September brought cool, erisp days, a 'curI that shone brie:htly, and all of my friends baek to the Gehool playground. But thi:! time, thIs time, I knew that it woo difterent. The dayn werc utill erirop, the children were still therc, the GUn . shone, but no longer did it bring the wnrmth of happiness • Mother cried. Father never npoke. Tho children never pinyc<l. Here it wns my favorite month .and 0.11 it brought were ttars. It wann't until . the next few days did I find out the reason tor everyone's sadness. Soptember 10. I thought to !!\ysel! that everywhere else in the United Statea, this date was no di1'fcrent from any other ' doy of the yon". In the "lnnd of the free ond the home of the brave". why ohould onything be wrong? The next tour yenrs "howed me what wa3 the matter. The next four years the sun never eomc out, the birds never sang, the trees never listened. . In the months that fo11a..ed I would peer out between tho bnrbed wire and wonder it onyone even cared. As the days passed the people organized. A new communit:l grew from desert sand. I le!U"l'lcd to live within my eontineG waiting tor that .day when I would be tree to live as once before. I decided thnt the first thing I would tlo when those gates 10llt their locks, wi 11 be to take a hike up alone in those nCal'by mountnins. Pcrhaps 1'11 climb clear to the top of Topaz. t.' j..'" . \" .