A trip back to an infamous period in American history

The Military Honor Roll at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center lists all those who served in World War 2 that lived in Heart Mountain.
Gregory R.C. Hasman photo 

Monday is the 79th anniversary of when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

It is a day that lived in infamy for the United States, but for first and second generation Japanese Americans at the time this also marked the start of many days of infamy.

Shortly after Japanese pilots shot down and destroyed the USS Arizona and other ships the U.S. declared war on Japan. (Germany and Italy soon followed suit against the United States)

For Japanese Americans shocked by the news that was just the beginning. At home they became the objects of scorn and distrust, even if they were born in the States and were living productive lives like other Americans. This was due in large part to concerns that they were seen as spies or in support of the Japanese government. 

One result of the wartime paranoia or fear was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066, which authorized the removal of people on the West Coast deemed a threat to national security. As a result, over 120,000 Japanese Americans were taken from their homes and placed into 10 internment camps across the country including one by Heart Mountain between Powell and Cody, Wyoming. (German and Italian Americans were also placed in internment camps across the country.)

Many communities in the United States posted this sign just weeks and months after the attacks on Pearl Harbor.
Gregory R.C. Hasman photo

People were transported by trains to the camps. While it was not as bad as what happened to Jewish Europeans and others who were sent to Nazi concentration camps, the Japanese Americans were brought to the U.S. internment camps against their will. 

After stepping off the trains in the fall of 1942, the Japanese Americans went inside their new living quarters for the next couple of years. 

The tar paper covered barracks were 16 feet by 20 feet. Bathrooms were in latrines in the center of each block. Food was served in communal mess halls. 

Winters could be brutal with temperatures dropping to near 30 below zero on occasion. 

An original barrack where Japanese people living in the United States spent most of World War II still sits outside Heart Mountain between Powell and Cody, Wyoming.
Gregory R.C. Hasman photo

"The editors have no illusions as to the magnitude of this task," Editor-in-chief Bill Hosokawa wrote in the Oct. 24, 1942, inaugural edition of the Heart Mountain Sentinel, a camp newspaper. "These are not normal times nor is this an ordinary community. There is confusion, doubt and fear mingled together with hope and courage as this community goes about the task of rebuilding many dear things that were crumbled as if by a giant hand."

The "Mo's Scratch Pad" column in the same issue outlined some more thoughts on the situation. 

"We love America -- she belongs to us, a part of our very lives -- but some politicians and misguided 'patriots' didn't know this -- -- wouldn't believe this. 'Once a Jap, always a Jap,' they said. 'You can't trust them...,'" it stated. "Climbing up and looking back now, that's how it was. That's how it is."

It was not an ideal scenario for the Japanese Americans, but during their time in the camp they were allowed to leave to go to work in places like Cody and Sheridan. There were schools, a hospital and fire and police departments in the camp.

People in different blocks were able to watch movies like "Freckles Comes Home." There were also sports activities like football and girls softball games.

The War Relocation Authority's Denver regional director Joseph Smart was impressed by the newspaper's coverage of the community. The WRA was a United States government agency created to handle the internment of Japanese Americans.

"Regardless of any barriers or disappointments, keep up the good work," he said. "Please send 25 extra copies or more."

Heart Mountain became the third largest city in Wyoming during the war. But unlike Cheyenne and other communities there was barbed wire around it. People could not freely go into Cody or Powell for a burger or do anything.

The camps did not last forever, however. The executive order was suspended in December 1944 and the Heart Mountain camp closed in November 1945.

To pay homage to the brave people who stayed at the camp, this weekend I visited to look at what things were like, to see how the bombing of Pearl Harbor would come to impact many Japanese in the U.S.

Lest we forget 

Heart Mountain Interpretive Center visitors offer their thoughts on the Japanese being put into relocation camps.
Gregory R.C. Hasman photo