The Topaz War Relocation Center , also known as The Central Utah Center for Relocation and (briefly) Abraham's Relocation Center , is the camp that lives < i> Nikkei - Japanese Americans and immigrants coming to the United States from Japan. There are a number of such camps used during the Second World War, under the control of the War Relocation Authority. The politicians felt that Japanese immigrants and their children were dangerous on the west coast and forced them to be placed in remote camps. Most of the people buried at Topaz are from Tanforan Assembly Center and previously lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. The camp opened in September 1942 and closed in October 1945.
This camp consists of 19,800 acres (8,012.8 ha) ,, but the main living area is concentrated to 640 acres (259.0 ha). This central residential area is located about 15 miles (24.1 km) west of the Delta, Utah, although some live as caretakers overseeing agricultural land and areas used for light industry and livestock. Around 9,000 internees and staff made Topaz the fifth largest city in Utah at the time. The condition is very uncomfortable even after the installation of a late pot-bellied stove, since the dry area experiences extreme temperature fluctuations and barracks have no insulation. The camp houses two primary and secondary schools, a library, and several recreational facilities.
In the winter of 1942-1943, the loyalty questionnaire asked the prisoners whether they would declare their allegiance to the United States and if they were to register. The questions were divisive, and the detainees were considered "unfaithful" because their answers to the loyalty questionnaire were sent to Tule Lake Segregation Camp. One internee, James Wakasa, was shot and killed for being too close to the camp fence. Topaz prisoners held a large funeral and stopped working until the security of the administrators relaxed. Camp life is documented in newspapers, Topaz Times , and in literary publications Tracks . Midwives work inside and outside the camp, mostly in agricultural work. Many internees became famous artists.
The American Pastime film is set in the Topaz camp and uses the historical record of Dave Tatsuno. Topaz is also the subject of two books: Journey to Topaz and When the Emperor is Divine . In 1983, Jane Beckworth founded the Topaz Museum Board, and in 2014, a museum in the Delta exhibited works of art created at Topaz. After the museum was renovated in 2017, it focuses on the historical aspect of Topaz. This site is the US National Historic Landmark.
Video Topaz War Relocation Center
Terminology
Since the end of World War II, there has been a debate about the terminology used to refer to Topaz and other camps where Japanese Americans and their immigrant parents were imprisoned by the United States Government during the war. Topaz has been referred to as the "War Relocation Center," "relocation camp," "relocation center," "intern camp," and "concentration camp," and controversy about which terms are the most accurate and precise to date. day. In the introduction to a book on Topaz written published by the Topaz Museum, Topaz Museum Board informs readers that it is accurate to refer to camps as a "prison camp" or "concentration camp" and its inhabitants as "prisoners" or "internees".
Maps Topaz War Relocation Center
Topaz History
After America entered World War II, about 120,000 Japanese-Americans and Japanese-born residents of the West Coast of the United States were forced to leave their homes in California, Oregon and Washington as a result of the 9066 Executive Order, signed by the President. Franklin Roosevelt. About 5,000 left the forbidden area during the period of "voluntary evacuation", and avoided detention. The remaining 110,000 were immediately removed from their homes by soldiers and National Guard troops. The Utah governor Herbert B. Maw opposes the relocation of every Japanese American to the state, stating that if they are dangerous to the West Coast, they will pose a danger to Utah. The camp was ruled by Charles F. Ernst until June 1944, when the position was taken over by Luther T. Hoffman following Ernst's resignation. Most of the internees arrived at the camp from the Tanforan or Santa Anita shelter center; the majority are from the San Francisco Bay Area. 65% are Nisei or Kibei - American-born citizens.
Topaz opened Sept. 11, 1942, and eventually became the fifth largest city in Utah, with more than 9,000 internees and staff, and covers about 31 square miles (80.3 km 2 ) (mostly used for agriculture). A total of 11,212 people live in Topaz at one time or another. It closed on October 31, 1945. Topaz was originally known as the Central Utah Relocation Authority, and then the Abraham Relocation Authority, but the names were too long for post office regulations. The last name, Topaz, comes from a mountain overlooking the camp from 9 miles (14.5 km) away.
Topaz is a major internment site in the state of Utah. The smaller camp is only a few miles north of Moab, which is used to isolate some people who are considered troublemakers before being sent to Leupp, Arizona. A site in Antelope Springs, in the mountains west of Topaz, is used as a recreation area by residents and Topaz staff.
Life in Topaz
Climate
Surrounded by deserts, Topaz is a completely new neighborhood for the internees, most of whom are from the San Francisco Bay Area. Located at 4,580 feet (1,396.0 m) above sea level in Sevier Desert, a high desert environment, classified as BWk under the KÃÆ'¶ppen classification, can become loud at times. In arid environments, temperatures can vary greatly throughout the day. This area also experienced strong winds and dust storms. One such storm caused structural damage to 75 buildings in 1944. Winter was cold, with an average below freezing for several months and an average of 18 inches of snow was received. Spring rains transform clay soil into mud, which breeds mosquitoes. Summer is hot, with thunderstorms and temperatures that can sometimes exceed 100 degrees F. In 1942, the first snow fell on October 13, before the camp construction was fully completed.
Architecture and Settings
Topaz contains a living complex known as the "city", about a square mile, as well as a vast farmland. Inside the city, forty-two blocks for the internees, thirty-four of them are housing. Each block holds 200-300 people, housed in barracks holding five people in a 20x20 leg room. Families are generally accommodated together, while single adults will be placed with four other unrelated people. The residential blocks also contain a recreation room, a rest room, an office for block managers, and a combined laundry/toilet/shower facility. Each block contains only four baths for all women and four bathrooms for all the men who live there. These dense conditions often result in little privacy for occupants.
The barracks are constructed of wood-lined wooden frames, with wooden floors. The barracks were eventually lined with sheetrock, and the floors were filled with masonites, but not many internees moved into the camp, suffering severe heat and cold in dry climates. When construction began in July 1942, the first detainees moved in September 1942, and the camp was not completed until early 1943. The construction of the camp was completed in part by 214 interned volunteers. The rooms are heated with a bellied stove. No furnishings were provided except for a pile of scrap wood used by prisoners to build beds, tables, and cabinets. Some families also modify their dwellings with fabric partitions. Toilets, showers and showers are located in separate buildings, where four baths and four bathrooms serve 250 to 300 people placed in each barrack block. Water comes from a well and is stored in a large wooden tank, and "barely drinkable."
Topaz also includes a number of communal areas, including secondary schools, two elementary schools, a 28 bed hospital, at least two churches, and community parks, among others. There was a funeral too, although it was never used. All 144 people who died in the camp were cremated and their ashes were held for burial until after the war. The camp is patrolled by 85-150 policemen, and is surrounded by a barbed wire fence. Watchtowers manned with spotlights placed every quarter of a mile around the perimeter of the camp.
Political Camp
In 1943, the War Relations Authority (WRA) issued all adults internationally a questionnaire assessing their Americanized level. It's titled "Application for Leave Permit". Two questions were raised to the detainees about their willingness to fight in the US Army and if they would swear allegiance to the United States and renounce loyalty to the Emperor of Japan. Many Issei born in Japan, prohibited from American citizenship, hate the second question, feeling that affirmative answers will leave them effectively stateless. Some Issei voluntarily joined the army, although there was no registration procedure for non-citizens. Others object to other political grounds. At Topaz, nearly a fifth of the male population responded "no" to questions about loyalty. Inmates expressed their anger through several scattered attacks against other inmates whom they considered too close to the government. The re-written version for Issei does not require that they renounce their allegiance to the Japanese emperor. Some Nisei formed the Resident Council for American Civil Rights of Japan, which encouraged other inmates to register the draft if their civil rights were restored. Four hundred and fifty-one internees from Topaz joined their counterparts from other camps to enlist in the Army to fight in Europe with the highly decorated Decent of the Regiment 442 Team. Fifteen members of Topaz's army were killed in action. 1,447 "non-loyal" detainees, who answered "no" to both loyalty questions, were transferred to the Tes Lake Segregation Center. Several of the same "loyal" prisoners were transferred from Lake Tule to Topaz. Thirty-six detainees left Topaz for Japan.
The sixty-three-year-old James Wakasa was shot dead on April 11, 1943, by guards for wandering too close to the camp fence. Internees reacted with a work strike protesting against the death and secrecy surrounding it. They held a large funeral for Wakasa as a way to express their anger. In response, the government determined that fears of subversive activities in the camp were largely unfounded, and significantly eased security. The military decided that officers who had fought in the Pacific would not be assigned to duty at Topaz. The guards who shot Wakasa were transferred after being found not guilty of violating military law; this information is not given to internees.
Topaz internees, Fred Korematsu and Mitsue Endo challenged their detention in court. The Korematsu case was heard and rejected in the US Supreme Court (Korematsu v. United States), the largest case to challenge the internees, while Endo's case was upheld.
Daily Life
The camp was designed to be self-sufficient, and most of the land inside the camp was devoted to agriculture. Topaz prisoners raise cattle, pigs and chickens in addition to feeding plants and vegetables. Due to the harsh weather, bad soils, and short growth conditions, the camp was unable to supply all animal feed, but the camp produced an award at the Millard County Fair.
Topaz contains two elementary schools, Desert View Elementary and Mountain View Elementary, Topaz High School (grade 7-12) and adult education program. Schools are taught by a combination of local and internment teachers. The schools were poorly prepared and overcrowded, but the enthusiastic teachers did their best. Topaz High School develops a dedicated community, with reunions held up to 50 years after internment. Sports are popular in schools as well as the adult population, with sports including baseball, basketball, and sumo wrestling. Cultural associations have sprung up all over the camp. Topaz has a newspaper, Topaz Times , a literary publication called Tracks , and two libraries that eventually contain nearly 7,000 items in English and Japanese. Artist Chiura Obata leads Tanforan Art School at Topaz, offering art instruction to over 600 students. Internation rules take over the authority of parents, and teens often eat with their friends and only join their families to sleep at night. This combined with the lack of privacy makes it difficult for parents to discipline and bond with their children, contributing to juvenile delinquency in the camp.
Several internees were allowed to leave the camp to find work. In 1942, the internees could obtain permission to leave the camp to work in the nearby Delta, where they fill the labor shortage caused by the draft, mostly in agricultural labor. In 1943, more than 500 internists obtained seasonal agricultural jobs outside the camp, with 130 others working in household and industry jobs. Polls show that the majority of Utah support this policy.
Refugees are also sometimes allowed to leave the camp for recreation. The former Council of the Civil Conservation Corps at Antelope Springs, in the 90-mile (144.8 km) to the west, was taken over as a recreational area for internees and camp staff, and two buildings from Antelope Springs were brought to the central area for became used as a Buddhist and Christian church. During the rock hunting expedition in the Drum Mountains, 16 miles west of Topaz, Akio Uhihera and Yoshio Nishimoto discovered and dug 1,164 pounds of rare meteorite iron, obtained by the Smithsonian Institution.
Topaz's famous interna
- Karl Ichiro Akiya (1909-2001), a writer and political activist. Richard Aoki (1938-2009), an American civil rights activist.
- Hisako Shimizu Hibi (1907-1991), a painter and graphic maker Issei.
- Yuji Ichioka (1936-2002), an American historian who coined the term "Asian Americans".
- George Ishiyama (1914-2003), a Japanese American businessman and former president of Alaska Pulp Corporation. Also interned at Heart Mountain.
- Miyoko Ito (1918-1983), an artist famous for watercolors and abstract oil paintings and prints.
- Tsuyako Kitashima (1918-2006), an American Japanese activist noted for his role in seeking reparations for the detention of Japanese Americans.
- Fred Korematsu (1919-2005), who challenged the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066 in Korematsu vs. United States of America.
- Toshio Mori (1910-1980), author.
- Robert Murase (1938-2005), the world-renowned landscape architect.
- Chiura Obata (1885-1975), an American Japanese artist.
- Frank H. Ogawa (1917-1994), the first Japanese Japanese to serve in Oakland City Council.
- Minà © Å © Okubo (1912-2001), an American artist and writer of Japan, noted for his book, Citizen 13660 .
- Mary Yamashiro Otani (1923-2005), a community activist. Kay Sekimachi (born 1926), an American fiber artist.
- Toyo Suyemoto (1916-2003), a poet, memoirist, and American librarian
- Goro Suzuki (1917-1979), an Oakland-born entertainer who is remembered by millions of people under his stage name, Jack Soo, stage star and original Flower Drum Song and is remembered for his role as Detective Nick Yemana at sitcom of 1970's Barney Miller. Suzuki is a favorite player at Topaz meetings.
- Dave Tatsuno (1913-2006), a Japanese American businessman documenting life in an American concentration camp on film.
- Kazue Togasaki (1897-1992), one of the first two Japanese women to obtain a medical degree in the United States. Also interned on Lake Tule and Manzanar.
- Yoshiko Uchida (1921-1992), a Japanese American author, most famous for his books, The Deserting Disposal: The Revocation of Japanese American Family and Picture of the Bride .
- Thomas Yamamoto (1917-2004), an American artist.
Topaz in movie
Dave Tatsuno (1913-2006), has film cameras smuggled into the camp, at the urging of his superior, Walter Honderick. The film he portrayed from 1943 to 1945 became the documentary film Topaz The film is an inductee of the National Register of Film Register of 1997, with the added difference being the second "home movie" included in the List and the only color recording camp life.
The Topaz War Relocation Center is the setting for the 2007 film American Pastime , a dramatization based on real events, which tells the story of the Nikkei baseball in the camps. Part of the camp was duplicated for location shooting in Utah Skull Valley, about 40 miles (64.4 km) west of Salt Lake City and 75 miles (120.7 km) north of the actual Topaz site. This film uses some Tatsuno history footage. The documentary on the Topaz War Relocation Center included works by Dave Tatsuno Topaz and Ken Verdoia 1987 of the same name.
Topaz in literature
Yoshiko Uchida's young adult novel Journey to Topaz tells the story of Yuki, a young Japanese American girl, whose world was disturbed when, shortly after Pearl Harbor, she and her family had to leave their cozy home in suburban Berkeley for dusty barracks in Topaz. The book is based largely on Uchida's personal experience: he and his family were interned in Topaz for three years.
Julie Otsuka's Novel When the Divine Emperor tells the story of a family forced to move from Berkeley, CA to Topaz in September 1942. Each of the five chapters of the novel is told from a different perspective. character. Critics praise "precise" but poetic "generation" of ordinary things "and" the ability to empathize. "More than 45 colleges and universities include it in compulsory reading for new students.
Topaz in recent years
After Topaz was closed, the land was sold and most of the buildings were auctioned off and moved from the site. Even water pipes and power lines were sold. Many foundations, concrete excavations and other ground-level features can be seen on various sites, but few buildings are left, and natural vegetation has taken over most of the abandoned territory.
In 1976, the League of Japanese Americans placed a monument in the northwest corner of the central area. On March 29, 2007, US Secretary of State Dirk Kempthorne established the "Central Center for Central Utah Relocation" as a National Historic Landmark.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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