Jane Beckwith took a class of fourth-graders on a field trip several years ago to see the dusty remains of the Topaz Japanese internment camp in the central Utah desert.
As the children scattered to look at the site, two boys began kicking rocks that had decorated a family's garden — once a bright spot amidst the barbed wire and sagebrush. "Stop!" a girl shouted as Beckwith looked on. "Don't you know they're still here?"
Today, Beckwith thinks of those words whenever she visits the Topaz Historic National Landmark, located 16 miles northwest of her home in Delta.
"What the little girl said had a big impact," she says, "because I'd always felt the same way, like the camp's internees were still there. You can almost feel their presence because it's a memorable ground, a place to be thoughtful. Topaz is important because it tells an American story — a story that could have been prevented."
Thursday is the Japanese-American Day of Remembrance, held every Feb. 19 to commemorate the day President Franklin Roosevelt signed an order authorizing 10 internment camps to open in the U.S. during World War II.
Hoping that Utahns will never forget that more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans were forced to leave their homes and report to these remote prisons, Beckwith, who now teaches English and runs the library at Delta High School, wanted to share a Free Lunch chat before a trip to the state Legislature with some of her students.
"We want the state to be aware of all we're doing to help preserve the camp site and create a viable museum about Topaz," she says. "So many people who were interned here or have relatives who were sent here come back to Delta to remember what was lost. It's our dream to have a proper place to hold all of those memories."
Currently, a rented building behind Delta's Great Basin Museum houses a small display showing what life was like for Japanese-Americans who were sent to Topaz. Hundreds of other artifacts, from camp photographs and prisoners' artwork to broken dishes and children's toys are being stored in Beckwith's basement until enough funds are raised to open a new museum.
The Delta native has collected Topaz memorabilia since 1982, when she moved back to town after teaching for several years in southern Utah. It wasn't until she read about the Topaz camp with her high school journalism class that she realized how many sad stories had unfolded just a few miles up the road.
"I started visiting the site and noticed that people would come and leave things behind like flowers or rocks arranged in a certain way," she says.…"Once, I found a locket with a picture of Jesus. People come to Topaz and deposit their emotions. Everyone who visits can sense that it's a mournful place."
Beckwith often meets elderly Japanese-Americans who were prisoners at the camp or young people who grew up hearing stories about Topaz from their grandparents. She plans to add their stories to others she has collected for the new museum so that future generations will be reminded of the shameful chapter that is ignored in many history books.
"Families were separated, jobs were lost, property was taken away," she says. "On a personal level, I hope that when people learn about Topaz, their hearts are made a little kinder. Maybe after a visit to Topaz, they'll be gentler to somebody who is a little different than they are."
To learn more about Topaz, visit topazmuseum.org.
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