Embodied Incarceration: Health Care at Topaz

In 1942 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, granting the United States military the authority to expel persons deemed a threat to national security from military zones. The order targeted Japanese immigrants and their descendants on the West Coast, forcing over 110,000 Nikkei1 into incarceration camps farther inland. Most of these people were United States citizens by virtue of Fourteenth Amendment birthright citizenship, and they suffered blatant violations of their civil rights as well as immense economic loss. Utah hosted one such camp—the Central Utah Relocation Center, commonly called the Topaz Internment Camp—which imprisoned over 8,000 people at its peak and was in operation from 1942 to 1945.2Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan in 1941, government leaders and white citizens alike believed that incarcerating Japanese Americans was necessary for the protection of the United States. They feared espionage and asserted that people of Japanese descent had questionable loyalty.3 Anti-Asian racism had long existed in the United States, particularly in California. Several laws reflected this prejudice, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prohibited Chinese immigration; the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907, which restricted Japanese emigration; and the Alien Land Law of 1913, which barred first-generation Japanese immigrants from purchasing land. All of these laws were intended to limit the rights and opportunities of Asian immigrants. This longstanding prejudice, combined with wartime hysteria and racist assumptions, helped motivate and justify the incarceration of Japanese Americans. Many government officials believed they were protecting Japanese citizens from vigilante violence by white Americans. Furthermore, they sought to encourage Japanese assimilation by breaking up ethnic communities and encouraging Nikkei families to move farther inland, interspersed amongst the majority white population.4 They believed that integration into white society would benefit the Nikkei.Nevertheless, the United States government demonstrated its indifference for the welfare of its Japanese American citizens by forcing them into a situation that jeopardized their mental and physical health. By forcing the Nikkei into camps without providing sufficient resources to support their health, the government trapped them in unthinkable conditions—where the ideal of self-sufficiency clashed irreconcilably with the harsh reality of incarceration. Examining the health care at Topaz demonstrates the bodily experience of Nikkei detainees. The government provided them minimal health care and living conditions through poor planning, an overemphasis on self-sufficiency, and racist assumptions about Nikkei culture and loyalty. Thus, the United States government and general American society disregarded the pain they inflicted upon incarcerated Nikkei, who suffered in an environment that endangered their mental and physical well-being and embedded trauma within their bodies that would be suffered for generations to come.5Japanese Americans reacted to this experience by banding together to overcome the hardships of incarceration. They drew upon the talents and resources within their community, both inside the Topaz camp and in the Japanese American community outside of the camp. In addition, they sought to demonstrate their commitment to the United States by performing American values such as patriotism and hard work. The United States government may have intended incarceration to accelerate assimilation by disrupting ethnic enclaves like Japantowns and Chinatowns. However, in practice, the adverse conditions produced by incarceration engendered harsh feelings toward the government and solidified connections within the Japanese community.The camp organization was reminiscent of a military base, with matching barracks, barbed-wire fences, and strict regulations. Once Japanese people were forcibly removed from the West Coast, the responsibility for the detained Nikkei transferred from the US military to the War Relocation Authority (WRA). This government agency hired white administrators to oversee each camp and make regular reports to federal officials.The WRA intended for each incarceration camp to provide for itself as much as possible to avoid applying to the government for funding. Public sentiment outside of the Nikkei community largely opposed any semblance of Japanese Americans receiving special privileges in the camps. Camps provided detainees with free meals, health care, and housing but expected them to pay for additional services or products. Detainees grew a large portion of their own food in the areas where the environment was suitable. Positions necessary to keep the camp in operation were filled primarily by the Nikkei, who were vastly underpaid for the labor they provided. Interaction with local communities was limited; many states only agreed to host incarceration camps under the condition that they be separated and guarded.6 Therefore, many instances where Japanese Americans came into contact with white communities were characterized by tension and anxiety.Overall, the government intended to punish the disloyal few and assimilate the many. From the beginning, they instituted programs that allowed Nikkei to leave the camps under WRA oversight, be it for work or education, assuming they did not enter the prohibited coastal regions. However, by locating camps in such isolated localities, treating Nikkei like prisoners, and separating them from nearby communities, the government actively worked against assimilation. Japanese people internalized the reality that the government had little regard for their comfort, that outside communities either feared or hated them, and that it was safest to rely on their own people when in need.Arrival at Topaz shocked and disappointed many Nikkei who hailed from green and sunny California. Central Utah was marked by dusty conditions, sparse vegetation, and extreme temperatures that ranged from 106 degrees in the summer to 20 degrees below zero in the winter.7 More than the dramatic temperature changes, however, dust storms were the most dangerous environmental concern for camp inmates. Maya Aikawa, a resident at Topaz, recalled that these conditions worked together to damage resident health.The Nikkei found no respite from the elements within their residences. Families and individuals crowded into hastily built structures that lacked concrete foundations, insulation, indoor plumbing, and privacy. The walls were nothing more than pine-board sheets covered with tar paper. Designers intended tiny rooms to house an entire family or up to five individuals and provided no furnishings except cots and a pot-bellied stove. The WRA recruited men from the nearby town of Delta, Utah, to build the barracks but needed more time to finish many of them before the Nikkei began arriving. Many Nikkei men, therefore, were hired to help build their own site of incarceration. The housing barracks acutely demonstrated the haste with which the WRA built them and the lack of concern for the residents’ warmth, comfort, or privacy.9 The negative impact of the environment and insufficient housing on their well-being was not lost on residents. One detainee, “Sox” Tsuyako Kitashima, directly correlated poor housing with poor health: A lot of people got sick at Topaz because it was so dusty. They built the barracks with probably green lumber so when they started shrinking, we had all kinds of gaps around the windows and under the door. When we had dust storms, which was almost every day, you could just see it sweeping through. And the floor was masonite. If you didn't wipe it up right away, you could slip because it got slick. So my mother was forever with a bucket and a cloth wiping the floor. A lot of people got asthma, and hay fever from living in Topaz.10In addition to weather and housing, the food—scarce, low quality, and unfamiliar—deepened the hardships residents faced. The WRA budgeted forty-five cents per day per evacuee, a pitiful allowance that was a nickel cheaper than the military allocation. At Topaz, they reduced this budget to thirty-one cents because residents raised livestock at the center.11 Inexperienced cooks were recruited to the mess halls to prepare surplus government food, such as potatoes, liver, tripe, and beans.12 Eating some of this organ meat was contrary to Japanese cuisine culture, but detainees had to manage with what the government gave them. Furthermore, they could not refrigerate their food, so the mess halls occasionally served spoiled dishes. Water was sourced from three wells but was so alkaline that it was nearly undrinkable. With such circumstances, it is little wonder that diarrhea, commonly called the “Topaz Trots,” was a frequent malady for the Nikkei.13Malnutrition took its toll on all evacuees but was particularly hazardous for specific populations. Pregnant women, for example, were especially at risk. Many doctors openly acknowledged that the food provided insufficient nutrients for both a mother and her growing child. Tami Tomoye Takasashi gave birth to two children while interned at Topaz and had to purchase calcium tablets from a mail-order catalog due to the limited amount of milk available.14 Three hundred ninety-two children were born in Topaz between 1942 and 1945.15 Many Topaz residents worried that so many pregnant women did not have access to the nutrition they needed. Indeed, recent studies have proven that incarceration had negative effects on fertility, even after the camps closed down. Women who gave birth in Japanese incarceration camps, lived in camps, or were born in the camps gave birth to smaller and less healthy children.16Another at-risk population was the elderly. Many elderly detainees were Issei, or first-generation immigrants, who spoke little to no English and had different values and norms from the second-generation Nisei. Housing barracks lacked indoor plumbing or private bathrooms—each block had bathrooms in a separate building, four bathtubs for women, and four showers for men. The toilets often lacked seats and doors.17 These accommodations posed a problem for elderly Nikkei, who already had difficulty getting around. Poor nutrition, extreme weather, and inadequate housing were particularly damaging to older people with less robust immune systems to deal with such stress. Furthermore, the economic impact of incarceration affected the Issei more acutely than their younger counterparts. The Issei generally remained in camps longer than the Nisei since the experience obliterated many of their financial assets and they had limited prospects for work.The conditions of the camps illustrate one of the most profound injustices of incarceration—the loss of autonomy and the stripping away of basic rights. The US government forcibly removed Japanese Americans from their homes and subjected them to unfamiliar, degrading environments where they had little control over their daily lives, their food, their housing, or even their personal hygiene. But even more troubling than the material hardships was the fact that these deprivations were imposed not because of any crime, but solely because of their ancestry—without charges, trials, or evidence of wrongdoing. The inability to leave or refuse these conditions underscored a broader truth: The camps represented a suspension of the very principles the nation claimed to uphold—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those who designed and maintained the camps knew that the hardships they imposed violated the rights of citizens. Yet the government operated on the presumption that Japanese Americans were disloyal until proven otherwise, effectively excluding them from the protections afforded to other Americans and treating them as enemies of the state. Nowhere was this loss of dignity and proper care more visible than in the medical facilities at Topaz, where the struggle to provide even basic health care reflected the broader neglect experienced by the one intended to the entire incarcerated the and even residents of the The a of such as general medical house an a and a some of the as a medical the did not until after Japanese began at the camp. upon its was not By the time the was even an a and two had already at the camp. in the One only the doctors and detainees as they to health care without a to most the WRA the The the other barracks in the was and insufficient against the a dust was a and to the Topaz the camp that medical of the had Topaz for three that Topaz was less than other such as at or a lack of and as the but claimed that the of the be one of the of its these Topaz was in the community, however, had a different of the care at the Many were to the Japanese Americans imprisoned in camps. They operated under the that incarcerated persons were in a than the general because the government provided free health care to them. the of the population under the economic of wartime and the effects of the These that the Topaz was the in the therefore, the Nikkei had no to about such One that since the United States was at with the Nikkei be for the Utah communities were in that the provided health care to what they had experienced their they lacked access to medical Delta, the town to Topaz, was from the of and the In a time when and wartime for health care the Topaz would have like an However, people who such and have to that the government the Nikkei into a situation where they on the for every the Nikkei of their and the government reduced them to Thus, they had no for any neglect in health care and could not like most by from the of incarceration to the of health care, the government and its to justify the injustices against Japanese Americans. This was especially for the often less into American culture, and in of were the to leave camp until Yet the of these when we to the of who lived through them. detainees inadequate nutrition, and the physical and toll of medical make that was not an of was built into the at the was for the and However, most from the on and The WRA recruited interned doctors and to the medical at incarceration camps. However, health services the of At its Topaz detained on were only four resident Japanese were in than from outside the labor the WRA on the primarily with from within the camp They a to and them to with basic in the such as and providing Those incarcerated at the camp it was their responsibility to that and for the to Topaz is of however, that we that at its because of the of is a of which be due to the lack of such but is a lack of and this be overcome by Topaz to the community to as that the could two provided with sufficient but without more they could not keep up with These asserted that as a would be of since no one a may on of medical and in a well the between the or of an men and women were to and the medical hired One worked at the after and as more people the took on more an did such as only to their to work for to or of from This particularly as detainees the camp. the camp its most of the population was or who had few prospects outside the camp or who feared living amongst white These detainees more and Nikkei medical with incarceration the of white doctors and oversee them. the many doctors to the Japanese American With they found Most more than They under the authority of doctors who may not have had the or commitment to the a were frequent of between Japanese and white doctors and In one the about or not to between the Nikkei and white the of the white administrators that resources more that they be the to make such medical and to a more work it was to with incarceration and the for health care This many doctors to claimed this was because of or the immense by these that the conditions, combined with the trauma of took an immense toll on mental and physical and were not the only detainees to experience the mental effects of incarceration. Many of the Nikkei at Topaz experienced extreme that in mental health The of community that many people to the with of when were changes, and some because of the The mental detainees due to By administrators that was as incarceration mental health health care at Topaz was its many residents about their health. In at a each was a few imposed over an However, they a on the health, and of in The them. and the that Thus, the the of the that was in were about and the In one a was with and officials the entire block to the of the The fact that so much to to The children up on the concern of their and that could to them and of the have The and not away from negative that From and children lost around the camp to hard labor and poor housing, the that camp By these in a and her their for their than that people were getting sick because of crowded and conditions, the children took responsibility for their health, very care of The did not the government for the camp that and about they to help This patriotism may the of but it as a and to as American citizens. by the government and patriotism as a of They could they were to the United States and toward their community by values in their evidence of the of mental health at Topaz demonstrates the trauma of the detainees. The government may have provided health care to the bodies of Japanese but their suffered as incarceration The of to an from their in and with the of their and all and at Topaz, from to Thus, the of itself in both the bodies and of who experienced the Nikkei incarcerated at Topaz could not rely on the United States government to the adverse conditions of the camp or provide health care, they found in the Japanese American community, especially who in of Japanese descent took up in Utah as as Many Japanese immigrants who came to Utah the and found work on the on or in By the they had the and In were Japanese individuals in the of communities had a for and Japanese Americans racism and The bombing of Pearl Harbor on 1941, these of a labor in the Utah Japanese community, at the of Utah this the bombing of Pearl into to a to the had in at the time of the that Japanese did not make an The of the from a who was the which with experience a more of racism that in the United States against all Japanese of their citizenship, or a at and an community to demonstrate to 1941, the of the a general that is an American we not to such demonstrates the that even the most Japanese Japanese Americans the harsh conditions of the camps, a health care that reflected the of the was in other Nisei with their own was the of and was one of the Japanese Americans to work in many people within the Japanese community to for their health care was the Japanese in an of the of health care to the Japanese the was to and at the of Utah, house operated a private at family and at to the was one of the of and was performing almost daily while to other many of came from Japanese community, on not just for medical but for the personal care often house and services on a when as an than a and built with the for health care within community, actively to Japanese upon and of that the Japanese community the of the nation with the of medical was at the because were many more than health care Thus, while incarcerated at Topaz that they had insufficient to their this outside the camp as Japanese Americans outside the camps of medical as was the in Topaz, their access to health care was did not with the environmental hardships of the camps, such as the dust that as a was at the of medical providing access to resources and had access to with and by white populations. the at Topaz, who to the of their the in health care access between the Japanese and detained at even with these the Japanese American community remained acutely of the hardships by in the camps. such as racism within their communities, economic and to the the Japanese American community outside of the camps to help their incarcerated The Japanese American a national organization that its to the especially sought to Utah a Japanese in on that the had a Japanese Relocation the of material and to the people in the This with leaders and other such as the to Topaz and the called upon all Japanese communities in Utah to help at They and benefit and even a where they with local to to the They on the of the camps, between the and imprisoned example, in the Utah about the Topaz that Nikkei a at the of American the medical as More however, the demonstrates the that the Japanese community had in their imprisoned They about their of and to they had sufficient These connections many to in after incarceration camps, and a few families the communities, with some family incarcerated while worked in the of the Nikkei commitment to interned was the organization of doctors from the Japanese American community the camp. recalled that before the camp when most Nikkei doctors had of Topaz, was a for medical one the long to the to care for sick and even on demonstrates the connections Japanese Americans. Nikkei the at Topaz and to where they The poor camp conditions connections between communities of Japanese Americans than they had before the closed on and most of the Nikkei to or to Utah or other But the physical of the camp did not the of its Japanese incarceration at the rights and inflicted bodily and mental damage to all who were forcibly and extreme for the residents of Topaz, and this had for their mental and physical These poor conditions from an overemphasis on self-sufficiency, and the to punish the The United States government did not to such trauma upon its Japanese American population but did of health care at Topaz that the government to provide sufficient services and on detainees to they did not than their Japanese Japanese Americans reacted by together as a In this they of assimilation. than under they built of health care through Nikkei within the camp and with community outside the government the Nikkei in and away to see what would the community upon their talents and and they could