Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Japanese internment in WWII

This weekend we took our scout troop on a campout to the Minidoka National Historical Site in so. central Idaho. It's the Hunt Internment camp where thousands of Japanese were held prisoner during the war,one of America's great tragedies. Close to 13,000 people were run through it with 9500 being the highest population at any one time.

The internment was decreed by Democrats who controlled both houses of congress plus the presidency. They did it at the urging of powerful businessmen up and down the west coast. It didn't matter that many of the Japanese were born American citizens and didn't even speak Japanese. It was almost purely a racial thing. They saw the war as a chance to get rid of their Japanese competitors. The people were given 1 to 2 weeks to pack up and move, leaving everything. After the war, many went home to find that their homes and business had been stolen. They lost everything. An example of the racism was the camp infirmary. It was staffed by both white and Japanese doctors. They were all born citizens, went to the same medical schools, and had the same medical experience. The Japanese doctors were paid $19/month while the white doctors were paid $120/month. Of course the whites got all the positions of authority.

They were required to fill out and sign a loyalty questionnaire. There were 2 questions on it that caused untold problems.
One was would they agree to take up arms to defend the country. This same questionnaire was given to women and the elderly who couldn't take up arms but if they said no, the government restricted them even more.
The other was whether they would renounce their Japanese emperor and become loyal to the US. Most had no loyalty to the emperor and were US citizens, either born or naturalized. They were required to say they were formerly loyal to Japan when they were not. It caused a tremendous amount of resentment that their loyalty was questioned.

There is very little at the camp now. It originally covered 33,000 acres. It had over 300 barracks They were laid out in blocks of 12 barracks, 1 mess hall, 1 latrine, and 1 entertainment center. The barracks were 20x120' long and divided into 20x20' 'apartments' with 2 smaller rooms on each end. The larger ones were for families, holding as many as 8 people. The smaller ones were for singles or couples with no children. There were no bathrooms or kitchen facilities since they had the separate mess halls and latrines.
After the war, almost all of the buildings were hauled off and became farm buildings or houses in the surrounding area. They were too long to be moved easily so most were cut into pieces to move.
Some of the land was federal but a good deal was private that was loaned to the camp by farmers and later returned to them. Much of the federal land was disposed of by lottery after the war. Only whites were allowed to enter the lottery. Japanese were barred from entering even though they were born citizens.

The camp was built very quickly. They were forced to use green lumber in many buildings. As it dried, it left large gaps that let the wind through. There was no insulation. The buildings were frigid in the winter and the tar paper roofs made them real hot boxes during the desert summers.

The camp post office is by the front gate. Some had to walk over a mile to get their mail every day. It was heavily censored, both incoming and outgoing. Every piece was read and redacted, either with ink or by cutting out sections of the words. The level of censorship was complete nonsense. All that's left of the post office is a cement slab.


These photos are some of what's left there. The Nat. Park Svc is slowly reconstructing the site but they have a serious lack of anything authentic. Everything disappeared after the war.
this is what's left of the receiving buildings at the front gate.


A barracks and mess hall. The barracks was on a local farm and used for migrant housing after the war. The owner donated it back to the camp. It's been cut down a bit so it's not the original 120' long.


interior of the barracks. There's graffiti on the walls drawn by the migrants. The Japanese were very fastidious and would never mess up their living quarters with it. The supports were added when it was moved to keep it upright. It was originally divided into 20x20 rooms with a single light bulb in each room.


interior of the mess hall. Many of the internees operated restaurants. They ran the mess halls. They did the best they could considering the lack of food that they had. They were fed much less than they needed.


fire station. They had 3 fire trucks and a very well trained crew who lived in the building. At one point, there was a large range fire NW of the camp that endangered the town of Shoshone. The fire crews were dispatched and literally saved the town from destruction.


baseball field. There were several of them and baseball was very popular. They had regular games between the living blocks. They said that baseball saved them considering the lack of anything to do at the camp. It was the greatest form of entertainment they had.

Thanks for that.
Bob

Well presented, both in words and pictures. Thanks - I always appreciate historical material, especially that which goes beyond what is either ignored or misrepresented by the official record keepers.

Hard to do that kind of thing in 2018. Imagine a war with Mexico. 😇

Democrats have done more to ruin this country than any other group!

The Dems claim to be unbiased but this is one of the most tragic examples of bias that I know of.

At first the American Japanese were barred from serving in the war. The war dept. finally relented and formed the 442d combat regiment consisting of Japanese soldiers but with only white officers. It ended the war as the most decorated regiment in US history. They were fantastic soldiers and very dedicated to the US. However, they were allowed to fight only in the European theater, never in the Pacific.

In those days national security was more important than comfort. The Japanese were put in these camps in the center of the country away from the coast on either side, to help keep any breech of security on the coasts. We can compare it to the American Indian and get all emotional about it, but I would rather live with the ideals of that era than what we have become today.

Not only allowing terrorists into America, but encouraging it through the politically correct environment that claims a "Sanctuary city" is acceptable, hasn't quite ruined America, but it is headed that way.

You need to read more. Most of these people were US CITIZENS. They weren't immigrants. Security was a front. Racial bias was the real issue.
My grandfather immigrated from Germany. My dad was in the navy during the war. My family was every bit as foreign as any of these Japanese but we weren't incarcerated. If security was the issue. my parents would have been locked up.

When in school there was a Japanese teacher who we didn't fully understand moving from California to Colorado. Of course now we know. When I was little, the better dry cleaners was "the Japs", and the fruit markets were Jap. They had good produce and when you bought a bushel of peaches they were ring packed so you got a real bushel, not the things they try to foist off now.

It isn't about citizens, it is about national security. Why do you think these camps were in the interior of the U.S. Call it racial bias or whatever you want, but they weren't taking any chances with citizens that may have a loyalty to Japan. No one said anything of "Locked up" .

I suppose we need to repay all the families that were sent to those camps for the wrongs committed against their parents and grandparents. It has sure worked well with the American Indian.

The same thing happened in Colorado.

WWII Japanese Internment Camp, Granada, CO

I think maybe the best known camp was in California. I think there was a book published about that camp.

Manzanar

This is why the 2nd Amendment is important. Don't think that it can't happen again and this time to you.

National security was just a front. If it was the issue, they'd have locked up the Germans and Italians, too. Read up on how this came about. It was purely racial bias using security as a means to get rid of them. The security issue was a farce.

You need to read more, Italy and Germany didn't attack the U.S.

Wonder how things compared?

"Growing up in a Japanese WW2 internment camp in China"

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33709730





"Civilian Internment Camps in Japan"

/[bleep]/[bleep]/CivCamps.html]http...ts/[bleep]/[bleep]/[bleep]/CivCamps.html

What's even worse and little known is that Native Alaskans were interned during WWII for their "safety". Many of them died due to malnutrition and disease, and US troops looted their houses and desecrated their churches.

https://www.nps.gov/aleu/learn/historyculture/unangan-internment.htm

Not a massive attack like Pearl Harbor but Hitler declared war on us right after Pearl Harbor. He then ordered acts of sabotage on US soil. German was every bit as much of an internal threat as the Japanese.

But arguing attacks still isn't the issue. History says that racism was the cause. No amount of debate can change what actually happened.

BRITISH INTERN GERMANS, ITALIANS



"List of concentration and internment camps"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_concentration_and_internment_camps

I wonder how many of these are still standing? I would believe demoncraps know and have a plan for their future use.

Some of the conspiracy theorists have lists of FEMA concentration camps built to house all of us radical rightists. This camp is on their list in spite of the fact that there are only 4 or 5 buildings standing and only the 1000 sq ft visitor center is usable for anything. The other one in Idaho is the former Moose Creek Japanese internment camp in north Idaho.That one held only 200 men at it's maximum and I don't think there's a single building standing there now.

I'd never heard this before. What connection did these people have with the Japanese? None, I'd guess, but for hatred of the ignorant and foolish.