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Visiting the WWII Japanese American Internment Camps
My trip to Minidoka came to an end as I walked back through the site of the baseball diamond… The field was reconstructed by a team of volunteers, the work of the Friends of Minidoka. How many dreams had been launched on bleachers, watching… Continue Reading “Leaving Minidoka”
When WWII ended and the 10 WRA Camps closed, the federal government awarded part of the land for farming to returning WWII Veterans (in 90 to 120 acre plots, along with two barracks buildings). At Minidoka, the government allotted 89 farming units for a… Continue Reading “Homesteading Minidoka”
Walking through the Minidoka site, one comes upon three buildings that reflect key aspects of life in the Minidoka WRA Camp. The historic photo immediately below, hangs in the first of those buildings… This is a photo of the Minidoka fire house, as it… Continue Reading “Restoration 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… Continue Reading “Life at Minidoka”
Something close to 1,000 acres were farmed at Minidoka by Japanese American prisoners. First, they had to convert the land from dry sage brush to irrigated agriculture. While the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation had put in the Milner-Gooding Canal to provide water to the… Continue Reading “Farming at Minidoka”
Remnant: a small remaining quantity of something. I’m walking along the 1 1/2 mile path that the NPS built on the 400 acre site at Minidoka. All along the path there are 4×4 posts driven into the ground, topped with small metal placards that… Continue Reading “Remnants”
It is fitting that this guard tower is the first thing you see when driving up to the site of the former Minidoka WRA Camp. It is located right off the road, near the location of the main gate. It is a replica. Now… Continue Reading “Minidoka: First Look”
Life has a way of jumping up to bite you when you least expect it. It happened to me today because of my own carelessness. The subject is President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). For many Americans (myself included), FDR remains one of the great… Continue Reading “FDR…”
I’m getting ready to visit the last three of the WRA Camps. I’ll be going to the sites of the former WRA Camps: Minidoka, Idaho, Heart Mountain, Wyoming, and Topaz, Utah. There are three things that remain uppermost in my mind. First, the history… Continue Reading “The rest of the Journey…”
They are people of hope… That is, the two peoples (the Japanese Americans of the Poston Community Alliance and the Colorado River Indian Tribes) are manifestations of hope. Brought together by the respective injustices that were done to them and the hardships they have… Continue Reading “Poston: People of Hope”
JOURNEY of CONSCIENCE 