Last Tuesday, MJ Vega, a historian who specializes in history of the Palouse Area, gave a presentation on Japanese Student Relocation on the Palouse at the Hunga Dunga brewery. On the 79-year anniversary of D-Day, Vega discussed one of the more shameful acts committed by the US government, and one that happened in Idaho’s backyard.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, in the following months the US government would begin the internment of Japanese Americans, with one of these camps located 17 miles northeast of Twin Falls Idaho. With the attack on Pearl Harbor would also come a massive spike in discrimination against Japanese Americans.
Vega discussed the Japanese American student relocation programs created by the University of Idaho and WSU, and anti-racist groups created by the students and citizens of both towns in response to discrimination against Japanese Americans. Vega told the story of a group of Japanese American students from Seattle in 1942, and their experiences with the relocation program.
The Japanese students were harassed by resident of Moscow, and some of the students at UI, but many of the students grew fond of them and helped them in their struggles. six Japanese American students faced countless threats of violence and even death threats. Two of these students, the Nisei girls, were eventually moved into protective custody in the Latah County jail.
Idaho Governor Chase Clark disapproved of Japanese students moving to relocation to Moscow and influenced UI’s decision to block their entry. The decision to block these students only denied the entry of the “Moscow Six.” The University of Idaho’s student body disapproved of this, and at one point in an Argonaut article on April 24, 1942, Clark was compared to Nazi stormtroopers in his approach against Japanese Americans. The author of the article wrote “When people begin talking citizenship in terms of race, they are borrowing from the handbook of fascist leaders. When a minority group begins shoving another smaller group of citizens around with no regard for their rights as citizens, they are using the tactics of Nazi storm troopers.”
After nine days of the “Moscow Six” residing in Moscow, they were moved to Pullman due to threats of violence against them. Eventually, the relocation program turned to be unsuccessful at UI, but proved to work in other parts of the country up until 1945. These stories were widely unknown and forgotten after the year of 1945, but at the start of 2020, with the pandemic and the rise in violence against Asian Americans, these stories became very relevant and were rediscovered by the Latah County historical society.
Vega has a YouTube channel that is focused on the history of the Palouse area called: Footnotes of History. His channel highlighting “overlooked events and people of the past” can be found here.
Disclaimer: This article has been edited to more accurately tell the story of the “Moscow Six,” and the relocation of Japanese American students in Idaho.
Ben DeWitt can be reached at [email protected] and on twitter @BenDeWitt321
Unlimited Proxies
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