Minidoka National Historic Site

Named for the Dakota Sioux word for a spring, this concentration camp is along an irrigation canal, where the Japanese-American prisoners built a swimming hole and tried to fish. The sincere efforts to try to improve their confinement somehow make the circumstances even sadder. Thousands of Americans were cut off from their homes, neighbors and country, due to their national origin and race. Most German and Italian Americans were not incarcerated during WWII. Neither were most Japanese-Americans in Hawaii. Most of those kept here were from the Pacific Northwest and had lived in the US for a generation or more. Many also found their property had been stolen when they tried to go home. Under Carter and Reagan the survivors were paid $20,000 compensation for “race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership”.

4 thoughts on “Minidoka National Historic Site

  1. Pingback: Manzanar National Historic Site | Zero Carbon Travel

  2. Pingback: Amache National Historic Site | Zero Carbon Travel

  3. Pingback: Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park | Zero Carbon Travel

  4. Pingback: American Concentration Camps | Zero Carbon Travel

Leave a comment