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NAVIGATION:
Japanese-American Internment
Camps in Idaho and the West 1942-1945
On This Page: Books and Videos || War Relocation Authority Material || Magazine Articles || Websites
 Issued Feb. 19, 1942, two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Presidential Executive Order 9066 made possible the removal of American citizens of Japanese descent from the West Coast. The three westernmost states were designated as a defense area from which any or all persons could be excluded at the discretion of the military commander. In March 1942 President Roosevelt established the War Relocation Board, and the complete evacuation of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast was ordered as a security measure. Ten concentration camps were established that would eventually hold more than 110,000 people. Camp Minidoka was located near Hunt, Idaho, 20 miles northeast of Twin Falls. In August 1942 the government began transporting Japanese-Americans to the camp via train. Most Minidoka residents came from Seattle and Portland and were given notice only one week before being forced to move. Ten thousand people (making Minidoka Idaho’s eighth largest city) were interned in tar-paper barracks that had no insulation, running water, or interior walls, and that were heated by coal-burning stoves. Barbed wire, guard towers, armed guards, and watch dogs secured the 950 acre site. Despite forced internment, many Japanese-Americans served bravely in the U.S. army. An all Japanese-American military unit — the 442nd Regimental Combat Team — fought in the Italian campaigns, and became the most decorated unit in the war, winning 18,000 medals. Minidoka had the highest enlistment — and casualty — rates of any US internment camp: over 1,000 camp residents served overseas. Seattle recently renamed its US Federal Courthouse building after William Kenzo Nakamura, a Minidoka resident who joined the 442nd and was killed by a German sniper in Italy on July 4, 1944. The last family left Camp Minidoka in October 1945. In 1979 Minidoka was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1990 the US Government began making $20,000 payments to camp survivors. A memorial to the camp internees was dedicated in Washington DC in November 2000, and in January 2001 President Clinton named Minidoka a National Monument.  (Call numbers are for copies at Boise Public Library) Books and VideosAnd Justice For All: An Oral History of the
Japanese American Detention Camps The Bamboo People: The Law and
Japanese-Americans, by Frank F. Chuman Behind Barbed Wire: The Imprisonment of
Japanese Americans During World War II, by Daniel S. Davis Beyond Loyalty: The Story of a Kibei, by
Minoru Kiyota Beyond Words: Images from America’s
Concentration Camps, by Deborah Gesensway Camp and Community: Manzanar and the Owens
Valley, edited by Garrett and Larson Concentration Camps, North America: Japanese in
the United States and Canada During World War II, by Roger Daniels Democracy on Trial: The Japanese-American
Evacuation and Relocation in World War II, by Page Smith Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese
American Family, by Yoshiko Uchida Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki
Houston Great Betrayal: The Evacuation of the
Japanese-Americans During World War II, by Audrie Girdner Hunt for Idaho: Evacuees 1942-1945 and
Homesteaders 1947-1949 T.P. Minidoka Prisoner of War Camp 1942-1945,
by Bessie Shrontz Roberts-Wright Impounded People: Japanese-Americans in the
Relocation Centers, War Relocation Authority Imprisoned Apart: The World War II
Correspondence of an Issei Couple, by Louis Fiset Issei and Nisei; The Internment Years, by
Daisuke Kitagawa Japanese Americans: From Relocation to Redress,
edited by Daniels, Taylor, and Kitano Jewel of the Desert: Japanese American
Internment at Topaz, by Sandra C. Taylor Journey to Minidoka: The Paintings of Roger
Shimomura, by Roger Shimomura Justice at War: The Story of the Japanese
American Internment Cases, by Peter H. Irons Manzanar, by John Armor and Peter Wright Minidoka Interlude, September, 1942-October
1943 Morning Glory, Evening Shadow: Yamato Ichihashi
and his Internment Writings, 1942-1945,by Yamato Ichihashi Nisei Daughter, by Monica Itoi Sone Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American
Internment Experience Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese American in
World War II, by Roger Daniels Remembering Heart Mountain: Essays on Japanese
American Internment in Wyoming, edited by Mike Mackey Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of
a Japanese American Family, by Lauren Kessler Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata’s Art of the
Internment, by Chiura Obata Visible Target What Did the Internment of Japanese Americans
Mean? Whispered Silence: Japanese Americans and World
War II, by Gary Y. Okihiro Years Of Infamy: The Untold Story of
America’s Concentration Camps, by Michi Weglyn
War Relocation Authority Material(Boise Public Library Government Documents, third floor) Administrative Highlights of the WRA Program Community Government in War Relocation Centers The Evacuated People: A Quantitative Description Legal and Constitutional Phases of the WRA Program Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission
on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians People in Motion: The Postwar Adjustment of the
Evacuated Japanese Americans Relocation of Japanese-Americans The Relocation Program Wartime Exile: The Exclusion of the Japanese
Americans From the West Coast The Wartime Handling of Evacuee Property WRA: A Story of Human Conservation
Magazine Articles“The Japanese American Experience in Idaho,” Robert C. Sims. Idaho Yesterdays Spring 1978 v.22 n.1 p.2-10 “’My Dear Bishop’: a Report From Minidoka,” Jane Chase. Idaho Yesterdays Summer 2000 v.44 n.2 p.3-6 “’You Don’t Need to Wait Any Longer to Get Out’: Japanese American Evacuees as Farm Laborers During World War II,” Robert C. Sims. Idaho Yesterdays Summer 2000 v.44 n.2 pp. 7-13
Websites
Research and text by Ellen Druckenbrod |
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