1. Stewart, Francis. A panoramic view of the Central Utah Relocation Center. 1943. War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement. Online Archive of California. Web. March 2014.
2. Topaz Barracks. 1942. Utah History to Go. Web. March 2014.
3. Stewart Francis. A Boy Scout band. 1943. War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement. Online Archive of California. Web. March 2014.
4. Stewart Francis. Evacuees in their new barracks homes. 1943. War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement. Online Archive of California. Web. March 2014.
5.Stewart Francis. The Topaz Barber Shop. 1943. War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement. Online Archive of California. Web. March 2014.
2. Topaz Barracks. 1942. Utah History to Go. Web. March 2014.
3. Stewart Francis. A Boy Scout band. 1943. War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement. Online Archive of California. Web. March 2014.
4. Stewart Francis. Evacuees in their new barracks homes. 1943. War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement. Online Archive of California. Web. March 2014.
5.Stewart Francis. The Topaz Barber Shop. 1943. War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement. Online Archive of California. Web. March 2014.
Camp Conditions
Hayashi, Fumi. Interview by Howard Levin. Telling Their Stories. Web.
This woman was interned at the Topaz Relocation Center.
"(The camps were) hastily constructed and thoroughly inadequate concentration camps... We gave the fancy name of 'relocation centers' to these dust bowls, but they were concentration camps nonetheless."
-Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, Washington Evening Star, September 23, 1946
found on "A More Perfect Union"
The first internees arrived at the Topaz Relocation Center on September 11, 1942. Topaz held around 8,000 people. It was in the middle of the dessert, isolated from everything. Temperatures ranged from below freezing to the eighties and nineties.
One family or a group of individuals lived in each room. There was just one stove per room. Internees had to get used to their neighbors quickly because there was very little privacy and most facilities were communal, such as the showers, laundry rooms, and dining hall. Laundry had to be washed by hand, and the water frequently went out.
One family or a group of individuals lived in each room. There was just one stove per room. Internees had to get used to their neighbors quickly because there was very little privacy and most facilities were communal, such as the showers, laundry rooms, and dining hall. Laundry had to be washed by hand, and the water frequently went out.
"The camp was a one-mile square area, surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, with guard towers at each of its four corners. There were forty-two blocks in all, each block containing twelve barracks...Each barrack was divided was divided into six rooms. Our room, about eighteen feet by twenty feet...(had) nothing in it except for four army cots folded on the floor."
-Yoshiko Uchida
found in her memoir The Invisible Thread
Dust Storms
"About a week after we arrived, I encountered my first dust storm...I heard the dread sound of the wailing wind. Soon dust poured into the room as though someone was pouring bucketfuls through the hole in our roof...The storm grew steadily worse and lasted late into the night."
-Yoshiko Uchida
found in her memoir The Invisible Thread
Food
Employment
There was a wide range of jobs at Topaz. Pay ranged from only $8-12 a month for agricultural and labor work to around $19 a month for professional jobs such as dentists, physicians, and teachers.
Community Activities
As isolated as Topaz was, its inhabitants still did their best to form a community. Boy Scout troops greeted new arrivals. Religious ceremonies occurred when possible, though many Japanese traditions disintegrated. Many sports and games were played- basketball, tennis, golf, football, and baseball were played outdoors, while ping-pong and cards were played indoors.
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Education
Topaz had two elementary schools and one junior/senior high school. The schools never had enough supplies. There were hardly any books, paper, or pencils, and never enough to go around. At first, classrooms had no stoves installed, no interior sheetrock walls, and often gaping holes in the roofs. In November of 1942 schools were closed until the sheetrock walls and the stoves could be installed. School helped give a feeling of order to this crazy new life.