The Japanese Internment Experience at Minidoka National Historic Site

During World War II, the United States government forcibly relocated over 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese immigrants to internment camps across the country. One of these camps was located in Minidoka, Idaho. As I walked through the campsite, I could sense the pain and suffering that the detainees must have felt. The living conditions were poor, with families cramped into small barracks with no privacy. The detainees were forced to work long hours in the hot sun, often doing menial tasks such as farm labor. Despite the hardships, the detainees tried to maintain a sense of community and even created an orchestra and a baseball team. It was a sobering experience to learn about this dark period in American history.