After the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, the U.S. government considered Japanese American citizens to be a potential threat to the security of the country, in particular those living along the Pacific coast, the most likely scene of a Japanese invasion on the U.S. mainland, should one occur. As a result, tens of thousands of Japanese Americans were incarcerated in detention centers in inland areas, usually in remote areas on government owned land. These fears proved totally unfounded, as U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry, on the whole, proved patriotic to their new homeland, with many serving meritoriously in the armed forces through the war. In fact, a great many from the internment camps served, many with distinction.
Today the 123 acre site of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, a National Historic Landmark, is one of the most intact of the ten relocation centres built during the war. Several buildings survive on the site, including the most intact hospital complex of the ten camps, as well as other structures and features.
In 2011 the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center opened, dedicated to passing on the Heart Mountain story to future generations. The museum houses photographs, artifacts, oral histories and interactive exhibits depicting the wartime relocation of Japanese Americans, anti-Asian prejudice in America and the factors which lead to their enforced relocation and confinement. To the right of the main entrance to the interpretive centre is this historical marker, which highlights the story of the internment of Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Heart Mountain Relocation Center
Heart Mountain, Wyoming - Fall 1943
Rooted in decades of anti-Japanese and anti-Asian prejudice, the internment of 120,000 Nisei, American citizens of Japanese descent, and Issei, Japanese resident aliens, was triggered by the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
Initiatives and legislation during the previous forty years had restricted or prohibited Japanese immigration, land ownership and U.S. naturalization. Still, nearly 127,000 Japanese Americans were living in the United States, mostly in California, Oregon and Washington. Immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan, a mandatory curfew was imposed, first on Japanese aliens and then on Japanese American citizens and all were required to carry identification. On February 19, 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 ordering the exclusion of all persons of Japanese descent, alien or citizen within designated areas of Washington, Oregon, California and Arizona for reasons of military necessity.
Persons of Japanese American descent were instructed to report to assigned assembly centers, until internment camps could be built. They were given only a few days to secure or dispose of their land, houses and possessions. They were allowed to take 100 pounds per person or what they could carry.
There were sixteen assembly centers, ten Justice Department camps, six citizen isolation centers and ten internment camps. The internment camps were located in the states of Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, California, Idaho and Arkansas and operated from 1942-1946.
The Commission On Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians concluded the exclusion, expulsion and incarceration of Japanese Americans in World War II was not justified by military necessity, as the government had claimed. Instead, the decision was based on race prejudice, war hysteria, and failure of political leadership The internment of Japanese Americans is unique to the period of World War II; however, it is of disturbing relevance today when groups of people continue to be singled out.