World War II - Topaz Internment Camp

The Topaz War Relocation Center, also known as the Central Utah Relocation Center and briefly as the Abraham Relocation Center, was an American concentration camp in which Americans of Japanese descent and immigrants who had come to the United States from Japan, called Nikkei were incarcerated. President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, ordering people of Japanese ancestry to be incarcerated in what were euphemistically called "relocation centers" like Topaz during World War II. Most of the people incarcerated at Topaz came from the Tanforan Assembly Center and previously lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. The camp was opened in September 1942 and closed in October 1945.

The camp, approximately 15 miles west of Delta, Utah, consisted of 19,800 acres, with a 640 acres main living area. Most internees lived in the main living area, though some lived off-site as agricultural and industrial laborers.