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History of the Minidoka Concentration Camp
What is Minidoka?
About 18 miles northeast of Twin Falls in south-central Idaho, stands a lone lava rock chimney tower and portions of a building wall; these building remnants are the most conspicuous remains of the historic Minidoka War Relocation Center; a WWII American concentration camp where over 13,000 people of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated between 1942 and 1945.
These American "sites of shame" are a stark and solemn reminder of a disturbing chapter in American history.
"... these people are living in the midst of a desert where they see nothing except tar paper covered barracks, sagebrush, and rocks. No flowers, no trees, no shrubs, no grass. 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 Kleinkopf, Superintendent of Education
from the Minidoka Relocation Center Relocation Center Diary
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