Local author, artist to share experience of WWII internment camp

Local author, artist to share experience of WWII internment camp

(Shutterstock)


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

OGDEN — A local author and artist who spent part of her youth at two World War II internment camps in Colorado will discuss her recent memoir at Saint Joseph’s Catholic High School Thursday.

Lily Yuriko Nakai Havey tells her story through photographs, watercolors and words in her memoir “Gasa Gasa Girl Goes to Camp: A Nisei Youth Behind A World War II Fence,” according to Joanna Wheelton, president of Saint Joseph’s Catholic Schools.

According to the book summary on Goodreads, “Lily Nakai and her family lived in southern California, where sometimes she and a friend dreamt of climbing the Hollywood sign that lit the night. At age ten, after believing that her family was simply going on a 'camping trip,' she found herself living in a tar-papered barrack, nightly gazing out instead at a searchlight. She wondered if anything would ever be normal again.”

Havey will read part of her memoir, participate in a question and answer session and sign books at the event, according to a press release.

The book was produced out of the University of Utah Press, Wheelton said.

“As an art form, the book itself is extraordinary looking,” Wheelton told KSL.com. “It’s a really amazing historical and personal story for people in the U.S. to read about what happened to our own citizens here during World War II.”

Havey was originally asked to annotate some of her watercolors for an art exhibit, and in the process of her annotation, she decided to write a memoir about her historical experiences, Wheelton said.


It's a really amazing historical and personal story for people in the U.S. to read about what happened to our own citizens here during World War II.

–Joanna Wheelton, President, St. Joseph's Catholic Schools


Saint Joseph’s Catholic Schools’ organization called The Aquinas Institute will host the event. The Aquinas Institute “supports social justice and ethical creative thinking” and brings the community together for free author and movie events to discuss these topics, Wheelton said.

“I think that we tend to, as Americans, focus on social justice issues that are happening around the world, but we’re not always very introspective,” Wheelton said. “I think that what happened during the internment camps here in the United States is a really good opportunity for us to look at our own cultural and racial experiences.”

Wheelton mentioned the Utah World War II internment camp at Topaz Mountain, calling it something that should “really be brought forward to our students and even our adult community.”

“We thought that this was a really good opportunity to discuss a social justice issue that had real connections to the Utah community,” Wheelton said of the event.

The event will take place at the Evans Black Box Theatre at Saint Joseph’s Catholic High School at 7 p.m. Thursday. It is free and open to the public. If you have any questions regarding the event details, call 801-394-1515.

“We want people to come in and just be able to talk about some current and not-so-current events that have changed our history, and how we can use those to educate our young people and even ourselves and expand those horizons a little bit,” Wheelton said.

Related links

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

UtahEntertainment
Megan Marsden Christensen

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast