Robert “Bob” Sato was 16 when Pearl Harbor was bombed, and shortly thereafter, Executive Order 9066 was signed into action.
For Sato and his family, this meant abandoning their home, their jobs and normal lives for Camp Minidoka — a Japanese-American internment camp located between Twin Falls and Jerome, Idaho. As they packed their most valuable possessions, Sato’s father tried to explain the situation as best as he could to his family.
“I don’t know where they’re taking us,” his father said. “I don’t know how long we’re going to be. I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to come back. Just remember this is your country, and you have to act accordingly.”
When Sato turned 19, he was drafted to serve in the U.S. Army. While Sato put his life on the line for his native country, his family still remained incarcerated behind Minidoka’s barbwire fences in Block 19, Barrack 7, Apartment B.
Sato’s story is just one featured in the book of photojournalist Teresa Tamura who visited Moscow last Saturday to tell the stories of many Japanese-Americans who were imprisoned in Minidoka, and to promote her book “Minidoka: An American Concentration Camp.“ The book features essays, stories and interviews with camp survivors, and 180 black-and-white photographs documenting the Minidoka experiences for residents.
“I asked people who were at Minidoka, ‘What do you want people to know about this experience?'” Tamura said. “To others I asked, ‘Why do they think it is important to remember this?’ I wanted people to think about these things.”
Minidoka was one of 10 concentration camps established in the U.S., following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Tamura said the attack led to national paranoia toward the loyalties of Japanese-Americans, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This allowed around 120,000 Japanese-Americans to be taken away from their homes and businesses to be housed in tarpaper barracks constantly watched by guard towers.
“At 5 years old I started my schooling, I learned to put my hand over my heart and pledge allegiance to the American flag with liberty and justice for all,” Minidoka prisoner Mako Nakagawa said. “I learned liberty and justice for all when I was a 5-year-old prisoner behind barbed wire fences in an American concentration camp.”
Tamara described the conditions inside the camp barracks as Spartan living — rooms were furnished with a coal burning stove, metal cots and little else. However, some residents worked to make situations better for the community.
One prisoner, George Nakashima, met a carpenter who taught him to be a carpenter while he was imprisoned. At Minidoka, he would create furniture with objects he found in the camp, and he continued to hone his craft even after he was freed from his imprisonment.
The experience also dramatically altered the life courses of many inmates, Tamura said. She told the story of one inmate who had plans to study art in Hiroshima, Japan, prior to being forced into the Minidoka internment camp. The experience impacted him so much that he abandoned his dream and worked at a lottery company for the rest of his life, in order to support his family.
Tamura shared many other stories during her presentation, and then had a question and answer period with the audience, before signing copies of her book. The event was hosted in the 1912 Center, and was sponsored by the Moscow Public Library, the Palouse Asian American Association and Friends of the Moscow Library.
George Wood Jr. can be reached at [email protected]