A Moab Prison Camp: Japanese American Incarceration in Utah returns to the Moab Museum on August 27, 2024, with the addition of stories gathered from survivors and descendants of the Japanese Americans incarcerated at the Central Utah Relocation Center, referred to as the Topaz Camp or Topaz Relocation Center, located sixteen miles northwest of Delta, Utah. Together, A Moab Prison Camp and Topaz Stories contrast the vastly different experiences of the Japanese Americans relocated to Topaz from California, and the Japanese Americans in other camps imprisoned at the Moab Prison Camp.

A Moab Prison Camp introduces the local and national story of Japanese American incarceration during WWII following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 authorized the incarceration of 120,000+ Japanese Americans, most of whom were US Citizens, in detention facilities across the country. The Moab Isolation Center, located north of Moab at Dalton Wells was a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp transformed into a temporary prison camp for so-called “troublemakers” from other camps. 

Topaz Stories: Remembering the Japanese American Incarceration was developed by the Friends of the Topaz Museum to capture the personal stories of Japanese Americans incarcerated at Topaz. The Topaz Stories project has gathered stories from Topaz survivors and their descendants, from which these stories were selected for the Utah Division of Arts & Museums’ Traveling Exhibition Program. 

The Utah Division of Arts & Museums enriches the quality of life for the people of Utah by creating, preserving, and promoting Utah’s Heritage and Arts. The Traveling Exhibit Program is funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.