Living History

On a rainy April Sunday Josh, Jacob, and I paid a visit to the Minidoka Relocation Center. Minidoka was a Japanese-American internment camp in Idaho during World War II.

The Minidoka Relocation Center opened August 10, 1942. At it's peak the population reached 9,397 in 1943 making Minidoka one of the largest cities in Idaho at the time.









Today about the only thing remaining of the camp are these rock foundations of the Visitor waiting room and the guard station.

"... these people are living in the midst of a desert where they see nothing except tar paper covered barracks, sagebrush, and rocks. No flowers, no trees, no shrubs, no grass. The impact of emotional disturbance as a result of the evacuation . . . plus this dull, dreary existence in a desert region surely must give these people a feeling of helplessness, hopelessness, and despair which we on the outside do not and will never fully understand."
- Arthur Klienkopf, Superintendent of Education-Minidoka Relocation Center

More information: Friends of Minidoka