"...These people are living in the midst of a desert where they see nothing except tar paper covered barracks, sagebrush, and rocks…. 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

The Minidoka Relocation Center, 15 miles north of Twin Falls and 150 miles southeast of Boise, was also referred to as the Hunt Camp. Minidoka was considered a model environment because of its relatively peaceful atmosphere and population that got along well with the administration. Because it was not within the Western Defense Command restricted area, security was somewhat lighter than at most other camps. But when the internees first arrived, they were shocked to see the bleak landscape that was to be there home over the next three years.

Located on the Snake River Plain at an elevation of 4000 feet, the land is dotted with sagebrush and thin basaltic lava flows and cinder cones. The internees found the environment to be extremely harsh, with temperatures ranging from 30 degrees below zero to as high as 115 degrees. They also had to contend with blinding dust storms and ankle-deep mud after the rains.

Minidoka was in operation from August 10, 1942 to October 28, 1945. The reserve covered more than 33,000 acres of land in Jerome County. The camp’s peak population reached 9,397 by March 1, 1943, and it became Idaho's third largest city. Five miles of barbed wire fencing and eight watchtowers surrounded the administrative and residential areas, which were located in the west-central portion of the reserve.

Most of the people interned at Minidoka were from the Pacific Northwest: approximately 7,050 from Seattle and Bainbridge Island, Washington, 2,500 from Oregon and 150 from Alaska, including children or grandchildren of Eskimo women and Japanese men. They were temporarily housed at the Puyallup Fairgrounds in Washington, then sent by train to Idaho. In early 1943, all of the Bainbridge Island, Washington, residents interned at the Manzanar Relocation Center were transferred to Minidoka at their own request because of constant conflict with the internees from Terminal Island in Los Angeles.

The central camp consisted of 600 buildings on 950 acres. When the first internees arrived at Minidoka in August 1942, they moved into the crude barracks even though much of the camp was unfinished and there was no running water or sewage system. The Army insisted on having all Japanese removed from the West Coast at once, and they did not halt the evacuation until the camp could hold no more. The last group of 500 evacuees to arrive at the camp had to sleep in mess halls, laundry rooms, or any available bed space. Waiting in line for many daily functions, especially meals, was common.

The camp’s residential area encompassed 36 blocks and was one mile wide and three miles long. Each block included 12 tarpaper barracks, one dining hall, one laundry building with communal showers and toilets and a recreation hall. Immediately after arrival, the internees were instructed to see the camp physician, and then they received an apartment assignment. Apartments were of three sizes, and where possible, family groups or relatives were placed near each other. Efforts were later made to move people near their place of employment.

Living conditions were difficult and the quarters were cramped. Families of up to eight or nine lived in the one-room apartments, and the only furniture supplied were Army cots and a pot-bellied stove, so people made furniture from scrap lumber. Coal and water had to be hand carried. During the winter months, over 100 tons of coal a day were needed to heat the buildings. When the dust storms hit, people could not see more than a couple of feet ahead of them, and many suffered regularly from sore throats and nosebleeds.

Aside from the regimented life and lack of privacy, Minidoka functioned like any self-sustaining town. It had Block Managers, who served as representatives to the administration and helped facilitate policies. Residents would also report problems to them, such as lost and found articles, leaky roofs or broken windows. The camp had two elementary schools, and its high school opened in November 1942 with an enrollment of 1,225. The class of 1943 had 188 graduating seniors. The camp also had a library, a 196-bed hospital, fire stations, a newspaper, bands, choirs, orchestras and cultural activities.

The internees constructed a gym for indoor activities, and they pursued outdoor sports as well. In the winter, a small pond became an ice skating rink. There were nine baseball diamonds, and swimming in the North Side Canal was popular in the summer. But the water in the canal was swift, and after a drowning accident, the internees built two swimming pools. The camp also had a landscaped park and picnic area. The internees were resourceful in their efforts to beautify their surroundings, and they designed gardens that included trees, flowers, and shrubs within the camp.

Those who wanted to work could find a job at the camp’s placement office. Internees worked in agriculture, livestock production, and light manufacturing to produce food and garments for the camp. They staffed the hospital and mess halls and provided various other services to the residents.

Agriculture was an important part of the camp operations. In 1942, 350 acres were cleared and farmed, and by the next year, 420 acres were under cultivation, with 2,400 Minidoka residents working the fields during the 1943 harvest. The farmland grew to about 740 acres in 1944, and the camp was able to provide food for some of the other camps as well. A variety of vegetables, including potatoes, beans and onions, were grown in the fields just outside of the fenced residential areas. They also grew alfalfa, clover, barley and oats. To the east of the fenced area were the cattle, hog and chicken farms.

Because of the shortage of farm labor during the war, the Japanese Americans at Minidoka were a valuable labor source for southern Idaho's agricultural-based economy. Some internees worked at farms outside the camp alongside German prisoners of war, who lived in their own camps nearby. Minidokans were given the credit for saving the beet crop in western Idaho in 1943, and they had played a critical role in helping Idaho's agricultural industries support the war effort by doubling their wartime production.

When the War Department reopened the draft in January 1944, it seemed that the Minidokans would have little resistance. But tensions, in fact, were already on the rise in late 1943, and resentment over the draft hit a climax in April 1944 when 6 of the 57 internees called for induction did not show up. The 6 were arrested and taken to Boise, where they were put in the Ada County Jail to await their trials.

By the end of the summer, 38 resisters were in jail, and all were arraigned in federal court on draft evasion indictments. Most of the lawyers ordered to represent the resisters did little or nothing to help them. The jurors convicted all of the internees over a period of 13 days. Those who had entered guilty pleas received 18-month sentences and the others were sentenced to three years and three months in prison and a $200 fine. They were sent to the federal penitentiary at McNeil Island, Washington.

The majority of the Japanese-Americans remained intensely loyal to the United States despite their predicament. When the Army formed an all-Japanese-American combat unit – the legendary 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team – the greatest number of volunteers came from Minidoka, giving the Nisei soldiers from the Seattle area one of the highest WWII service records of any ethnic group in the nation. Approximately 1000 internees from Minidoka enlisted in the military and 73 soldiers died in combat – the largest casualty number of all the camps.

In January 1945, the War Department began allowing internees to return to the West Coast. Minidoka officially closed on October 23, 1945. The Bureau of Reclamation subsequently sold the land for homesteading to veterans. Farmhouses and irrigated fields now occupy much of the former site. On January 17, 2001, a presidential proclamation established the 72-acre former camp as the Minidoka Internment National Monument. The site became the 385th National Monument of the National Park Service on September 26, 2001.

Burton, Jeffery F.; Farrell, Mary M.; Lord, Florence B.; Lord, Richard W. Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites, Western Archeological and Conservation Center, National Park Service, Publications in Anthropology 74, 1999.

Friends of Minidoka web site: http://www.minidoka.org

Muller, Eric. Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Murdock, Teresa. "The Move to Minidoka," University of Washington Library, Japanese American Exhibit and Access Project, 1997.

http://www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/harmony/Exhibit/minidoka.html

Reprinted with permission from "Echoes of Silence:  The Untold Stories of the Nisei Soldiers Who Served in WWII" with thanks to the AJA WWII Memorial Alliance educational project who produced the CD.