A History Lesson at Heart Mountain

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

~ Winston Churchill

                          

Yesterday was a different sort of day trip for us. Our usual outing involves atv's, mountains, pictures, etc. But, of course, when you ride the machines as much as we do, they require some maintenance. So we dropped them off in Powell for a little TLC. Now we had some time to kill. After a quick trip into Cody for lunch and a visit to Wayne's Boot Shop, we drove back to Heart Mountain World War II Japanese American Confinement Site. 

While the Wild West has plenty of historical places to visit, most of them are homestead and mining related. I was not aware until recently that our region had any connection to WW II other than some spotty war-related mining. Dan, however, being the history buff that he is, had read of the confinement of Japanese Americans after the attack at Pearl Harbor. One such confinement facility was located in the shadow of Heart Mountain, between Powell and Cody, Wyoming. 

We began our tour in the interpretive center. Many, many pictures and quotes helped us understand the impact that the forced evacuations made on the lives of thousands of West Coast Japanese American citizens. We then viewed a short documentary before perusing exhibits from "camp" life. Afterward we went outside to see the remaining structures -- a guard tower and the hospital boiler house and chimney. 

It was a sobering place. It was not hard to imagine myself in their shoes. I envisioned myself as a typical American teenager. One day - in school, hanging out with friends, doing whatever teens did socially in the 1940's. The next day - packing ONE suitcase (they were allowed to bring only what they could carry) for a train trip to an unknown destination. I pondered what it might have been like to be a mother of a young child in that situation. One suitcase for linens, bedding, and clothing! Which of her own necessities did she sacrifice so that life could be as normal as possible for her son or daughter? I thought about how it would feel to be jerked from a comfortable home and a successful business in a busy city and to be dropped literally in the middle of nowhere in a barren Wyoming prairie.

As vivid as my imagination may be, I am sure that I cannot begin to understand what these people went through. While this blog post is in no way meant to be political, one quote in particular really struck me: "...if you think that the Constitution protects you, you better make sure that the Constitution is actively operating... in other words 'constituent vigilance'! Otherwise, it's a scrap of paper. We had the Constitution to protect us in 1942. It didn't because the will of the people weren't behind it." ~ Gordon Hirabayashi