Location: Millard County, Utah, near Abraham, 140 miles south of Salt Lake City
Land: Mix of public domain land, land which had reverted to the county for non-payment of taxes and land purchased from private parties
Size: 19,800 acres
Climate: Temperatures ranged from 106 degrees in summer to -30 degrees in winter; located at an elevation of 4,600 feet, the region was subject to a constant wind that resulted in frequent dust storms
Origin of camp population: Mostly from Alameda (3,679), San Francisco (3,370), and San Mateo (722) Counties
Via "assembly centers": Nearly all (7,676) came from Tanforan "Assembly Center"
Rural/Urban: Overwhelmingly urban
Peak population: 8,130
Date of peak: March 17, i943
Opening date: September 11, 1942
Closing date: October 31, 1945
Project director(s): Charles F. Ernst (9/42 to 6/44) and Luther T. Hoffman (6/44 to 10/45)
Community analysts: Oscar F. Hoffman and Weston LaBarre
JERS fieldworkers: Doris Hayashi and Frederick Hoshiyama
Newspaper: Topaz Times (September 17, 1942-August 31, 1945)
Percent who answered question 28 of the loyalty questionnaire positively: 89.4
Number and percentage of eligible male citizens inducted directly into armed forces: 472 (7.3 percent)
Miscellaneous characteristics: Topaz featured an organized protest against the registration questionnaire, in which a petition was circulated demanding the restoration of rights as a prerequisite for registration. ISSEI chef JAMES HATSUKI WAKASA was shot to death by a guard on April 11, 1943. The literary and arts magazine Trek was produced here.
Image credit: Gift of the Obata Family, Japanese American National Museum (94.88.2)
Camp Related Materials from the Japanese American National Museum
America's Concentration Concentration Camps sites on the Internet
Bibliography of Japanese Americans and America's Concentration Camps