Interviews

1. Family that saved her belongings during World War II

2. Thriving art culture at camp

3. Leaving everything behind

4. On the process of making her leaf bowls

5. On the process of creating her Japanese paper bowls

6. From double weaving to microfilament “flat” hangings

7. Marriage to Bob Stocksdale

8. Moving to Cincinnati after Topaz

9. Learning how to weave

10. Mother also wove growing up

Sekimachi,Kay

(b. 1926) Artist

Leaving everything behind

I was 16 when we were relocated first of all to Tanforan and then to Topaz… we, like many other Japanese families, we were scared. We got rid of all our Japanese records and letters et cetera. Then when evacuation happened we left most everything just on the floor of this house and went to the assembly center.

imprisonment incarceration Topaz United States Utah World War II

Date: November 23, 2018

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Patricia Wakida

Contributed by: A Co-Production of the Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum and KCET

Interviewee Bio

Kay Sekimachi, born in 1926 in San Francisco, is an American fiber artist best known for her masterful, three-dimensional woven monofilament hangings as well as her intricate baskets and bowls. Born in San Francisco on September 30, 1926, Sekimachi was interned with her family at Tanforan Assembly Center in California and then the Topaz concentraton camp in Utah from 1942 to 1944. (June 2018)