Topaz War Relocation Center - Life at Topaz

Life At Topaz

Surrounded by desert, Topaz was an entirely new environment for internees, most of whom had been rounded up in the San Francisco area. At an altitude of 4,580 feet (1,396.0 m) above sea level, arid and subject to dust storms and wide temperatures swings during night and day, nonetheless it was an improvement over the conditions found at the Tanforan and Santa Anita racetracks which had been interim internment locations.

While many of the older generation were from Japan, most of those under 30 years of age were Nisei, first-generation American citizens of Japanese descent, and Kibei, Nisei who had been sent to Japan as children for periods of traditional schooling.

Though built with a barbed-wire fence and seven guard towers, there were attempts to make life at Topaz as "normal" as possible. Barracks were given "street addresses" and internees were encouraged to create gardens. The barracks themselves had been built with sliding windows, rather than the hinge-and-stick windows used at other camps, providing slightly better weather sealing, but most were unfinished inside when the internees first moved in. Drywall interiors walls were later added. Linoleum was also eventually laid down over the bare wood in many barracks.

The Topaz High School sports teams were known as the "Rams." The banner displayed at the Topaz High School 40th Reunion featured a drawing of a ram.

Following two shooting incidents in 1943, one of which resulted in the death of 63-year-old James Hatsuaki Wakasa, security at Topaz was reevaluated. It was determined that fears of subversive activity at the camp were largely without basis, and security was relaxed significantly. Internees were able to get permission to leave the camp for hiking and even employment in nearby Delta, but Topaz was still a concentration camp, with residents subject to the control of the War Relocation Authority. The more open atmosphere dampened nearly all of the anti-Army agitation.

One internee, Dave Tatsuno (1913–2006), had a movie camera smuggled into the camp, at the urging of his supervisor, Walter Honderick. Film which he shot from 1943 to 1945 became the documentary Topaz. This film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress in 1997, and was the second film to be selected for preservation in the National Film Registry (behind the "Zapruder" film of the JFK assassination). Until his death, Tatsuno was an Emeritus member of the board of the Topaz Museum, which is working to preserve the site.

A former Civilian Conservation Corps camp at Antelope Springs, in mountains 90 miles (144.8 km) to the west, was taken over as a recreation area for internees and camp staff, and two buildings from Antelope Springs were brought to the central area to be used as Buddhist and Christian churches. The airstrip at Antelope Springs was used by liaison planes which flew some camp administrators for brief trips to the mountains. Internees and most staff had to endure a three-hour truck trip each way.

Internees in all of the camps left their mark on many of the improvements made during their imprisonment. Names, comments and even poetry were impressed into drying concrete in a number of projects, some in English and others in Japanese. These can be seen today, though visitors must search for them on their own.

A number of young men from Topaz joined with their counterparts from other camps to sign up in the Army to fight in Europe with the highly-decorated 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Photographs of Topaz activities include visits from soldiers home on leave and the mothers of Nisei soldiers killed in action in Italy and France.

While a cemetery site was dedicated, there is no record that it was ever used. Although Yoshiko Uchida reported that there were several burials, it is believed that she was remembering funeral services as being followed by burial. Internees' bodies were transported 150 miles (241.4 km) to Salt Lake City, cremated, and returned to their families so that they could be taken when they left Topaz.