Heart Mountain Internment Camp

After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor during World War 2, the United States removed over 120,000 Japanese Americans from their homes and sent them to various relocation camps around the country. One of these camps was located at the base of Heart Mountain between Powell and Cody Wyoming. Individuals were interned at this camp, and others like it, for close to four years, during which time, they collected stories and photographs that help encapsulate what this experience was like. This is an important part of Wyoming’s history because this event helped shaped the state, and how it treats ethnically diverse individuals. Estelle Ishigo documented her time through sketches, and eventually wrote a book about it. She was a white woman who married a Japanese man and was interned with him at Heart Mountain.

Ishigo, E. (1942). Before Camp - Estelle and Arthur Ishigo as young couple with German shepherd Thumbnails. photograph, Laramie.

Estelle mainly documented her experience through drawings and the occasional photograph. Ishigo’s pieces of artwork are simple, yet they display an extreme amount of emotion and meaning. In most of her drawings, one can see individual facial expressions and experiences of specific people. This helps to personalize the experience and make it more relevant to today’s life and society because everyone can relate to emotion. Each piece of her work offers a unique and interesting perspective on this unrecognized event, and this photo sketch ultimately captures the impact of the camps:

Ishigo , E. (1945). We are Americans, Again. photograph, Cody, WY.

This artifact begins to show the impact that these camps had on the individuals that were forced to relocate. It helps outsiders begin to understand the difficulties that these individuals were put through. In the background of this drawing, Estelle shows an idealized version of a city (the big buildings, and the trees). She also draws a crowd of people headed to this city (assumingely leaving the camp). In the foreground of this piece, Ishigo draws a prominent male figure, who can be seen in other pieces of her work, standing in front of barbwire, signifying the prison-like place they have been in. The most impactful part of this artifact is the writing “We are Americans, again?”. Estelle’s drawing helps conceptualize the feelings of displacement, cultural role confusion, ethnic injustice, and racial trauma because of its ability to display complex emotions and profound images that inspire action.

Historically, this phenomenon of imprisoning so many Americans has largely been ignored. However, there have been many recent works that help to display the stories of these individuals spanning across the country. When Japanese Americans were taken from their home, many had a feeling of betrayal from the government and the country that they are citizens in. Raymond Katagi, a Heart Mountain internee, said “[the government] had picked up these people on a strictly racial basis and interned them and suspended their civil rights” (Tateshi, 2017, 22). Here we feel that betrayal; that feeling that the government was no longer protecting civil rights, and instead of taking them away based on a racial bias. Even though many of these people were zero threat to the country, they were perceived to be simply because of their ethnicity. This is an issue that has always been present and continues to be. The concept of discrimination based on racial assumptions was illuminated again when the COVID-19 pandemic began. During the beginning of this pandemic, many Asian individuals were discriminated against because of the assumption that they were ‘contaminated’. Because of Estelle’s photos, and the stories of relocated individuals, we can understand that this has always been an issue.

The effects of WWII shook the whole country, especially the youth. Being displaced from home and treated like a prisoner because of race will inevitably have an impact on young minds. Studies done on young internees elucidate that this event showed them that “looking Japanese was a negative attribute and distinguished them as different or non-American” (2021, para. 29). This shows the ethnic injustice that Japanese Americans experienced. Estelle questions the intentions behind the camps when she writes “again?” implying that these Japanese Americans weren’t treated as Americans which is confirmed by the examined letters from the youth who felt non-American. Ostracizing individuals from society solely based on race is an inexcusable form of injustice that we must be conscious of as we exist among diverse communities of individuals.

These camps not only affected individuals during their active time and the immediate aftermath, but they continued to affect individuals for generations through racial trauma. While talking about racial trauma, an article mentioned the lasting race-based trauma that resulted in a silenced culture and expanded consequences that lasted for multiple generations of Japanese Americans and believed that this event “represents one of the greatest constitutional injustices in American history” (2019, 40). Understanding that this mass incarceration didn’t just affect a small number of people, but it affected thousands of Japanese Americans, their next generations, and the entire world around it. Yet, it is often glazed over and ignored in conversations about history, the war, and historical injustice when it should be mentioned. This drawing highlights the use of barbed wire which was used at the Heart Mountain camp to keep individuals – separated from the rest of civilization. During these years, they were Japanese (a threat), not American.

Although these camps were unethical, and a major source of ethnic injustice, they also provided unique circumstances and opportunities for identifying cultural connections. Because these camps were designed for one ethnicity, they allowed for the socialization of like individuals which strengthened the bonds of ethnicity. These camps also allowed for the youth to play and engage which became ‘lifeboats in the daily boredom of exile’ (Tong, 2004, par 30). Recognizing that there can be joy in suffering without taking away the importance of the hurt is an extremely valuable thing that we can learn from the individuals in these camps. Allowing space for happiness without minimizing the suffering that was inflicted on these individuals allows for greater connection and understanding of the true impact of the racially-based mass imprisonment of 120,000 Americans.

Even though this event happened over 75 years ago, it is still extremely relevant to today’s society. This event helps illuminate the racial injustices that have been created from a societal level for years. The examination of this artifact and event also helps to inspire action because they display the importance of recognition and allowing for stories to be told about these race-based injustices. I encourage everyone to further analyze the ethnic inequities that we see in today’s society, and how it affects the individual and community as a whole.

WORKS CITED:

Alexis J. Karolin & Roger C. Aden (2021) Identifying home: a narrative of Japanese American internment, Communication Quarterly, 69:2, 192-213, DOI: 10.1080/01463373.2021.1913427m

Nagata, D. K., Kim, J. H. J., & Wu, K. (2019). The Japanese American wartime incarceration: Examining the scope of racial trauma. American Psychologist, 74(1), 36–48. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000303

Tateishi, J. (2017). And justice for all: An oral history of the Japanese American Detention Camps. University of Washington Press.

Tong, B. (2004). Race, culture, and citizenship among Japanese American children and adolescents during the internment era. Journal of American Ethnic History, 23(3), 3+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A403785981/ITOF?u=wylrc_uwyoming&sid=summon&xid=747215d9