In the spring of 1942, following the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on a US naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the US government and Army, citing "military necessity," removed over 120,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry from their West Coast homes and forced them into ten remote camps scattered across the US. One of those camps was Topaz Relocation Center near Delta, Utah. Two-thirds of those incarcerated were American citizens, most children of Japanese immigrants (Issei) who were prevented by law from becoming US citizens despite some having lived and worked in the US for decades. None were convicted or charged with a crime before incarceration; yet they were confined behind barbed wire under harsh conditions and armed guard, many until World War II ended in 1945.
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