During WWII, over 15,000 prisoners of war were sent to Utah (Allan Kent Powell, "Splinters of a Nation: German Prisoners of War in Utah"), out of the over 425,000
prisoners of war in the United States. About 7000 of these men were Italians while about 8000 were Germans.
I've been collecting information on the experiences of these prisoners and the community members who came into contact with them. A non-profit organization called "TRACES of 400,000: Museum, Archive, Culture, Conference and Activities Project" has similar goals concerning all of these WWII Prisoners of War in the US.
I spoke about World War II Italian Prisoners of War in Utah at the second international
TRACES conference on May 31, 2003. A copy of that presentation is available through
gentrace@gentracer.com.
All of the 33 World War II Prisoners of War who died in Utah are buried at Fort Douglas Military Cemetery in Salt Lake City. A list of the Japanese man follows. Their death certificates can be obtained through
gentrace@gentracer.com.
Shigeo Shibata died on 31 July 1944 in Bushnell Hospital, Brigham City, Utah and is the only Japanese POW in the Fort Douglas Military Cemetery. No other Japanese POWs were known to have been imprisoned in Utah.
