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Sox Kitashima - Internment at Topaz

Following the December 7, 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, Sox Kitashima recalls her mother saying, “This is terrible!” in Japanese (33). This reaction is indicative of her family’s awareness that Japan declaring war on the United States would have a dire effect on the Japanese American community. As Sox recalls, “our way of life changed. Dramatically. Literally overnight we had gone from being Americans to being the ‘enemy.’” (33)

In the days, weeks, and months that followed, Sox and her family were split up, with she and her sister Lillian heading off to Topaz, and her mother and other siblings to Tule Lake. Sox was horrified at the new life that was forced upon them – physical searches, and “discolored cold cuts, overcooked swiss chard, and moldy bread” (79). Forty years later, recalling such memories still brought tears.

Shown here are the barracks at Topaz; this photo was taken in 1942. It was the kind of life Sox experienced at Topaz that motivated her to take on the Redress and Reparations endeavor, and dedicated her so to the cause.

Sources: Densho Digital Archive, http://archive.densho.org/main.aspx. Photo/Document Collections: National Archives and Records Administration Collection.; Kitashima, Tsuyako Sox and Morimoto, Joy K., Birth of an Activist: The Sox Kitashima Story. San Mateo: Asian American Curriculum Project, 2003.