JOURNEY of CONSCIENCE
Visiting the WWII Japanese American Internment Camps
Life at Minidoka
These historic photos capture life at Minidoka… In the midst of imprisonment without any legal recourse, these Americans strove to make do. I’ve selected these pictures because they depict a bit of what life was like. Every day life had to go on… and did.
A family arrives from the Tule Lake Camp [Densho Digital Repository/National Archives]
Preparing lunch [DDR/NA]
Little boys eating Christmas dinner [DDR/NA]
Little girl [DDR/Frank Kubo Collection]
Going to the shower late at night [DDR/Bain Collection]
Fifth grade class [DDR/Yakatsuki Collection]
Funeral in winter [DDR/Bigelow Collection]
A main road through the barracks [DDR/Bigelow Collection]
A Mess Hall, with the tables set for a special occasion [National Park Service]
“Oh, well… it was very hot and windy and sandy. I mean, sandstorms… And your apartment would just be covered with sand, and at that time I was working in the mess hall and we’d wipe up the tables after everybody got through with breakfast. Well, if there had been a windstorm, we’d come back and the whole place would be all full of dust and sand. Gritty sand so we’d have to wash all the tables again. But that was with us all the time.”
Louise Kashino, Minidoka [Densho Digital Repository]
Shoveling coal [DDR/Mitsuoka Collection]
Water and mud everywhere [DDR/NA]
Next time, we return to photos of Minidoka as it is today… see you then!
Grace and peace,
Art
JOURNEY of CONSCIENCE 