Dave Tatsuno was a Japanese American

Japanese American

are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...

 businessman who documented life in his family's internment camp during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. His footage was later compiled into the film Topaz

Topaz (1945 film)

Topaz is a 1945 documentary film, shot illegally , which documented life at the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah during World War II....

(named for the Topaz War Relocation Center where he was confined). The film was placed in the National Film Registry

National Film Registry

The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...

, part of the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

, in 1997. He was a 1936 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

.

While Tatsuno had said that he was born in San Francisco, photographs of his mother arriving from Japan showed him as an infant in her arms.

External links

• Photograph of the Tatsuno family in the Topaz camp.
• Photograph of Dave Tatsuno preparing to evacuate to the Topaz camp.
• Interview with the Densho Archive (free registration required).
• "American Topics: Rare Look at Internment Camp", The International Herald Tribune, January 27, 1997.