SAN FRANCISCO OPERA -- Japanese American double bassist Shinji Eshima joined the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in 1980 and has also been a member of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra since 1982. The Berkeley native received his education at Stanford University and The Juilliard School, and is currently a faculty member at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and San Francisco State University.
On Saturday, July 8, the puppetry play “E.O. 9066,” featuring original music by Shinji, will be performed at the Grand Opening Celebrations of the Topaz Museum, which is dedicated to preserving the history of the internment camp experience in Delta, Utah, during World War II. The title of the play is derived from the Executive Order 9066, which forced 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, who were falsely accused of being a threat after the attack on Pearl Harbor, to leave their homes and transfer to internment camps in California and Utah for up to four years. 11,000 of them were sent to Topaz, including Shinji’s father.