“A Day Which Will Live In Infamy…”
What, you might be thinking, is the famous quote from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, have to do with Cody, Wyoming? Well, it turns out, a lot. As I weave together this chapter of the Lunch Box Journal, I have to remind myself how easy it is to judge from the perspective of 73 years later…
The surprise attack by the Japanese created a wave of hysteria on the mainland, especially along the West Coast. There was a sizable population of Japanese-American citizens residing in Washington, Oregon and California, many of them second and third generation citizens who were law-abiding and productive members of their community, However, the fear of a secret army of sympathizers lead to the issuing of Executive Order 9066, which required the immediate and forcible removal of all west coast US citizens of Japanese descent to one of 10 “relocation camps” located in the interior of the country, all on the eastern side of the Cascade/Sierra Mountains. The closest to Oregon was actually in Tule Lake, a short distance south of Klamath Falls, and another was at Heart Mountain, about 15 miles east of Cody, Wyoming.
Posters like that above were soon displayed throughout the West Coast. Leaving everything behind and losing all property, individuals were allowed to carry one suitcase of belongings. All else was lost. By August of 1942 more than 120,000 American citizens of Japanese descent were incarcerated in one of the ten relocation camps. Heart Mountain Relocation Camp was built on high plateau desert in the Big Horn Basin between Cody and Powell along the Shoshone River. There were two levels to the camp. The lower level was along the Shoshone River Valley next to the railroad tracks. During the construction of the camp a canal was also built to bring water to the area, both for personal and agricultural use. The area along the railroad tracks became farmland as the camp raised most of its’ own food. The main residential and administrative areas of the camp were built on a plateau to the northwest of the farming area, above a gentle ridge in the shadow of Heart Mountain. The camp received its first residents on August 11, 1942.
What they saw upon arrival was beyond belief. Overnight the third largest city in Wyoming had been built of wood and tar paper and soon it would house over 10,000 people behind barb-wire and guard towers. The excellent visitor center/museum is built to be a replica of 3 of the barracks that housed the residents. When completed, the camp held 468 of these barracks.
The camp was organized into 30 “blocks” separated by a dirt street grid. 20 of these blocks were set aside for residential barracks in groups of 24 (in most blocks.) Other blocks were reserved for the hospital complex, administration and two large play areas. Initially the barracks were not insulated and the tar paper/wood was a poor defense against the extreme weather of this desolate country. However, in early 1943 insulated panels similar to dry wall arrived and conditions improved slightly. Each barrack was divided into “apartments” which were simply rooms of various sizes designed to hold singles or families that had cots, a stove for heat and a single light hanging from the ceiling. Communal toilets, shower rooms and two mess halls were provided for each block. This not-so-very good picture of the brochure gives you the outline of the camp. Eventually the camp had its own water system, hospital, post office, court system, fire department, schools and even a miniature zoo. This map of the camp is from the center brochure.
The larger dark brown line on the lower right is Highway 14 with the railroad tracks right next to it on the left. The thin brown lines are the current day roads, the star is the visitor center, and just past the right turn to the visitor center the road continues up the ridge to the plateau above with the hospital complex on the right at the top of the hill (the star says “Boiler Chimney”) and the memorial on the left where the road ends.
Just behind the visitor’s center is a reconstruction of one of the nine guard towers (brown dots on the map) that guarded the complex. Etched against the sky above the plateau is the chimney from the hospital heating plant. A barbwire fence circled the entire town.
As the road that goes up to the memorial reaches the crest of the small ridge the broad plateau that served as the town opens up before you with Heart Mountain looming in the distance. This flat land is now farmed and there is no remnant of the town that once housed over 10,000 people except for the remains of the hospital complex just out of this picture to the right.
There are three buildings that remain standing as part of a hospital complex that once numbered 17 buildings. Like most of the business and services provided in the camp, the hospital was staffed by trained Japanese-American medical doctors and personnel who were residents of the camp. Two of the hospital wards still stand while nearby the hospital heating plant huddles under the towering smoke stack.
One of the main problems in the camp was keeping everyone busy. Most of the men worked in various capacities but efforts were made to provide recreational outlets for all. There were two elementary schools and Heart Mountain High School, which graduated nearly 800 students during the three years of its’ existence. The high school fielded athletic teams that were given special dispensation to be able to compete with the neighboring high schools in the Wyoming Athletic Association. One of the more challenging academic problems was how to teach the tenets of democracy in the United States to high school students who could look out windows to the barbwire fences and guard posts that confined them in what seemed to be a clear violation of their constitutional rights. Two movie theatres, the Dawn and the Pagoda, were set up in large recreation halls and showed films on weekends. Boy Scout, Girls Scout, and Campfire Girl troops were established and the children allowed to intermingle with troops from neighboring Cody and Powell. At one of these gatherings a lasting friendship was formed between a boy from Cody, Alan Simpson, and a boy in the camp who was from San Jose, California, Norman Mineta. Alan Simpson became one of the more powerful Republican senators for nearly 20 years in Congress during the 1980’s and 1990’s, while Norman Mineta served as Secretary of Transportation under President Bush from 2000-2006.
In one of the more ironic actions on the part of the US government during WWII, the government decided to draft eligible men of Japanese descent from the relocation camps. The largest protest of this decision occurred at Heart Mountain. While over 800 men and women from Heart Mountain did distinguish themselves in service in the Armed Forces during the war, 85 protestors refused the draft order. This lead to the largest mass trial in Wyoming history and 63 men were tried, convicted and sent to federal penitentiaries for 3 year terms. A memorial to those who fought stands at the edge of the ridge overlooking the railroad tracks and river valley below.
In the 1940’s several court cases worked their way through the system as the constitutionality of the Relocation Act was debated. The first two lost, but in 1944 the Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiff was “entitled to an unconditionally release by the War Relocation Authority.” This, combined with the winding down of the war, lead to the closing of the relocation camps. Heart Mountain officially closed on November 10, 1945. Internees were given a train ticket and $25 to begin their new lives after the camp, most with nowhere to go and little other resources to rely on since all else was lost when their detainment began.
In 1988 Congress passed a law apologizing for the actions…
Next up: The Crown Jewel of Cody, Wyoming
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