In 1942 shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, over 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry were forcibly removed from California, Oregon, and Washington and confined to relocation centers. One of these relocation centers was the Topaz Relocation Center located on 17,500 acres in the middle of the Sevier Desert just outside of Delta, Utah. Until the camp closed in Oct. 1945, over 8,000 men, women and children lived, worked, and went to school there; over 100 of its residents volunteered for and served in the U.S. armed forces.
What was it like to be a resident of one of these relocation centers? School yearbooks and literary magazines written and illustrated by Topaz residents offer insight into the life, activities, and feelings of the Japanese Americans held there from 1942-1945. These and other items owned by Utah State University Library are being digitized as part of its Topaz Japanese-American Relocation Center Digital Collection.
Cover from Trek, a quarterly literary magazine produced by residents of the Topaz Center. Mine Okubo, the artist, wrote a book about her experiences living at Topaz and later became a noted Southern Californian artist.
- Trek, a quarterly literary magazine written and illustrated by camp members; includes stories, poems, and drawings.
- Ramblings, school yearbook for Topaz students
- Text from memorial services for former Topaz residents who died in action
- Letter to the editor of the Herald Journal written July 13, 1944 by Laura Merrill, a Logan resident then working at the Topaz Center as its librarian
- Personal Justice Denied, a substantial report on the findings and recommendations of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. It includes many letters, testimonies, and other documentation about the relocation.
- Executive Order 9066 leading to relocation of Japanese-Americans
- Executive Order 9102 forming the War Relocation Authority
- Civil Liberties Act of 1988
- War Relocation Authority reports and documents
- Central Utah Final Accountability Report
- Topaz Museum: www.topazmuseum.org/index.html
- Topaz Times newsletters: www.lib.utah.edu/digital/unews/topaz.html
- Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites: www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/anthropology74/ce12.htm
- Teaching with Documents: Documents and Photographs Related to Japanese Relocation During World War II: www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation/
- A more Perfect Union: Japanese Americans & the U.S. Constitution: americanhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/experience/index.html
Includes images, music, text and first-person accounts - Children of the Camps: www.pbs.org/childofcamp/index.html Guide and background information about one-hour documentary that portrays the poignant stories of six men and women who were interned as children in U.S. relocation camps during World War II. One of the six people interviewed was interned at Topaz, Utah when he was four years old.