80 Years Ago: Closing of Minidoka
Photo: Buses preparing to depart Minidoka, Courtesy of the National Archives, photo no. 210-CMB-V2-1944
By Micah Hetherington, Friends of Minidoka Granuate Research Fellow
On October 28, 1945, Minidoka officially closed as a concentration camp for people of Japanese ancestry. Throughout incarceration, people who fit strict qualifications of release and perceptions of loyalty were able to move out of camp for work or school. Japanese Americans could not move back to the West Coast until the ban was lifted on January 2, 1945. By the start of 1945, 7,770 people still lived at Minidoka and had less than a year to figure out where they would go. Elders and young families made up most of the remaining population.
As 1945 went by, administration staff cited people not believing that Minidoka would close as the biggest obstacle to relocation. On June 22nd, camp administration moved up closing by almost a month. Due to fears of racial prejudice, losing contact with enlisted family members, and restarting their lives, many people held fast to staying at Minidoka; by the start of August, less than half of the population left Minidoka. The closer the deadline came, the less compassion staff showed for people at Minidoka. Arthur Kleinkopf, Superintendent of Education at Minidoka, recounted in his diary how an elderly gentleman (whose family already moved back to Washington) received a three-day notice in early October when he made no plans for relocation. After the notice ended, and the man continued to go on as normal, staff forced him to pack and put him on a train to Shoshone.
The last months of Minidoka were filled with confusion and fear as WRA employees pushed hundreds of people out to move somewhere unknown and restart their lives once more. Though the closing of camp meant freedom, it reinforced ongoing trauma of dislocation from their community.
Note: The 80th anniversary commemoration at Minidoka National Historic Site planned by Friends of Minidoka and National Park Service staff has been rescheduled to a later date due to the government shutdown. Check our website for updated information.