Local Speaker Series: A Talk on the Forced Internment of Japanese Americans During WWII with Jane Beckwith
July 9 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Event Details
The Local Speaker Series welcomes Jane Beckwith with the Topaz Museum to speak on the forced removal and internment of Japanese Americans.
Jane Beckwith grew up in Delta, UT, the daughter of the local newspaper publisher. In second grade she decided to be a teacher and once out of college taught several places before returning to Delta High School as an English teacher.
In 1982, she asked her journalism students to interview people living in Delta who had worked at the Topaz Relocation Camp during the war. The students’ enthusiasm for the history caused a swell of interest in Topaz. The cumulative passion of Jane and her students resulted in opening the Topaz Museum. Today the Topaz Museum has evolved into a world-class facility dedicated to the memory of those who were unjustly interned there 1942-1945.
The mass exile and incarceration of Americans of Japanese ancestry during WWII was one of the worst violations of civil rights against citizens in the history of the United States. The government and the U.S. Army, falsely citing “military necessity,” removed 125,284 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry– about two-thirds were American citizens–from their homes on the West Coast and forced them into ten remote camps controlled by the War Relocation Administration (WRA). We’ll learn what this experience was like for those who were forced to relocate to the Topaz Internment Camp in Delta, Utah.
Date: July 9 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Time: 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Venue
- Park City Library
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1255 Park Avenue
Park City, Utah 84060 + Google Map