User:CsuEB/Toyo Suyemoto

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Toyo decided to rejoin her family in Berkeley, while her husband Iwao moved to San Francisco for a job with a newspaper. The couple separated later that month, and Toyo took her son Kay with her to Berkeley. That spring, as part of the enforcement of Executive Order 9066, she and Kay were incarcerated at Tanforan Assembly Center. From there, Toyo and Kay, as well as her parents and siblings, were sent to Topaz Relocation Center, in Delta, UT. At Topaz, she taught English and Latin as a teacher and worked in the public library in the camp. She also helped to create schools for the children. Suyemoto continued writing poems during her years of incarceration in Topaz, as her passion for writing gave her a reason to survive incarceration. She was friends with artist Miné Okubo and she also served on the staff of the camp's literary magazine. Several of her poems were published there. During that time, Iwao never visited his wife or son and the couple divorced after the war. In the early 1980s, Suyemoto revisited Topaz and testified before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians about her time in the camp. She described how the poor conditions and lack of healthcare impacted her and her family.

== Article Draft Her memoir, “I Call to Remembrance,” provide a personal narrative and an indictment of mass incarnation. ==