For the week of January 23 - 29, 2002

Two from Ketchum in Olympic torch relay

Tatsuno sees redemption in selection

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Torch Route

The Olympic torch is scheduled to cross the Perrine Bridge north of Twin Falls at 10 a.m. Saturday, then follow a 10.4-mile route down Washington Street, through downtown, and back up Blue Lakes Boulevard to the College of Southern Idaho by 11:30 a.m.

Events will include live music, booths for kids, and appearances by well known athletes, politicians and celebrities.

Also, on Friday, musician Peter Cetera and actor Adam West, both Wood River Valley residents, will be at Randy Hansen Chevrolet on Blue Lakes Boulevard from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. to sign the Relay Corvette Signature Car.

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By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer

Calling his participation "a redemption of sorts," Ketchum resident Rod Tatsuno will carry the 2002 Olympic torch for two-tenths of a mile through Twin Falls on Saturday.

Local residents Rod Tatsuno (left) and Dick Fosbury are making their final preparations for taking part in the Olympic torch relay in Twin Falls this weekend. Tatsuno’s canine companion, Lobo, keeps watch over the pair. Express photo by Willy Cook

The torch’s destination is Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah—a state in which Tatsuno spent most of the first three years of his life as a prisoner in the Topaz detention camp for Japanese Americans during World War II. The camp was located about 180 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

"I’m running as a free person, helping carry the torch to where I was behind barbed wire," Tatsuno said.

Ketchum resident Dick Fosbury, an Olympic gold medalist in high jumping, also will be a part of the Olympic celebration in Twin Falls on Saturday. Fosbury was chosen to be a torch bearer as a former Olympian in a pool separate from nominees from the general public.

Chevrolet Motor Division selected Tatsuno, a Sun Valley ski instructor, to represent the Wood River Valley in the Olympic Torch relay during the Twin Falls Celebration. He was nominated for the honor by his son, Chris, a ski racer for the University of Colorado who will turn 19 the day his father is running in Twin Falls.

Tatsuno said that though he thinks his history as a detention camp inmate helped in his selection, his more recent community involvement probably played a bigger role. A member of the Sun Valley Ski and Snowboard School, he has worked for years as a volunteer for the local elementary school learn-to-ski program. Under that program, Sun Valley Co. gives children free lift tickets while volunteers provide instruction. Tatsuno has also helped regularly with local blood drives.

Tatsuno was born on May 29, 1942, at a temporary detention facility at a race track in San Bruno, Calif., south of San Francisco. A month later, his family was moved to the Topaz camp, where they lived for almost three years until his father and uncle obtained a sponsor in Springville, Utah, to hire them as farm workers.

Tatsuno said he has no memory of his stay at the camp. The first connection to the camp that he remembers was after his family moved back to San Francisco and children there began to taunt him for looking like the former enemy.

"How do you answer the charge that if you were behind barbed wire, you must have done something wrong?"

Ironically, he said, his first experience with prejudice was from black kids in the Fillmore district. Then he got it from white kids when his family moved to San Jose.

"They’d kick you, spit at you, punch you," he said.

The attacks ceased when the United States became involved in the Korean War in June 1950, and Japan became an ally.

Tatsuno moved to Ketchum in 1969, and began working for the ski school a year later. In 1976, he was hired as an extra in an Olympic spoof filmed in Sun Valley for comedian Flip Wilson. Tatsuno carried the torch.

"Who would have dreamed that 26 years later I’d be running for real?"

Tatsuno said he hopes lots of people from the Wood River Valley will come down to Twin Falls to watch.

"You can go to Costco, Kmart and the parade," he said.

When the torch reaches Salt Lake City on Feb. 8, it will be used to light the Olympic flame, housed in a $2 million, glass-and-steel cauldron.

What if Tatsuno drops the torch during his stint and it goes out?

"I’ll be holding on for dear life," he said.

 

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