Fumi Manabe Hayashi

FUMI MANABE HAYASHI
Family # 13602
Camp: Topaz, UT
Address: 19-6-EF

My father left Japan and arrived in Portland, Oregon in 1911. He then came to San Francisco and became a Salvation Army officer. In 1923, a destructive earthquake struck Tokyo, Japan. The Salvation Army in San Francisco sent my father back to Japan to assist the many earthquake victims. While there, he met and married my mother. The two returned to California, and their first child was born in 1924. They settled in the San Francisco Bay Area.

I, the second child, was born June 3, 1926, in Alameda, California. When I started school, I spoke and understood very little English. The teachers, students, and many new rules confused and intimidated me. My older sister died of blood poisoning while I was in the first grade. Elementary school was not a happy experience for me.

Junior high school was better. I caught up with my classmates and enjoyed all of my classes. I especially liked English and music.

Laws had been passed in California discriminating first against the Chinese and then the Japanese. Asian immigrants were denied citizenship. We could not own land, and were not hired by most industries, but we worked hard and benefited from strong families and supportive communities.

I had just started Berkeley High School when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Although the FBI, Army Intelligence, and Navy Intelligence found no incidence of sabotage committed by the Japanese living in the United States, we were interned, guarded by army soldiers and surrounded by barbed wire.

The Tanforan Horse Racing Track near San Francisco was our first stop. My family of six was housed in a stall formerly occupied by a single racehorse. There was no water, no heat, and no walls, only partitions. We slept on cots and mattresses filled with straw. Latrines and mess halls were not yet built. What a mess!

Barracks, latrines, and mess halls were finally completed. We all pitched in to make the place more livable. We sat on picnic benches in one large hall for our schooling. Sometimes our food was not properly prepared, and we all had to run for the latrines outside. The soldiers guarding us got excited and shone spotlights on us, thinking we were trying to escape.

Life did settle down. But we were uprooted once again and sent to the Topaz Relocation Center, located in the harsh central Utah desert.

I attended Topaz High School for three years. There were few books, no laboratories, and low morale among the students. I was on the Honor Roll at Berkeley High, but getting an “A” at Topaz was much easier. Many students were demoralized. Why do homework and “waste time?” Why attend classes and “waste time?” Our school, however, did stage two plays, present choral music, print a school paper, and publish a yearbook. Parental desires and teacher encouragement helped most of us continue our education after high school.

Resettlement, the process of reestablishing ourselves outside of the internment camps, was very difficult. When the camps closed, everyone had to leave. Jobs, housing, and money were not available. My sister and I hired out as babysitters and maids, and attended school in St. Louis. More than four years passed before our family was finally reunited in our Berkeley home.

Wind and Dust
This wind and dust I have to bear
How hard it blows I do not care.
But when the wind begins to blow –­
My morale is pretty low.
I know that I can see it through
Because others have to bear it too.
So I will bear it with the rest
And hope the outcome is the best.
– George Nishimura, age 16 (Manzanar, 1943)

Read this to learn more about the demographics of each of the ten facilities administered by the War Relocation Authority.

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