Utah museum to honor Japanese internment camp

DELTA, Utah (AP) — A groundbreaking ceremony has been held for a museum that will tell the story of a Utah internment camp where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II.

Seven former internees were among a crowd that attended the ceremony Saturday for the $2.3 million Topaz Museum and Education Center in Delta.

The 8,254-square-foot facility will include exhibits, a library and an art gallery featuring paintings created at Topaz.

The Topaz Internment Camp about 16 miles northwest of Delta processed about 11,000 Japanese Americans from 1942 to 1945.

Thousands of Japanese Americans living in the San Francisco Bay area were sent by train to the remote Utah camp after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.