Strength and Resilience: Women of Topaz in WWII

Students will analyze the roles and experiences of women at the Topaz War Relocation Center. They will focus on women who were incarcerated as well as those who worked there to understand how women demonstrated resilience, strength, and leadership under conditions of wartime incarceration. Students will reflect on how these women’s contributions built community and expanded the definition of civic participation and challenged gender expectations during WWII.

Utah Core Alignment: Standard 4.4.6, UT. Studies Standard 3.2

We encourage teachers using this lesson to also familiarize themselves with the information and resources about WWII incarceration camps at the Japanese American National Museum, Topaz Museum, and Denshō.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States’ entry to World War Two, racism, fear, and misunderstanding created many difficulties for people of Japanese ancestry living in the United States. In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. This order led to the forced relocation and incarceration of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans from the West coast. They were imprisoned in camps across the mountain west. About 11,000 of these prisoners were at the Topaz camp near Delta, Utah.

Japanese American women sustained daily life inside Topaz. They transformed their bleak barracks into homes, organized schools for their children, and led cultural activities to maintain morale. Women inside the camp took on roles as nurses, clerks, and teachers. Older women passed down cultural traditions and created support networks to care for children, elderly, and those who were sick.

Non-incarcerated Utah women came to Topaz as social workers and teachers. They helped to establish Topaz High School and the Topaz Art School. They offered education and mentorship to students determined to pursue learning despite their unjust imprisonment.

The following women are highlighted in this lesson:

Alice Hirai was just two years old when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened. Her first memories were of living in Topaz. She lived with her parents, brother, aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandfather all on the same block (Block 12). Her father worked as a cook in the camp. “I thought it was a normal thing for people to live in barracks,” she recalled. When her family was released from the camp, they were given just $25. They found community with other Topaz survivors and settled in Salt Lake City. Alice grew up to become a nurse and spent much of her life educating people about the Japanese community and the experience of living in an incarceration camp. She often said: “I’m not here because I want you to feel sorry for me, I’m here because I want to tell you about a story of a generation that a lot of people don’t know about. And I also want you to know that I’m not here because I’m angry, because I’m a Buddhist, and we’re taught as Buddhists to drop anger, all the anger feeling, it doesn’t do us any good. I’m here because I want you to learn this story.”

Marii Hasegawa was born in Hiroshima, Japan and her family moved to the United States when her father, a Buddhist priest, was assigned to serve Buddhists in California. They were forcibly confined in Topaz. A documentary was made about her life called “Marii Hasegawa: Gentle Woman of  a Dangerous Kind”. In it, she speaks of her experience living in Topaz, starting at 05:19 and ending around 11:10. Marii spent her life working for peace and fighting for civil rights. She volunteered with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, organized protests against war and led a peace delegation to North Vietnam. 

Mary Murakami‘s family was sent to Topaz when she was 14 years old. “They [government officials] came to our homes and told us we could take with us what we could carry. We sold our furniture and left our valuables behind. Our new life was packed in a suitcase.” Mary was assigned a number, E22146, and her entire family of seven lived in a one room barrack with no privacy. As an adult, she never allowed apple butter in her house because she was so sick of the apple butter sandwiches she had to eat at Topaz. When Mary’s oldest brother was drafted to fight in the war in 1944, she remembered that her parents weren’t allowed outside the fences at Topaz to say goodbye. “The image of my parents on one side of the fence and my brother on the other side is still sharp in my mind.” She remembered a loyalty questionnaire given to the prisoners that called their patriotism and loyalty into question. “It always bothered me, those questions. Our loyalty was being tested, but if we were not loyal, we would have refused the camps and put up a fight. We did not riot. We just made the best of the situation we were in. For some reason, that wasn’t enough for the government.”

Miné Okubo graduated with her Master of Fine Arts from UC Berkeley and held her first solo show as an artist in the San Francisco Museum of Art before she was forced to evacuate to Topaz. Since cameras were forbidden, she used art to document her experience in Topaz, drawing about 2000 sketches of her time there. She also illustrated the Topaz Times newspaper and edited the camp’s literary magazine called Trek. Miné helped found the Topaz Art School and taught art lessons to children, adults, and senior citizens in the camp. In 1946, she published her illustrations of life in Topaz in a book titled Citizen 13660, referring to her government-issued ID number as an incarceree. This was the first book published by a former prisoner of the incarceration camps. You can view some of her illustrations here.

Eleanor Gerard Sekerak volunteered to take a teaching job at the high school in Topaz after her contract in California had been given to a man instead. Her first impression of the camp was this: “Dust storms and the sticky, slippery mud that followed rain. With a sudden crack of wind, the dust storms seemed to whirl up and around in blinding fury, leaving a talcum-like film on everything—clothes, hair—even sifting into clenched mouths and gritting between teeth! One simply learned to endure dust and mud.” (Source) The barracks classrooms were almost unusable, with sparse furniture and minimal supplies. They had almost no light and were cold and drafty. School was held during the warmer parts of the day until they were able to install stoves and insulation. Eleanor remembered “Teetering precariously on a wobbly table, holding a sheetrock slab with both arms while hammer-wielding students banged nails on each edge–and presto, a ceiling!” (Source) Eleanor encouraged her students to pursue their dreams, telling them that this part of their lives would not last forever. She bought caps and gowns for the first graduation ceremony at Topaz and documented many parts of the camp with her camera (see her photos here).

Wanda Robertson was born and raised in Fountain Green, Utah. She was valedictorian of Snow College and gave a graduation speech titled, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Before Topaz, she taught in the mining towns of Park City and Bingham Canyon, where her students were largely immigrants and came from twenty countries. In 1942, Wanda was an instructor at the University of Utah’s Stewart Teacher Training School. When she told the dean that she wanted to take a position teaching elementary school in Topaz, he told her, “Wanda, I am not sure the University of Utah would approve of any faculty member going out to help those people.” She replied, “I am not sure I want to be affiliated with any university that would object.” (Source) She taught at Topaz for 2 years. Wanda refused to dehumanize the Japanese American prisoners and called them “residents,” refusing to use the government term of “enemy aliens.” After living in the barracks while waiting for staff housing to be built, she wrote, “I hadn’t realized before how important privacy is in one’s life, especially when there is no place to be alone.” Wanda was well loved by the children in Topaz. Kids remembered how she often recruited incarcerees or Delta residents to come and teach the children about their specialties, such as astronomy or climatology, including teaching the students how to forecast the weather. Wanda also ran a teacher education program to help imprisoned women gain job skills they could use after the war.

Mothers of Topaz: In response to the reinstatement of the draft for Nisei (second-generation Japanese Americans), a group of Issei (first-generation) mothers at Topaz organized a collective protest. They supported their sons’ willingness to serve the United States, but objected to the denial of full citizenship rights for their children as well as the racial segregation in the US military. They gathered 1,141 signatures on a petition titled “Mothers of Topaz” and sent it to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and other government leaders. This protest was part of a larger plan of mother-led advocacy in internment camps. “Blue Star Mothers” were active in Camp Amache in Colorado and a “Mothers’ Society” was based in Minidoka in Idaho. Although these mothers’ efforts didn’t create immediate policy change, their advocacy highlighted the injustice of asking young men to sacrifice for a country that imprisoned them and denied them equal civil rights to other citizens. These mothers believed that this injustice was worth fighting even at a time when most prisoners were concerned about the risks of anything that could be interpreted as being ‘disloyal’ to the U.S. government. The “Mothers of Topaz” are a powerful reminder that each of us has power to resist discrimination and advocate for equal civil rights in American democracy.

1. Introduction to Women at Topaz during WWII (5 minutes)
   • Explain that during World War II thousands of Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their communities. At the Topaz War Relocation Center near Delta, Utah, women held roles as prisoners as well as teachers. They demonstrated strength, creativity, resilience, and leadership in the face of extreme injustice and displacement.
2. Women incarcerated in Topaz (15 minutes)
   • Use the slides to introduce students to the stories of many women incarcerated at Topaz – Alice Hirai, Marii Hasegawa, Mary Murakami, and Miné Okubo.
   • Ask students what they notice or wonder about each person’s experience at Topaz.
3. Teachers at Topaz (10 minutes)
   • Use the slides to introduce students to the stories of women who worked as teachers at Topaz, Eleanor Gerard Sekerak and Wanda Robertson.
4. Mothers of Topaz (5 minutes)
   • Use the slides to introduce students to the mothers who protested their sons being drafted into the U.S. military while being denied full civil rights.
5. Activity: Camp Quilt Squares (20-30 minutes)
   • Throughout history, quilts have served as practical household items but also as storytelling tools, especially among women. As a class, create a quilt representing the stories from Topaz. You can use the provided templates or give students paper squares (8×8 or 6×6).
     1. Each student can select (or be assigned) a woman’s experience at Topaz to represent in their square: A mother in the “Mothers of Topaz,” an imprisoned artist like Miné Okubo, a teacher in the Topaz school system, a community volunteer supporting fellow prisoners, or one of the other women in this lesson.
     2. Ask students to use symbols, colors, and imagery, drawing on a paper square. They should represent their character’s emotions (yellow for hope, gray for sorrow, etc.), experiences (school bell, paintbrush, barbed wire, mountains, desert, newspaper), and acts of resilience (protest signs, books, handprint, etc). Encourage thoughtful design, not just decoration.
     3. Written Reflection: On the back of their square or a separate index card, have students write a short explanation (3-5 sentences) about (1) who their square represents, (2) what each symbol or color means, and (3) what emotion or idea they wanted to express in their square.
     4. Assemble the class quilt. Have students cut their squares out if you used the provided template, and tape or staple all of the squares together on butcher paper or a bulletin board. Display with a title like “Stitching Strength: Women of Topaz”. If a virtual assignment, create a slideshow.

*Engagement tip and optional extension: Turn the art activity into a mini “gallery walk” where students can rotate around the room, read each other’s statements, and leave positive comments on sticky notes.