Once, rising above the utilitarian barracks, six towers housed armed guards who kept their eyes trained on internees. Throughout the camp, alkaline soil turned into sticky mud when wet and was likely to blow up in choking dust clouds during the dry months.

Trying to relieve the monotony of a flat landscape where native plants had been removed, residents planted about 300 trees, maybe more, and carried water to them. Children attended schools.

Adults worked for $16 to $19 a month, says the Topaz Museum Web site, topazmuseum.org.

The camp closed in October 1945, after World War II ended, says the Web site. According to Beckwith, buildings were sawn in half and sold as homes and storage structures. Driving through Delta and approaching the camp, she had pointed out some that remain in use.

From the dirt road that leads to the Drum Mountains, Topaz looks like a typical central Utah brush desert. Few cars pass that way. The notable difference between now and pre-Topaz days are distant farm buildings and the monument beside the road.

In 1976 the Japanese-American League erected the monument. Upgraded since, it has a parking area, a flagpole and two plaques with photographs, text and a schematic of the camp. Frost lined the folds of the American flag that hangs heavily on its gleaming metal pole.

The plaque displays a list of hundreds of names of "Japanese-American U.S. veterans who served their country despite the fact that almost all were incarcerated at Topaz."

"All Gave Some — Some Gave All," the plaque reads. The names are peppered with stars, indicating Japanese-Americans who were killed in combat.

On a chain-link fence behind the monument is the word TOPAZ formed by interlaced strands of barbed wire.

"From here to that fence line there were just things like shops and the motor pool and then of course, if you follow this sewer line right here, that's where one of the guard towers was," Beckwith adds. "And then over in that corner, another guard tower ...

"Mr. Wasaka was shot about in the middle of those."

A guard shot and killed James Wasaka, 63, when he was near one of the fences. The circumstances remain murky.

"There's still a lot of controversy over that," Beckwith says. "When I was growing up I heard, 'Oh Yeah, Topaz, that's where that guy was killed, yeah, he was walking his dog.' 'No, he was hard of hearing,' 'No, he was trying to escape,' 'Oh no, he was picking up a rock.' ... There's more to that story.

"But I've read the transcript from the court-martial proceedings and I don't know much more about it after having read that."