Laundry Room #4
Jeanie Kashima
14 x 11 inches
2021
ARTIST STATEMENT
When my family arrived at Topaz, my mother was in her third trimester of her pregnancy. When she went into labor days later, the hospital as well as the infirmary were not completed. She had to deliver her baby on the floor of laundry room #4. She vividly recalls the delivery and remembers the sand coming through the doors and windows. That baby was me and I was the first baby born in Topaz. I was put in a food crate as there were no other options to put me in. Fortunately, it was an uneventful delivery. My father was so grateful to the Japanese doctor who assisted in my delivery that he named me after her, Dr. Eugenia Fujita. My formal name is Eugenia.