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

Moving to Cincinnati after Topaz

High school in Topaz, all I know is I just wanted to get out. As soon as I graduated we relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio since some very good family friends had gone there. I don’t think there was any prejudice ‘cause they were very few Japanese there. Very few. All I know is when we rented an apartment from this person, this woman said she had never met a Japanese person before.

Cincinnati Ohio postwar Topaz United States Utah World War II World War II camps

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)