Interesting/unusual facts
The camp was named after
Topaz Mountain, 9 miles northwest of the site.
Daley Brothers (a California
construction firm) had a crew of 800 and began construction July 10,
1942. They built 623 buildings in two months.
In Millard County,
Utah, near the Topaz Relocation Center, the term "Topaz Carpenter"
is still a derogatory term, since anyone who showed up at the site with
a hammer would be hired.
The residential area
was contained by a one-square-mile perimeter fence and 7 guard towers.
Topaz was the fifth
largest "city" in Utah, while Delta's population was only
1500 during World War II.
On April 11, 1943 a
soldier fatally shot 63-year old James Hatsuaki Wakasa in the Chest.
After a brief work stoppage, compromises on the funeral location (near,
but not at the spot of death) and limits placed on the soldiers were
reached.
The headquarters of
the Buddhist Church of America was transferred to Topaz from San Francisco
during World War II.
Hundreds of trees were
planted during the first nine months, but nearly all died due to heat,
wind alkaline soil, and lack of water.
The first killing frost
was recorded the end of September 1942, and the first snowfall was on
October 13, 1942. Some of the apartments still had no windows installed
at that time.
Of those qualifying
for military service, 105 volunteers left Topaz for active duty.
Land ownership
Since 1998, the Topaz Museum Board has purchased 525 acres of the original
640 acres of the camp site. The remaining 115 acres are privately owned
and have several family homes. BLM administers the land to the west
of the camp where the center landfill was.
Special Designations
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places January 2, 1974.
.
Preservation and Interpretive Efforts
The Topaz Museum Board recently completed a survey of the site, which
included suggestions for preservation.
The Topaz Museum Board is working toward building a museum in Delta,
Utah that will tell about the camp, how internment affected the local
population, and describe the many buildings and how those buildings
eventually were moved into town.
There is a Memorial Marker and gravel parking area in what was the
northwest portion of the central area, as well as a historical marker
in the Delta City Park.
The Topaz Museum Board restored one-half of a recreation building,
which provides visitors with the unusual experience of former internee's
living conditions. A partition replicates the 20'15' apartment that
housed two or three people. Also on display are original stoves, cots,
mattresses and photos. The building is currently on exhibit at the Great
Basin Museum in Delta, Utah.
The Great Basin Museum has photographs and artifacts related to the
relocation center.
Public access to the site today
Directional signs are along the roadway from Hwy 6. The address is 10000
West 4500 North, Delta, Utah.
Today, visible remains of the Topaz Relocation Center include roads,
communal building cement foundations, rock alignments, gardens, walkways,
and outlines of buildings and porches. There are no original buildings
left at the site.
Local Resources
Topaz Museum: P.O. Box 241, Delta, UT 84624
A non-profit, volunteer organization created "to preserve the Topaz
internment experience during World War II; to interpret its impact on
the internees, their families, and the citizens of Millard County; and
to educate the public in order to prevent a recurrence of a similar
denial of American civil rights."
Board Members include:
Jane Beckwith, Topaz Museum President, Delta, UT
Rick Okabe, Secretary, Salt Lake City, UT
Charlotte Morrison, Delta, UT
Grace Oshita, Salt Lake City, UT
Chuck Kubokawa, Palo Alto, CA
Bill Sugaya, San Francisco, CA
Selected Books
Hill, Kimi Kodani. Topaz Moon: Art of the Internment. Berkeley,
CA: Heyday Books, 2000. A biography of Chiura Obata who started the
art school at Tanforan and Topaz.
Okubo, Mine. Citizen 13660. Seattle, WA: University of Washington
Press, 1946. Personal account of life in Topaz with illustrations of
the camp by the author.
Taylor, Sandra C. Jewel of the Desert: Japanese American Internment
at Topaz. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993. The
story of San Francisco Bay area Japanese Americans and their forced
internment at Topaz, Utah.
Tunnel, Michael O. & George. W. Chilcoat. The Children of Topaz.
New York, NY: Holiday House, 1996. Based on the diary kept by a third
grade class in Topaz, Utah.
Uchida, Yoshiko. Desert Exile; the Uprooting of a Japanese American
Family. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1989. Personal
account of her family's uprooting from Berkeley, California to Topaz,
Utah.
Topaz. 58 minute video. KUED, 101 S. Wasatch Drive, Salt Lake
City, UT 84112, 801-581-7777. 1991. Discusses the internment, contains
interviews with former internees (Mine Okubo and Yoshiko Uchida), and
has footage of Dave Tatsuno's original 8mm home movie.
Websites
www.topazcamp.org
Topaz Museum's website.
historytogo.utah.gov/relocate.html
Utah History To Go - overview
www.lib.utah.edu/spc/photo/9066/topaz.htm
Images from Topaz. The items in this exhibit were graciously lent to
the University of Utah by George G. Murakami, a young American from
Berkeley, California who was interned in Topaz.
obata.wilderness.net
"The Great Nature of Chirua Obata" - teachings and artwork
of Chiura Obata.