Topaz, 1942-1993

Item — cassette: 1

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Dave M. Tatsuno's film shot secretly within Topaz War Internment Camp. Tatsuno narrates the originally silent video. Shot list:

[00:00] Title card: "Topaz Camp Original Movie by Dave Tatsuno, 1943-1945 Topaz in 1955, 46 minutes”
Headline in SF Chronicle the day after Pearl Harbor
[00:29] Medium shot: Sign of evacuation sale at Nichi Bei Bussan, the Tatsuno family store in San Francisco
[00:36] Medium shot: Employee of store leaving for “white zone” to avoid imprisonment
[01:04] Close-up/intertitle: unidentified person holding “Utah” sign
[01:15] Close-up/intertitle: Small boy holding a copy of 1943 yearbook from Topaz High School
[01:25] Long shot: Barracks, desert
[01:55] Medium shot: Co-op Dry Goods store exterior, store staff
[02:12] Medium shot: Barracks
[02:22] Medium shot: Dry Goods store exterior with shoppers
[02:40] Close-up: Co-op T-shirt
[02:47] Medium shot: Co-op office staff
[03:06] Medium shot: Customers leaving store
[03:20] Medium shot: Co-op store staff outside building
[03:50] Close-up/intertitle: Wall calendar (December 1943)
[03:55] Long shot: Sunrise at Topaz
[04:13] Medium shot: Co-op warehouse workers
[04:35] Long shot: Block with latrine, laundry, dining hall, and barracks
[04:56] Medium shot: A young couple who met and married in Topaz
[05:08] Medium shot/close-up: Small boy and his parents (Tani family)
[05:48] Long shot/medium shot: People wait in a very long line for the Co-op to open in order to buy hard to find merchandize
[06:10] Close-up/intertitle: Topaz Protestant Sunday School program
[06:18] Medium shot: People in dress clothes standing outside before or after church services
[07:13] Medium shot: Reverends: Joseph Sakamoto, Shimada and Nugent
[07:35] Medium shot: Roscoe Bell, vice project administrator
[07:40] Medium shot: Group picture of church attendees
[08:06] Medium shot: People who came to Topaz in exchange from Tooele Lake (Prisoners who claimed their loyalty to the United States were allowed to stay at Topaz. Those who did not were sent to Tooele Lake.)
[08:28] Medium shot: Woman walking with pan, covering her face when noticing the camera
[08:32] Medium shot: Assistant block manager walking with pick axe, unidentified
[08:55] Medium shot: Prisoners doing volunteer outside work: repairing pipes, digging, shoveling dirt
[10:15] Long shot: Sunset at Topaz
[10:30] Medium shot/close-up: group with E. Stanley Jones, famous preacher and author of Christ of the American Road, during a visit to the camp
[11:13] Medium shot: A camp administrator, his wife, and unidentified Japanese American woman
[11:24] Long shot: Two girls of Japanese-Italian ancestry. Tatsuno notes that people with 1/8 or more Japanese ancestry were sent to Topaz
[11:50] Medium shot: Prisoners cleaning the chimneys of the mess hall
[12:06] Medium shot/close-up: Women with various young children
[12:19] Long shot: Exterior shot of High School auditorium, built by prisoners
[12:39] Point of view shot: High School students leave Topaz, driven and accompanied by Reverend Nugent, to speak at churches in Salt Lake City
[12:54] Point of view shot/long shot: Topaz hospital from road, mountains in background
[13:04] Point of view shot/long shot: Topaz water tank from road
[13:18] Medium shot/close-up: The same students stand outside in Delta, Utah, where Reverend Nugent and family lived
[13:31] Reverend Nugent, son, and Mrs. Nugent
[13:48] Long shot: Delta train station exterior, where prisoners were transported to Topaz
[13:55] Medium shot: Main Street in Delta, Utah
[14:20] Point of view shot/long shot: Wasatch Mountains from front seat of car
[14:40] Medium shot: Five young Japanese Americans outside of a white building with Mr. Nugent. Tatsuno tells story of them leaving Topaz on a work allowance to farm, despite having no experience.
[15:05] Medium shot: Salt Lake City entering sign, streets
[15:25] Medium shot: Japantown in Salt Lake City
[15:33] Medium shot: Temple
[15:37] Medium shot: Dave Tatsuno walking in Temple Square with a briefcase and the shoebox that he hid his camera in
[15:48] Medium shot: Temple Square, Tabernacle exteriors, pioneer cabin, Hotel Utah sign, state capitol
[17:22] Close-up/intertitle: Rocks arranged in the dirt spelling out "Thanksgiving 1943"
[17:45] Close-up: Mell Hall sign in English and Japanese
[17:50] Medium shot: Mess Hall staff
[18:25] Medium shot: Men ringing the dinner bell
[18:33] Medium shot: Block manager and his assistant outside their office
[18:38] Medium shot: Waitresses
[19:12] Medium shot: Unidentified high school girl standing in front of barracks
[19:25] Long shot: A small amount of snow on the ground outside building
[19:33] Long shot: Sunrise
[19:38] Medium shot/close-up: The traditional making of Japanese mochi cakes
[20:31] Medium shot/close-up: Pounding rice with mallets for mochi
[21:10] Close-up: Smiling child with flour on face and clothes
[21:14] Close-up/intertitle: New Year's card from 1944. The card shows a drawing of the camp and was created by Dave's Tatsuno's brother-in-law, an architect
[21:33] Medium shot: Dave Tatsuno's friend Lee Mullis who sent the camera into the camp during a visit he made to the camp from Oakland
[21:44] Medium shot: War Relocation Authority (WRA) staff
[22:08] Long shot: Sky, barracks
[22:15] Close-up: Icicles hanging from barracks
[22:18] Medium shot: Tatsuno’s brother-in-law pulling children across snow on a sled
[22:30] Close-up: Group of people in snow saying goodbye to a young man leaving Topaz
[22:41] Long shot: Couple working in administration who later married walking in heavy snow
[22:56] Long shot: Man pulling child on sled through heavy snow
[23:00] Long shot: Barracks in heavy snow
[23:18] Close-up: Icicles hanging from barracks, chimney
[23:34] Medium shot/close-up: Dave Tatsuno's father sweeping the ground in front of his barracks. The ground is covered with snow
[23:48] Long shot/medium shot/close-up: Winter scenes: plants and barracks covered in snow
[24:15] Long shot: Groups of people walking in the snow
[24:50] Medium shot: Tatsuno’s father sweeping snow while snow falls
[25:12] Medium shot: Dave Tatsuno's father and Dave's son on a walk in heavily falling snow
[25:46] Long shot: Sunrise at Topaz
[25:53] Long shot: Hospital building with tall smokestack, exterior
[26:04] Long shot: Water tower with a pile of coal sitting in the foreground next to mess hall
[26:16] Medium shot: Group visiting Topaz hospital
[26:25] Long shot: White administration buildings
[26:39] Medium shot: Post Office
[26:44] Long shot: Power lines, desert, mountain in distance
[26:50] Close-up: Topaz Community conference sign
[26:57] Close-up/medium/close-up: “Topaz Swine Office” sign, group of men, pigs in their pens
[27:27] Medium shot: Dr. John Embry from the University of Chicago, Dr. Floyd Samson from the University of Denver, and other conference attendees outside bus
[27:45] Long shot/aerial: Barracks roofs taken from roof of a barrack
[28:24] Long shot/medium shot/close-up: One girl ice skating. Tatsuno notes that the prisoners let some water out in order to create an ice rink, but the girl filmed was the only person with ice skates
[29:06] Long shot: Guard tower, barbed wire in distance
[29:28] Medium shot/close-up: Family with baby
[29:50] Long shot/medium shot: Traditional carp flags being flown on flagpoles for a festival
[30:14] Medium shot/close-up: Men with children. In the background, a University of Utah blanket
[30:22] Close up: A University of Utah blanket from the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) basketball championship. Dave Tatsuno's brother, who was on the team, was not allowed to play in the championship game at Madison Square Garden
[31:35] Medium shot: Dave Tatsuno's and another University of Utah basketball player struggle to fold the championship blanket
[31:46] Long shot: A dust storm in camp
[32:16] Close-up: Parched, cracked earth of Topaz
[32:25] Long shot: Dust storm footage. A truck delivering food to the Mess Hall is visible in the distance through the dust
[32:45] Medium shot: Dave Tatsuno hanging diapers up to dry on a laundry line
[32:58] Medium shot: Family with two children
[33:08] Long shot: Interior, dim light. Dave Tatsuno teaching public speaking to a class of High School seniors
[33:35] Medium shot: Group of high school seniors outdoors
[33:58] Close up/Medium shot: The Topaz HI-Y club sign and members in suits and ties. Hi-Y was a local chapter of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA).
[34:22] Medium shot/close-up: Emil Sekerek, advisor to the HI-Y club who also worked with the Co-Op
[34:37] Close-up/intertitle: “Happy New Year 1945” written in snow
[34:43] Close-up: Signs: "Relocation Leave Office" and sign in Japanese
[34:53] Medium shot/long shot: Prisoners getting ready to leave camp. Tatsuno notes that the people who still had homes were the first to leave Topaz
[35:05] Medium shot/long shot: Prisoners boarding school buses, with luggage and trunks on the top, and driving away from camp
[35:46] Medium shot: Prisoners remaining on platform while bus drives away in the background
[35:54] Close-up/medium shot: Roscoe and Gladys Bell, assistant project director and his wife
[36:20] Medium shot/close-up: Mrs. Laura Merrill, camp librarian, with unidentified Japanese American woman
[36:31] Medium shot/close-up: Tatsuno’s sister and her friend petting a dog named Tippy
[36:49] Close-up/intertitle: Handmade sign reading “March 18, 1945 6 Months Old Topaz”
[36:53] Medium shot/close-up: Alice Tatsuno holding their six-month-old daughter, Arlene, who was born inside the camp
[37:13] Close-up/medium shot: Dave Tatsuno's brother, Masateru “Tut” Tatsuno, with family during a visit to the camp, wearing his Army uniform. He was in the United States Army at the time and had to pass through Army guards to visit his family
[37:50] Long shot: Tree, water tower
[37:35] Close-up: Tut holding Dave’s baby daughter
[37:59] Long shot: Protestant church, high school gymnasium
[38:11] Point of view shot/long shot: Topaz from a moving vehicle
[39:23] Medium shot: Friends in Salt Lake City, holding the Tatsuno’s baby daughter and talking
[40:04] Medium shot: Ogden, Utah
[40:10] Long shot/close-up: Shots from train, the Tatsuno family on the train
[41:20] Close-up: Train wheels, tracks
[41:33] Long shot/close-up: Sky and desert from train, Tatsuno family on train
[42:20] Long shot: Sunset on the last night on the train
[42:34] Medium shot: Friends greeting Tatsunos at San Francisco Ferry California
[42:50] Medium shot: Tatsuno family outside their home on May 5, 1945
[43:21] Medium shot: Delta train station, streets of Delta, ten years later, August 1955
[43:54] Long shot: Driving through desert towards Topaz
[44:12] Long shot/medium shot: Topaz ten years later, Tatsuno children searching site
[44:44] Medium shot: Alice Tatsuno and children
[45:09] Long shot/medium shot: Sunset over Topaz, the ruins in dusk
[45:52] Medium shot: Tatsuno children walking on road in dusk, Tatsuno car
[46:01] Medium shot: Arlene Tatsuno, who was born in Topaz ten years before
[46:14] Long shot: Sunset. “Farewell, Topaz. Farewell. Thank God that it’s all over.”
[46:38] Intertitle: “Topaz Marker erected in 1976, 11 minutes.” Segment taped from unknown television program by Tatsuno.
[57:37] Intertitle: “San Francisco WWII History TV Production.” Undated segment taped from unknown TV program by Tatsuno. The program includes footage from Topaz and includes an interview with Tatsuno.
[1:03:15] Intertitle: “Reunion of Japantown San Francisco Channel 7.” Undated. Includes interview with Tatsuno and other survivors.
[1:05:37] Intertitle: “Topaz Reunion 1992.” Hyatt Regency. 50th anniversary. Filmed by Tatsuno.
[1:17:00] Intertitle: “Return to Topaz ‘93” event. Unknown if Dave Tatsuno filmed this or if it was taken by somebody else.

Dates

1942-1993

Language of Materials

From the Collection: Collection material in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Materials must be used on-site; no use of original material, access copies will be made available for viewing. Five business days advanced notice required. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law, condition of the material, or by donor.