From 1942 to 1945, during WII, 120,000 men, women, and children, Americans with Japanese ancestry were removed from their homes and interned into ten remote camps throughout the American West. The government and the US Army, falsely citing “military necessity”. None of the people of Japanese ancestry were ever convicted or even charged with sabotage or espionage, yet were confined, some up to four years, in camps surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards. Topaz Camp, located near Delta, Utah, held around 8,000 of these individuals. This is one of the worst violations of civil rights against citizens in the history of the United States.

From 1942 to 1945, during World War II, 120,000 men, women, and children — Americans with Japanese ancestry — were removed from their homes and interned into ten remote camps throughout the American West. The government and the US Army, falsely citing "military necessity," ordered the removal. None of the people of Japanese ancestry were ever convicted or even charged with sabotage or espionage, yet were confined, some up to four years, in camps surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards. Topaz Camp, located near Delta, Utah, held around 8,000 of these individuals. This is one of the worst violations of civil rights against citizens in the history of the United States.

The Camp

The Topaz Relocation Center — officially known as the Central Utah Relocation Center — was the fifth largest city in Utah during its operation. Internees lived in tar paper barracks in a high desert environment that was brutally cold in winter and baking hot in summer. They built their own community inside the wire — organizing schools, churches, gardens, newspapers, and art programs under impossible conditions.

The Museum

The Topaz Museum in Delta, Utah preserves the history of the camp and its people through artifacts, photographs, oral histories, and documents. The museum is the primary interpretive site — visit here first before driving out to the camp site itself.

The Camp Site

The physical camp site is located several miles outside of Delta on open desert land. Most of the original structures are long gone, but the footprint of the camp and some remnants remain. Interpretive markers help orient visitors to what once stood here. Standing on the site — remote, flat, windswept — makes the experience of confinement here viscerally real in a way no photograph can convey.

Primary Sources & Media

Internees were not allowed to have cameras, so there are few photographs of everyday life inside the camp. However, Masaharu "Dave" Tatsuno, who was confined at Topaz from 1942 to 1945, smuggled in a video camera and captured rare footage of daily life. His footage was accepted into the Library of Congress archive. A segment of the full 48-minute film is available via the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah.

A high school teacher named Eleanor Gerard Sekerak took candid photographs of her students at the camp. Those photos are part of the Topaz Digital Library and can be viewed through the Eleanor Gerard Sekerak Photo Collection at the University of Utah.

These primary sources matter. History this important deserves more than a roadside marker.

Resources:

• Topaz Museum: topazmuseum.org

• National Archives: archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation

• Dave Tatsuno video footage: YouTube — search "Tatsuno Topaz"

• Eleanor Gerard Sekerak Photo Collection: collections.lib.utah.edu

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