I'm not convinced the rock is Wakasa's monument. The sketches for the monument show a typical rectangular Asian style monument with Japanese writing painted on it. The story goes, they hauled the monument out there after the shooting and then were asked to remove/destroy it. So they buried it.
The rock that is at the museum is a gigantic boulder. It had to require heavy equipment to move back to Delta and no evidence of writing is left on the rock. One would think the story of placing the monument would include excerpts on the extraordinary effort it would take to haul the monument to its location using brute manpower force as well as digging the pit to bury it.
Then again, I'm no archeologist, and I'm assuming the internees didn't have access to tractors. Maybe they did. I'm sure the experts will verify it one way or another. Either way, the Wakasa story is worth telling.
When I saw it, the rock was placed in the back of the museum lot, protected by the wall and locked gates, resting on a pallet next to the Topaz building replica. If you are interested in WW2 history, it might be worth at trip to Topaz Museum and see it, it sounds like from the Delta Chronicle Progress that it might be moved to Los Angeles or San Fransisco under the National Parks Service.
This article has a photo of the monument, but it's close with a wide angle lens, this photo makes it look smaller than it is. You can see the camp building wall on one end and the museum wall on the other.
www.nichibei.org
www.ksl.com
