1942: the last time Utah was asked
Utah did not write Executive Order 9066. Utahns helped decide where the camp went, built it, hired its prisoners, passed a land law against them, and read about all of it in the papers. A few spoke out. The record, from the original documents.
Went along, or pushed
| When | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| March 1942 | Gov. Herbert Maw convened county representatives; all but two refused to take evacuees; one commissioner: 'If they are thrust on us we want them in concentration camps' | Arrington, The Price of Prejudice (1962), p. 7 |
| April 7, 1942 | Maw to federal officials: Japanese Americans were 'a very serious problem, at least, in the eyes of the people in Utah' | Densho |
| April 8, 1942 | Midvale City Council called a 'colony of Japanese' a 'definite hazard' | USU Digital Exhibits |
| 1942 | Delta the only community interested; Utah subcontractors helped build Topaz; sugar companies recruited prisoners within days | Densho |
| March 1943 | Legislature passed an alien land law aimed at Japanese immigrants; Maw vetoed the harsher bill, signed the milder one; repealed 1947 | Salt Lake Tribune, Mar. 5, 1943 |
| April 12, 1943 | Salt Lake Telegram printed the Army's account that James Wakasa was 'attempting to crawl through the fence'; WRA found the body several feet inside it | Salt Lake Telegram; Densho |
| Jan. 1944 | Ogden City Commission refused business licenses to Japanese applicants; mayor: 'Conditions alter things' | Ogden Standard-Examiner, Jan. 6, 1944 |
Spoke out
| When | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Dec. 10, 1941 | Deseret News editorial 'Utah Japanese Loyal': no reason 'to question the loyalty and devotion of the Utah Japanese'; they 'should be treated with due respect and tolerance' | Deseret News, p. 4 |
| March 19, 1942 | Sen. Robert Taft, alone in the Senate: 'probably the sloppiest criminal law I have ever read or seen anywhere' | Densho, Public Law 503 |
| 1942 | Sen. Elbert Thomas of Utah helped the JACL work with the federal government and move to Salt Lake City | Densho |
| Oct. 4, 1943 | Provo: Mayor Harding posted an armed guard; more than 40 residents voted unanimously to protect the farm workers and to 'discourage all displays of racial antagonism and discrimination' | Provo Daily Herald, p. 1 |
| Oct. 6 and 9, 1943 | Salt Lake Telegram editorials 'Cowards Instead of Heroes' and 'Invitation to Violence' | Salt Lake Telegram |
| Jan. 6, 1944 | Ogden attorney David K. Holther: the license policy was 'discriminatory' and unconstitutional. He lost. | Ogden Standard-Examiner, p. 3 |
The remedy came decades later
- Dec. 18, 1944: Ex parte Endo freed a loyal citizen held at Topaz; Korematsu upheld a conviction the same day.
- 1984: Korematsu's conviction set aside on coram nobis, 584 F. Supp. 1406 (N.D. Cal.).
- 1988: Congress apologized and paid $20,000 to each survivor (50 U.S.C. 4202).
- 2018: Chief Justice Roberts, in Trump v. Hawaii: Korematsu 'was gravely wrong the day it was decided.'
- James Wakasa, shot inside the Topaz fence on April 11, 1943, got no remedy. The sentry was acquitted at court-martial (Densho).
Read the originals
The 1941 to 1945 Utah newspapers are free at Utah Digital Newspapers (University of Utah Marriott Library). Leonard Arrington's 1962 lecture The Price of Prejudice is in the Marriott Library's digitized Topaz National Register file, beginning at this page. The Topaz Museum in Delta reprinted it in 1997.