Trek, vol. 1, no. 1 (December, 1942)

STATS OF THE CITY

By Taro Katayama

YULE GREETINGS, FRIENDS

By Globularius Schraubi

LANDMARKS OF PAHVANT VALLEY

By Frank Beckwith Sr.

PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST

By Jim Yamada

TWO SKETCHES

By Toshio Mori

A LA MODE

By Marii Kyogoku

DIGRESSIONS

By Taro Katayama

ALDEROL

By The Editors

Vol. 1

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TREK is a special holiday publication

of the Reports Division,

Relocation Project.

Central Utah

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EDITOR

Jim Yamada

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

Taro Katayama

Marii Kyogoku

Bob Tsuda

ART EDITOR

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CONTRIBUTING ARTIST

Tom Yamamoto

CHIEF TECHNICIAN

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SERGE

Christmas week,

of Topaz nearing the middle of its

fourth month of existence as a function-

ing social entity. The estate to which

in that period of time the Central Utah

Relocation Project has attained is the

focus of the present article's inquiry.

However, no exhaustively detailed treat-

ment of the subject is intended here,

What is attempted is a more generalized

picture of the community's current stat-

us aS it is reflected in certain key as-

pects of Topaz life at the time of writ-

ing.

It is a truism of history that the

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1942, finds the city

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state

has meaning only in relatien, among oth-

er factors, to the point of that com-

munity's beginnings, In our considera-

tion of the Topaz of today, therefore,

it will contribute to a more balanced

perspective to look back briefly to the

Topaz which was hardly more than a yet

unnamed point on the map only a few

months ago.

One of ten similar forced-growth com-

munities into which an America at war

has funneled something over 100,900 hue

man beings, Topaz as recently as June of

this year was merely one of the sites

of a community at any given time

wid nl

i le ERA ob: i Ba bY

War Relocation Authority

selected by the

to accomodate the evacuated Japanese and

Japanese-descended population of the

West Coasts As such, it bore certain ge-

neriec similarities to the other reloca-

tion areas, belonging, as did the oth-

ers, to the "wilderness" type of terri-

tory toward which the WRA was driven by

circumstances in its selection of sites.

The Topaz to be was then merely a

17,500-acre tract of alkali land border-

ing Utah's Sevier Desert, only partially

and not too profitably cultivated by the

local iandowners from whom it was. pur-

chased, and, for the rest, given over to

the unluxurious encroachments of grease-

wood and other semi-desert vegetation.

(An article elsewhere in the magszine

describes the topography of the region

in wHYH Topaz is situated.)

Upon this desert-edged tract of and.

Topaz as a tangible physical thing ben

gan to materialize on July 6 of this

year. On that day, the first ground was

broken with the start of drilling on a

well to provide water for the workmen,

The first building to go up was the

headquarters of the U,S, Engineers, un-

der whose supervision the mushroom city

was to spring up, From this beginning,

over 800 men, representing every cate-

gory of building skills, labored`on a

schedule which by the first week of

September had resulted in sufficient

completed construction to permit" the

project administration staff to ready

its operational funetions. On Septem-

ber 8, the military police arrived and

were housed in the corner of the emers-

ing city area allocated to thems And

three days later, the arrival of the ad-

vanes contingent `of volunteer: evacuee

workers from Tanforan Assembly Center

Signalized the birth of Topaz as a liv-

ing community.

Asked what the infant city was like,

those first residents might have, with

some justice, summed:it up with one

word--dust. For dust was the principal,

the most ubiquitous, ingredient of com-

unity existence at the beginning. It

pervaded and accompanied every activity

from siceping and eating and breathing.

On through all the multitude of other

pursuits necesssary te maintain and pre-

pare the city for those yet to come. It

lay on every exposed surface inside the

buildings and out and it rose in clouds

underfoot and overhead on every bit of

exposed ground wherever construction.

work had loosened the hold of grease~=

wood roots on the taleum-fine alk-li

earth. Jt obscured almost every other

consideration of communal life just as,

when a wind rose, it almost obscured the

physical fact of the city itself.

But if in the beginning, dust was nl-

most synonymous with the state of the

city, other states have succeeded since,

marked by gradual abatement of that nui-

sanee and the rightful emergence of oth-

sr aspects of community existence on

which evaluations of the totality of To-"

paz life might be based. For the state

of the city is not a static thing, It

3

varies from week to week, almost from

day to day, with the changes in physical

circumstances, with the reactions of hu-

man bsings to those changes, with the

intesraetions of all the co-existing -phe-

nomena of communal.life.

If. the:.Topaz of today is a far cry

from.the Topaz.of the early days of Sep-

tember, the difference' is. not. identi-

fiatle as. the result of any sinele iso-

lated germ of change, is not to be de-

fined by. any simple hypothesis of flux.

The Topaz. of today is the sum ofall

the-ehanges, big and little, physical

and non-physical, which have taken place

in. all the multitudinous and ramified

aspeets of.the city's life since it rose

out of the -dust and the greasewood, To

deasribe what the state of the wity is

at the present time, it will thus be ne-

cessary to dessribe its different as-

pects, The emainder of this article

will be devoted to this. descriptive

function, governed by a certain neeces-

sary selectiveness in the facets of To-

paz life to be treated,

The most immediately apparent fea-

tures of Topaz, as of any community, are

the physical ones. Into this wide cate-

gory fall the whole range of those ele-

ments constituting the project's oxter-

nal appearance, from. the total expanse

of the project itself through the ruc-

lear city area proper down to the indi-

vidual buildings and apartments. And,

quite naturelly, it is in these outward

aspects that the evolution of Topaz as a

community is most readily discernible,

To the @asual eys, the larger project

area--that portion of the total 17,500-_

acre tract beyond the square mile of ha-

bitation--is admittedly still pretty

much as it was at the beginning. But

@ven here, certain evidences of change,

actual and potential, are visible, To

date, over 2000 acres of this outlying

land has heen subjected: to some form of

arricultural preparation or development,

150 acres having already seen planted to

barley and sweet clover, another 190

acres made ready for seeding and the

rest either cleared or put under the

plow. Also adding their evidences of

enange to the scene are the fences,

shelters, and other structures neces-

sary to Topaz's two active livestock

projects, whieh now involve some 165

head of cattle, lll hogs, and several

sows and their litters.

It is in the city proper, however,

that the most marked signs ef the physi-

eal' development of Topaz are apparent.

Construction work, so far as structures

for resident habitation and use are con-

cerned, is now virtually 190.per. cent

completed, leaving only the hospital

boiler house and laundry to be finished

and the city's four permanent 8C+foot

water towers to be constructed, When

work on the latter is completed at the

end of January, 1943, the U.S. Engineers

will end their labors here, leaving be-

hind a city of over 609 structures meet= .

ing all the

its residents.

Several other construction projects,

not under the J,S, Engineers but the WRA

proper, will be started or, if already

under way, will be completed upon final

clearance of priorities on building ma-

terials, Projects in this category in-

elude high school and elementary school

buildings, administration dwellings,

community church, slaughter house, meat

packing plant, bakery, engineers' and

agriculture buildings, garage and re-

pair shops, chicken brooders, permanent

hog pens, and others.

Near completion of total construc-

tion is paralleled by the present condi-

tion of individual building units them-

selves. Sheetrocking of interiors is

complete in all apartments and recrea~-

tion halls and virtually so in the din"

ing halls. Likewise, skirting of build-

nearly finished.

with the exception of the laundry

all Project structures are pre-

essential requirements of

ing foundations is

Thus,

rooms,

pared against the' approach of midwinter,

installation of stoves having been com~

pleted some time ago. (A new coal con-

tract, recently signed by the WRA, as-

sures the Project an adequate supply of

fuel, there being on hand in the various

Topaz stock piles a total of nearly 4090

tons, with an additional several hundrad

tons at Delta. It is expected that deli-

very of the remainder of the contracted

600C tons will be completed within the

next two weeks, ) ;

The open ground between buildings is

still no Jlandseapist's dream but pre-

sents a considerably improved appearance

in comparison with earlier days. Dust.is

no. longer a problem, owing-partly to the

surfacing of all roads and streets and

partly to the natural packing effects of

winter weather, although the opposite

problem. of mud rears itself followinz

any precipitation. Grading of the city's

bumpy terrain has been in progress for

some time and should be completed soon,

The most noticeable external addi-

tions to the city scene, however, are

the trees of various kinds brought from

outside. areas .and transplanted here.

Some 4800 willow saplings now adorn the

fronts of apartments and the surrounding

spaces inall of Topaz's $5 occupied

blocks, while a number of larger trees,

including Siberian elms and Utah juni-

pers, have been placed at strategic

points near the administration and hos-

pital buildings and at the site of the

proposed civic center. Shrubbery in the

form of approximately 1000 tamarisks now

also grace the city. Not in sufficient

number yet and, owing to the season, not

in a state of verdure, these trees have

nevertheless improved the barren appear-

ance of the original community and give

promise of a spring with some touch of

Sreene

Such is the general external backdrop

against which the daily routine of Topaz

life is now being carried on. Also part

of the `physical picture of the city are

the various facilities by which the day-

to-day needs of the residents are satis-

fied, These include, among other things,

the hospital, dining halls, and commu-

nity enterprises.

Topaz's hospital,' necessarily the

most elaborate of the Project facili-

ties, is, as we have already noted, al-

most completed. Finish of work on its

boiler house and laundry unit will per-

mit attainment of full operating effi-

ciency. Currently, certain wings and

equipment are not being utilized pending

the setting up of the central heating

system. However, within the limitations

imposed by incomplete construction and

by the inevitable shortages of materials

aud equipment on priority, the range of

medical services dispensed there satis-

factorily fulfill practically all the

essential requirements of the community

from obstetrics to autopsy.

pharmaceutical, and optical services are

all available in addition to those com-

ing under medicine proper.

The most imposing feature of

the hospital in the way of equip-

ment is the complete X-ray and

fluoroscopic machinery installed

there, which is both large and of

the most modern type. `The most

immediate problem is the inade-.

quate number of doctors, there

being currently only four on the

resident staff to meet the re-

quirements of nearly 8000 people,

In direct contrast, the number of

dentists, pharmacists, and opto-

metrists available is in excess

of the normal quota for the popu-.

6

Dental,

lation. If steps now being taken to aug-

ment the medical staff are successful,

the Froject will be prepared against

whatever health emergencies may arise in

the future. ;

The process of fegding the city has

attained a reasonably stable norm, all

dining halls being in operation and un-

der resident staffs adequate to perform

the necessary work, The inevitable mi-

nor differences in the standards and

types of cooking in the various kitchens

constitute no outstanding problem, and

there is no widespread manifestation of

dissatisfaction within the Project,

However, Topaz, like the rest of the

nation, has increasingly felt the ef-

fects of the proliferating rationing

program and of the war-created short-

ages of certain staple food products not

yst rationed. Meat, coffee, and sugar,

under OPA control for some time, are all

somewhat less plentiful or less frequent

in their appearance on the table than in

earlier days. Of more recent date, sup-

plies of dairy products, though not sub-

ject to official rationing, have also

diminished in their flow into the city

because of increased demands for them on

the outside. Milk is now more definitely

restricted to consumption by children,

invalids, and the aged, while oleomar-

garine in recent days has been substi-

tuted for butter. In general, Topaz is

confronted by the same situation which

all America is facing and is meeting it,

like the other communities of the na-

tion, with good grate, :

`With respect to the facilities cater-

ing to the more secondary needs of the

GAIN

I sought to seed the barren earth

And make wild beauty take

Firm root, but how could I have known

The waiting long would shake

Me inwardly, until I dared

Not say what would be gain

From such untimely planting, or

What flower worth the pain?

--Toyo Suyemoto

community. opez is supplied at present,

though not with complete adequacy,

through the resident consumer enter-

prises, These include the project can-

teen and the recently opened dry goods

store as the chief functioning units and

a number of smaller service projects,

namely two barber shops, two motion: `pic-

ture houses, anda radio repair shop.

Contemplased. as additions to these in

the near future are several other neces-

sary services, including shoe repairing

and laundry and dry cleaning,

The chief problem associated with

these enterprises, which are operated on

a modified consumer cooperative basis

with a paid-in resident membership capi-

talization of $4794, is the inadequacy

of supply to demand, Wartime priorities

and shortages have limited both the

range and quantity of goods that can be

put on sale in the canteen and dry goods

store and made the acquisition of equip-

ment and materials necessary to the

operation of the other enterprises in-

creasingly difficult. However, despite

these limitations, the volume of busi-

ness transacted has been quite large,

especially in the case of the two re-

tailing units. In the month of November,

for instance, the canteen grossed over

#20,000 and should do considerably bet-

ter this month in view of the augmented

stock and the surge of Christmas buying

by residents, The dry goods store on its

Opening day, December 9, did approxi-

mately $2700 worth of business.

Rounding out the picture of the phy-

Sical aspects of the city are the faci-

lities associated with such divisions of

the Project as public works, transporta-

.tion and supply, maintenance and opera-

tions, fire proteetion, property con-

trol, and warehouse. Limitations of

space prevent discussion of these here,

It is sufficient for our purposes. to

note that their adequacy or inadequacy

in relation to the city's needs is gen-

erally conditioned by the limited avail-

ability of the materials or the manpower

necessary to their functioning. A per-

Sistent difficulty in the transportation

division, for instance, has been the

lack of sufficient repair parts and e-

quipment to offset the inevitable wear

and tear on cars and trucks used by the

.

oe

fos

a8

Project. Similarly, one of the main ob-

Stacles to optimum conditions in the

operations of the maintenance division

has been an insufficiency of resident

manpower for certain types of work such (c)

as garbage disposal and sanitation, But,

taken all in all, these and other diffi-

culties `have not engendered any out-

standingly grave or. continuing emer-

gency, Since they have in most instances

een ult tosenkior anak through vari-

ous expedients to meet the immediate re-

quirements of the city. Physically,

then, Topaz is in fair shape at the pre-

Sent time, existing conditions present-

ing no problems that the natural human

capacity for adjustment cannot offset.

Turning from things to people--to

what they are doing and how they are do-

ing it--we can conveniently divide our

discussion into several parts under the

following heads: employment, education,

self-government, activities, and pre-

vailing social atmosphere. .

gories, while not embra 1cing every phase

of resident activity, will nevertheless

give a general picture of city life suf-

ficient for our purposes.

Topaz's employment situation resolves

itself into two phases--employment on

the Project proper and outside employ-

ment. As of the third week of this

month, some 3679 persons were working

within the Project. This means that u-

bout; 40 per cent of the total popula+

tion (7880 on December 22) and about 77

per cent of the able-bodied residents of

working age. (approximately 4809) are

currently employed in the various opera-

tions necessary to maintain the city.

The types of work being done by the re-

Sidents cover the whole range of em-

ployment classifications from manuel

7

These cate= -

labor to the higher professional and

technical occupations. About 70 per cent

of all those employed are males. Of the

3679 workers, the largest number, 1124,

are in the dining halls, and the smal-

lest number, 5, in the Project Attor-

ney's office. By wage classification,

some 510 fall within the $19 per month

or professional and technical group,

while the rest are in the $16 category,

only one person being listed at 412, The

maximum volume of resident employment

expected within the Project during the

next quarter of year is around 4000,

As to the `outside employment situa-

tion, latest available figures reveal

that something over 400 persons origi-

nally inducted into the Project are cur-

rently engaged in permanent or semi-per-

manent work in localities ranging from

nearby Delta to points in the #astern

and Central states, Of these outside

workers, nearly 300 are those who left

the Project for group agricultural emp-

loyment, mainly in the sugar beet fields

of this and other mountain states, (At

the peak of out-

side agricultural

work, nearly 5006

Topaz residents

were out of the

Project, but a

large number have

Since returned.)

The rest of those

currently employed

outside the city

are in domestic

service or indus-

trial work.

On the over-all employment picture,

certain general observations may be

made. Residents working on the Project

are, generally speaking, performing du-

ties for which by previous training or

by inclination they are most qualified.

Incidence of skills in relation to total

population does present some problems,

as in the already mentioned instance of

hospital personnel, although these are

inevitadle ina community like this,

created by the evacuation and congrera-

tion of an arbitrarily determined group

of people. Neither does employment on

the Project constitute a permanent solu-

tion of the ultimate destiny of those

8

working, but as a means of perpetuating

existing skill or of developing new ones

and as a factor in maintaining morale,

it does have a value which cannot be

overlooked,

As to the present status of outside

employment, neither the number nor the

types of jobs thus far involved can be

considered as indicating a solution to

the problem of relocation. The agricul-

tural work into which the majority of

the residents on leave from the Project

have gone is practically all of the

seasonal variety and suitable only to

those who expect to make' this sort of

labor their occupation for an indefinite

period, Likewise, outside work taken by

residents, can be looked upon only as a

stop-gap in the majority of cases, Thus

outside employment as a logical step in

the permanent relocation of people here

still falls short of satisfying the pri-

mary desideratum, jobs commensurate with

the skills and the training possessed by

many of the city's residents.

Topaz's school system forms one of

the most important features of the city,

involving as it does the continuance and

completion of necessary education for

close to 2000 children and the further-

ance of the cultural needs of several

thousand adults. Delayed in its incep-

tion by lack of adequate housing facili-

ties and supplies, the system currently

is functioning on a full schedule in all

`its several. branches, which include pre-

school nurseries, elementary and second-

ary schools, and adult education. How-

ever, shortage of instructional supplies

and equipment, particularly in some of

the high school grades, is still a probe

lem, and construction of permanent

school buildings, as noted earlier in

the article, still awaits clearance of

priority ratings on material. (All

schools are at present housed in the

regular barrack type buildings of un-

occentupied blocks and sections of blocks.)

Likewise a problem is the difficulty be-

ing encountered in securing the full de-

Sirable quota of Caucasian teaching per-

sonnel, But despite these obstacles, it

is expected that the educational program

will be consummated according to plan.

Lowest in Topaz'ts educational hier-

archy are the nursery

centers for pre- .