First Person: Ruth Sasaki on Remembering Japanese Internment

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2022

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Ruth Sasaki was asked in 2018 to edit and contribute to the "Topaz Stories" that remember Japanese-American experiences during internment, she was so happy to apply her skills as a short story writer to help document and preserve a piece of history that impacted her own family. A third-generation San Franciscan, Sasaki's mother's family, the Takahashis, were interned at Topaz and Tanforan camps. Sasaki joins us as part of Forum's First Person Series to talk about "Topaz Stories" and reflect on the 80th anniversary of Japanese internment in the U.S. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for Kikiwedi Podcasts comes from Rancho LaPuerta, boated the number one wellness resort and spa by readers of travel and leisure magazine. In August, three or four people sharing a cassida enjoy special vacation packages. Rancho LaPuerta.com
0:15.6	Support for Forum comes from Broadway SF, presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story.
0:23.0	From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and Lucille Frank,
0:29.6	a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is accused of an
0:35.3	unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice, and devotion.
0:43.3	The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orphium Theater for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th.
0:51.7	Tickets on sale now at Broadwaysf.com.
0:56.6	From KQED.
0:59.0	Welcome back to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:02.3	80 years ago this week, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed executive order 9066,
1:09.0	which led to the internment of tens of thousands of Japanese Americans.
1:13.2	Many in the Bay Area community were eventually sent to camps in Topaz, Utah. This week,
1:19.2	we're remembering their stories. Joining us this morning is Ruth Sasaki, editor and curator of
1:24.8	Topaz Stories, a project that's gathered many memories and artifacts about the internment.
1:30.9	Welcome to the show, Ruth.
1:32.8	Thank you, Alexis.
1:34.2	Thanks for inviting me.
1:35.9	So maybe we can begin with you telling us about your mother, Tamiko Takahashi, and her longtime San Francisco family.
1:44.8	What did they live and what did they do in the city?
1:48.6	Well, my grandfather immigrated to San Francisco in 1896, and he went into business.
1:57.4	So by the time of the removal to TANFran, he was a business owner of a store on Grand Avenue,
2:06.0	which, of course, he had to liquidate for one-tenth of its worth.
	...

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