{"id":300,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:32:05","latitude":40.314555699999999660576577298343181610107421875,"longitude":-111.67704190000000608051777817308902740478515625,"title":"Provo and Orem WWII Labor Camps: Japanese-American Internees<br />","subtitle":"","fullsize":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/2cf7dddc066089ac665145de8968404b.jpg","address":"","all_locations":[],"zoom":17,"creator":["Hannah Lee, Melodie Jackson, and Sarah AdamsBrigham Young University"],"description":"After the Japanese military bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, some Americans feared that US citizens of Japanese descent might engage in espionage for Japan. This racially charged wartime hysteria led President Roosevelt to sign Executive Order 9066, which forced those of Japanese descent into prison camps across the country. One such camp was in Delta, Utah. It was known as the Topaz Relocation Center.  <br />\r\n<br />\r\nWorld War II labor shortages increased as more Utah men joined military efforts, and state officials and Utah farmers sought workers to fill their places in designated labor camps to harvest various crops. Seeking work opportunities outside of the prison camp, many of Topaz’s  internees volunteered to work at these labor camps in the surrounding town of Delta and in the northern Utah towns of Provo and Orem. The Provo camp, located at Ninth South and Fourth East, housed 400 persons and consisted of a temporary tent city where local farmers hired Japanese workers to work on beet farms. The Orem labor camp, located at 950 North and 800 East, was a more permanent site with large barracks and cabins, administrative offices, a kitchen and mess hall, and outhouses. The internees worked in orchards of various kinds. In May of 1943, the first seventeen young men arrived in Utah County to work as farmhands. The Utah Farm Association eventually relocated these hired Japanese American workers to the permanent Orem site shortly after.  <br />\r\n<br />\r\nThough farmers hired Japanese workers willingly, anti-Japanese sentiments continued among many Utah residents. In 1943, these sentiments culminated in a violent incident involving Japanese-American workers and some white Provo residents. On October 3rd, five white youth, with shotguns and .30 caliber rifles, gathered and opened fire on the Provo labor camp and on local Japanese homes. Three people were struck by pellets, but no one was seriously injured. The attack had been the third of the week, with two previous reports of white youth throwing stones at Japanese workers and quickly escaping in cars. The War Relocation board threatened to remove the workers, and thereby their desperately needed labor, if Provo residents could not tolerate and protect Japanese workers. The residents chose to protect the workers and keep their labor. The five youth were later arrested for their attack.<br />\r\n<br />\r\nIn the fall of 1944, German and Italian prisoners of war replaced Japanese American and immigrant workers at the Orem labor camp, ending the Topaz prisoners’ connections at the Orem labor camp. But today the Topaz prisoners’ important role in Utah farm labor is memorialized at the Orem Heritage Museum. Though a school now stands on the actual Orem camp site, a sign commemorates Japanese workers and the labor contributions they made to WWII-era agricultural efforts. Residents can visit these sites and see Topaz’s influence far beyond the internment camp in central Utah.<br />","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"Due to war-time labor shortages, prisoners from the Topaz Internment Camp helped Orem and Provo farmers harvest fruit, amid discrimination. <br />\r\n<br />","website":"","related_resources":["“5 White Teens Arrested for Shooting Japanese-American Internees at Provo.” Salt Lake Telegram, October 05, 1943. <a href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12370073/5_white_teens_arrested_for_shooting/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12370073/5_white_teens_arrested_for_shooting/</a>","\"Japanese Workers Arrive at Camp.\" Provo Daily Herald. May 25, 1943. Accessed October 21, 2018. <a href=\"https://newspaperarchive.com/provo-daily-herald-may-25-1943-p-2/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https://newspaperarchive.com/provo-daily-herald-may-25-1943-p-2/</a>.","\"Plan 'Tabled' for Jap Importation at Geneva Plant.\" Provo Daily Herald, April 14, 1943. Accessed October 21, 2018. <a href=\"https://newspaperarchive.com/provo-daily-herald-apr-14-1943-p-1/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https://newspaperarchive.com/provo-daily-herald-apr-14-1943-p-1/</a>.","Pugmire, Genelle. “Historians, Museum Chronicle Story of WWII POW Camp in Orem.” Daily Herald 20 February 2010. <a href=\"https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/central/orem/historians-museum-chronicle-story-of-wwii-pow-camp-in-orem/image_1f2594c3-18bf-5383-8b44-915a838020f5.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/central/orem/historians-museum-chronicle-story-of-wwii-pow-camp-in-orem/image_1f2594c3-18bf-5383-8b44-915a838020f5.html</a>","\"Topaz Camp.\" Topaz Camp | Topaz Museum Foundation. August 09, 2012. Accessed October 22, 2018. <a href=\"http://www.topazmuseum.org/topaz-camp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">http://www.topazmuseum.org/topaz-camp</a>."],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/2cf7dddc066089ac665145de8968404b.jpg":{"id":1265,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Plaque located at 950 North and 800 East Orem, Utah","description":"This plaque is a reminder of the WWII POW camp that once existed in Orem, Utah. The plaque also reminds readers that “the first occupants of the camp…were approximately 200 Japanese-Americans, part of the thousands that were relocated to the intermountain west from the west coast during the war. The internees lived here during the summer and fall of 1944.” | Sarah Adams","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/2cf7dddc066089ac665145de8968404b.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/fa6a5fea756a660d38366b35d6834d92.jpg":{"id":1266,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Temporary Tent City/Labor Camp in Provo, UT","description":"This photograph captures the living conditions of the tent city that the evacuees from Topaz came to. They lived here to help with the harvest, and this was the location where the shooting took place. This tent city was located at Ninth South and Fourth East in Provo, Utah. | Utah Department of Heritage and Arts, The KUED Topaz Photo Collection, 1987. <a href=\"https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark%3A/87278/s6k07477\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark%3A/87278/s6k07477</a>","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/fa6a5fea756a660d38366b35d6834d92.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/2a982f0d2a20c906d21e23c069f3295b.jpg":{"id":1267,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Replica of the labor camp in Orem, Utah","description":"This is a representation of what the camp looked like for the Japanese American and immigrant laborers. | Replica courtesy of the Orem Heritage Center. | Sarah Adams","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/2a982f0d2a20c906d21e23c069f3295b.jpg"}}}