Densho Digital Archive
Topaz Museum Collection
Title: Ted Nagata Interview
Narrator: Ted Nagata
Interviewer: Megan Asaka
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Date: June 3, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-nted-01-0009

<Begin Segment 9>

MA: So going back a little bit to Topaz, any other memories or things you want to share about your time in Topaz, do you recall?

TN: Well, I do recall the security in Topaz was, was very stringent when we got there. The first few months there were barbed wire completely around the area, and there were guard towers and there were guards and guns inside those towers, and security was very tight. Nobody could go outside without a special pass. And in fact one day, Mr. Wakatsu, I believe his name was, was walking by the fence and somebody said he was hard of hearing, and the guard told him to stop and he didn't understand, and the guard shot him and he died. It caused quite a disturbance in the population, there was a big funeral for him. But thankfully, that never happened again.

MA: Was there a lot of anger within the community about, about the guard and about, sort of, the government?

TN: Oh, absolutely. Right, they saw no reason to shoot the man because he wasn't going outside the gate, he was just walking along the fence. But the aftermath of that, though, is quite interesting. I would say after six months, six or eight months after we got there, the security in Topaz was nonexistent. In fact, there were no more guards up there, there were no guns, and nobody was in the guard towers. And as young boys, we could go outside the barbed wire anytime, we just lift it up, step out, and we could go into the desert anytime we wanted.

MA: Why do you think there was such a drastic change?

TN: Well, I think that the U.S. government realized that this whole incarceration just wasn't working out like they thought. I mean, here we were, eight thousand internees in that camp. Were we the enemy? It was pretty apparent that we weren't. Were we espionage agents? Absolutely not. We were just ordinary U.S. citizens, and I think this became quite apparent to the government, and that is the reason that classes could go out on field trips. In fact, we went, as a class we went into Delta and toured the Brooklawn Creamery. And many of the men like my father went outside to work, and many, many students were able to go back east and finish their schooling. So it became evident, I think, to the government that this whole evacuation was a big, major mistake.

MA: You mentioned you would go into Delta. Was there, how was the relationship, or how were you treated, I guess, by the people in Delta? Do you remember any incidents?

TN: Well, as children touring a creamery, of course, there were no incidents there. But I do remember going into Delta after the war, after we were back in Salt Lake and we took a trip down there just to kind of see. And we went into a restaurant, and you could just feel there was a little hostility there, it wasn't quite like perfect, you know. But nothing happened, and we got served.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.