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Topaz Museum

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Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Topaz Museum
Phone:
+1 435-864-2514

Hours:
SundayClosed
Monday10am - 5pm
Tuesday10am - 5pm
Wednesday10am - 5pm
Thursday10am - 5pm
Friday10am - 5pm
Saturday10am - 5pm


The Topaz War Relocation Center, also known as the Central Utah Relocation Center and briefly as the Abraham Relocation Center, was an internment camp which housed Americans of Japanese descent and immigrants who had come to the United States from Japan, called Nikkei. President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, ordering people of Japanese ancestry to be incarcerated in relocation centers like Topaz during World War II. Most of the people interred at Topaz came from the Tanforan Assembly Center and previously lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. The camp was opened in September 1942 and closed in October 1945. The camp, approximately 15 miles west of Delta, Utah, consisted of 19,800 acres , with a 640 acres main living area. Most internees lived in the main living area, though some lived off-site as agricultural and industrial laborers. The approximately 9,000 internees and staff made Topaz into the fifth-largest city in Utah at the time. The extreme temperature fluctuations of the arid area combined with uninsulated barracks made conditions very uncomfortable, even after the belated installation of pot-bellied stoves. The camp housed two elementary schools and a high school, a library, and some recreational facilities. Camp life was documented in a newspaper, Topaz Times, and in the literary publication Trek. Internees worked inside and outside the camp, mostly in agricultural labor. Many internees became notable artists. In the winter of 1942–1943, a loyalty questionnaire asked prisoners if they would declare their loyalty to the United States of America and if they would be willing to enlist. The questions were divisive, and prisoners who were considered disloyal because of their answers on the loyalty questionnaire were sent to the Tule Lake Segregation Camp. One internee, James Wakasa, was shot and killed for being too close to the camp's fence. Topaz prisoners held a large funeral and stopped working until administrators relaxed security. In 1983, Jane Beckworth founded the Topaz Museum Board, and in 2014, a museum in Delta showcased artworks created at Topaz. After the museum was remodeled in 2017, it focused on the historical aspects of Topaz. The site became a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 2007.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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