The ruthless bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 created such fear that overnight anyone in America of Japanese descent suddenly became the enemy: neighbors, schoolmates, and local business owners all became possible spies.
Darrin and I often talk about how resilient we have become during this journey due to the constant change of moving from place to place and basically living outdoors in all types of weather, all kinds of environments, at all elevations, and around all types of animals and people. Today, we were once again humbled when we visited the Minidoka Relocation Center just north of Twin Falls, Idaho.
In 1942, months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt signed Executive order 9066 which forced over 120,000 west coast persons of Japanese descent into ten prison camps, Minidoka Relocation Center was one of the ten.
Hastily built, Minidoka housed approximately 10,000 individuals of Japanese descent from Alaska, Bainbridge Island, Washington and the west coast of Oregon. Placed in a deserted corner of the Idaho high desert, the tar and green wood structures of the camp gave the incarcerated individuals very little protection from the bitter cold winters and blazing hot summers.
What stuck with Darrin and I as we walked around the remains of Minidoka was the resiliency of the people incarcerated there. The camp had very little privacy, the bare necessities of a civilized life and weather unlike anything they had experienced on the west coast, yet they built a life in the camp. They created activities to relieve the boredom, turned the high desert into farmland for fresh food, and turned the tar covered barrack cubicles into homes.
The historic site said the Japanese had a saying, “Shikata ga nai” which means “it can’t be helped”. I guess in modern slang it would be similar to “shit happens”, so make the best of it and carry on. Once again we have come across people who have more resiliency then I could ever imagine. Sometimes it is really a struggle not to pass judgements on the past. We weren’t there, we didn’t walk in their shoes, but what the hell. How can such awful things happen in a supposedly civilized world.
