Resettlement and Camp Closing

Resettlement and Camp Closing

The Nisei, or second generation, were allowed to leave Minidoka to work, attend school, or join the military, and left behind their Issei parents. This policy provided the Nisei some freedom, but further broke up the family. On January 2, 1945, the War Department began allowing Japanese Americans to return to the West Coast. When Minidoka officially closed on October 23, 1945, the WRA encouraged people to disperse throughout the country. With $25 for train or bus fare, Japanese Americans were expected to begin a new life.

Camp administrators and staff remained at Minidoka until February 1946. After the camp was decommissioned, the Bureau of Reclamation offered the land to white veterans for homesteading. Farmhouses and irrigated fields now occupy portions of the former site of the Minidoka concentration camp.