This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Topaz Museum has reopened after months of renovations with new exhibits honoring the 11,000 Japanese-Americans interned at the Topaz Camp near Delta during World War II.
Don Tamaki, attorney for Frank Korematsu, whose legal fight against internment went to the Supreme Court of the United States, will be speaking during a grand opening that runs July 7 and 8. Franklin Odo, former director of the Asian Pacific American Program at the Smithsonian Institution and visiting professor at Amherst College, also will speak.
Events will begin July 7 with a reception, dinner and presentation at the Sheraton Hotel in Salt Lake City.
Charter buses will take ticket holders from Salt Lake City to Delta on July 8 for grand opening events there. Tamaki and Odo will speak at 10:30 a.m. at Delta High School, with traditional koto music by Shirley Muramoto.
Actors from the San Francisco troupe Lunatique Fantastique will perform the play "E.O. 9066" during the day, and shuttles will take visitors to the square-mile site of the Topaz camp near Delta.
No buildings remain at the original site. However the museum, at 55 West Main St. in Delta, includes a re-created barracks and half of a recreation hall.
Interpretive exhibits in the 4,000-square-foot gallery feature the immigration of Japanese people to the United States and Japanese-Americans' settlement in Utah, as well as life in Topaz, which was open from Sept. 11, 1942 to Oct. 31, 1945. It was one of 10 internment camps that held more than 110,000 people after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942, which allowed for the incarceration of people of Japanese descent.
The exhibit also displays artwork from the Topaz camp's art school and records of internees.
The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
Reservations for the grand opening events are required by June 26 and can be made at http://www.topazmuseum.eventbrite.com or by calling 801-842- 9691. Tickets cost $50 to $150, depending on the activities visitors wish to attend.
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