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Editors | Staff | Contributors

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Like all camp institutions at Topaz, from the hospital to the canteen, the Topaz Times was maintained by Japanese American incarcerees themselves. To staff these various institutions, camp administrators drew from the very talented and experienced captive labor force at their disposal. Indeed, many of the individuals involved in the production of the Topaz Times held university degrees in journalism and related disciplines, and enjoyed successful careers in journalism before the war. 

Iwao Kawakami, one of the Times' eventual Editors-in-Chief, was the architect of the Japanese American Citizen League's official paper: Pacific Citizen. Evelyn Kirimura, the first editor of the Times, cut her journalistic teeth as the editor of the Pacific Citizen, which she led with the help of another eventual Topaz Times contributor Vernon Ichisaka from 1939 until the outbreak of World War II. 

Like most projects in the early months of Topaz, producing the Times required herculean effort on the part of the newspaper's staff. While strict censorship at times stymied editors' desires to present incarcerees with the truth as they saw it, the staff were forced to work what artist Mine Okubo referred to as "zombie shifts" late into the evenings in order to push out issues, due to the fact that they shared the mimeograph machines with the camp administration. When the Times received its own machine in early November, 1942, the staff rejoiced, writing in the paper's "Bed Time" column: "You see, it is really a terrific event. Having a machine of our very own, that is." 

According to Densho Encyclopedia: “Reporters and editors" of camp papers like the Times "were classified as skilled and professional workers, respectively," and received monthly payments from the War Relocation Authority itself. The article continues: "The wage scale was set at $12 or $16 a month for assistants and reporters and $19 for top editors, although no labor was compulsory.”  The first three pre-issues of the Times were produced using mimeograph machines located at the nearby Delta and Hinkley High Schools. The situation changed with Pre-Issue No. 4, and for the next month or so, the newspaper was printed using the incarceration camp's own mimeograph machines.

The December 5, 1942 issue of the Topaz Times - the paper's first extended special Saturday Edition - provided a conventional "staff box" for the first time, listing the editorial staff as follows:


The list below represents all of the known reporters, editors and artists whose work appears in the Topaz Times, or whose work contributed to its production. As new contributors are discovered or become known to the author, they will be added here:

                                                       First Generation Editors (1942):

Evelyn Kirimura, Robert Tsuda, James Yamada, Iwao Kawakami, Alex Yorichi, Harumi Kawahara, Daniel Ota, Mine Okubo.

                                                              Subsequent Editorship:

Managing Editor - Taro Katayama 
Daily News Editor - Daniel C. Ota
Weekly Editor - Iwao Kawakami
Saturday Edition Editor - Iwao Kawakami
Associate Editor - Harumi Kawahara
Women's Editor - Tomoye N. Takahashi
Art Editor - Yuri Sugihara 
Staff Cartoonist - Bennie Nobori 
Make-Up Editor - Haruno Wada
Historian - Henry Ebihara
トパーズ時報 (Japanese Language Editor) - Iwao Shimizu
Transcriber Editor - Masomi Yano
Japanese Translator: George Kawai, Kiyoshi Yamamoto

                                                                              Staff:

Kim Obata, Warren Watanabe, Sachi Honda (HS), Akira Fujimoto (HS), Fumio Obayashi, Fred Hoshiyama, Tad Hirota, Reverend Taro Goto, Lily Tamaki, , Harry Hirashima, Alex Yorichi, Norman Nakashima, Eiko Honda, Norman Nakashima, Eiko Honda, Fumi Nabeta,Yon Nobori, Rose Nakagawa, Mehiko Katsu, Mari Ikebuchi, Warren Watanabe, Hideko Shinagawa, Jimmy Kikugawa, Mits Shiozawa, Jack Tanaka, Henry Takahashi, Victor Abe and Toshio Mori. 

                                                                      Contributors:

Chiura Obata (art), Tad Hirota (Buddhist religious publications), M. Nishimura (Protestant religious publications), H. Honnami (Catholic religious publications), Emil Sekerak (Community Enterprises Division), W. Richard Nelson (History of Utah), Irvin Hull, Father William Stoecke (Catholic Contemplations). 

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  1. Incarcerated Quotidian: Everyday History in the Community Newspaper of Topaz Japanese American Incarceration Camp Michael Aoki Deruelle

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