Little Hisako was only a baby when her family was forced from their home in San Francisco to Tanforan and then to Topaz. Her sister, Setsuko, remembers how Hisako’s cries would travel right through and over the barrack walls, waking up all of the other babies, igniting a late night cry-fest that would sweep through the barrack. By the time Topaz closed, Hisako was a young toddler who had spent her early formative years at the Topaz preschool. As her family left camp to finally return to California, Hisako reportedly cried, “uchi ni ikitai”: I want to go home, meaning Topaz. For the first several years of Hisako’s life, her family’s tiny barrack apartment was the only home she had ever known.

Learn more about Hisako’s family in this story written by her sister Setsuko for the Topaz Stories project: https://topazstories.com/the-topaz-japanese-library/