View source for Heart Mountain Relocation Center

{{Short description|Historic place in Wyoming, United States}} 
{{Use American English|date=August 2022}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2022}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name                 = Heart Mountain Relocation Center
| nrhp_type            = nhl
| image                = heart_mountain_marker_with_mountain_behind.jpg
| caption              = Heart Mountain historical marker and mountain behind
| nearest_city         = [[Ralston, Wyoming]]
| area                 =
| built                = 1942
| architect            = [[US Army Corps of Engineers]]; Hazra Engineering; Hamilton Br. Co.
| architecture         =
| designated_nrhp_type = September 20, 2006<ref name="nhlsum">{{Cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1164118837&ResourceType=District|title=Heart Mountain Relocation Center|access-date=June 28, 2007|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081208053857/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1164118837&ResourceType=District|archive-date=December 8, 2008}}</ref>
| added                = December 19, 1985<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2007a}}</ref>
| location             = [[Park County, Wyoming]], USA
| coordinates          = {{Coord|44|40|18|N|108|56|47|W|display=inline,title}}
| refnum               = 85003167
}}

The '''Heart Mountain War Relocation Center''', named after nearby [[Heart Mountain (Wyoming)|Heart Mountain]] and located midway between the northwest [[Wyoming]] towns of [[Cody, Wyoming|Cody]] and [[Powell, Wyoming|Powell]], was one of ten concentration camps<!-- Please discuss and obtain consensus on the talk page before changing terminology; --> used for the [[internment of Japanese Americans]] evicted during [[World War II]] from their local communities (including their homes, businesses, and college residencies) in the West Coast Exclusion Zone by the executive order of President Franklin Roosevelt (after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, upon the recommendation of [[Lieutenant general (United States)|Lieutenant General]] [[John L. DeWitt]]).

This site was managed before the war by the federal [[Bureau of Reclamation]] as the would-be site of a major irrigation project. Construction of the camp's 650 military-style barracks and surrounding guard towers began in June 1942. The camp opened August 11, when the first Japanese Americans were shipped in by train from the internment program's "[[Internment of Japanese Americans#WCCA Civilian Assembly Centers|assembly centers]]" in [[Fairplex|Pomona]], [[Santa Anita Park|Santa Anita]], and [[Portland Metropolitan Exposition Center|Portland]]. The camp would hold a total of 13,997 Japanese Americans over the next three years, with a peak population of 10,767, making it the third-largest "town" in Wyoming before its November 10, 1945, closure.<ref name=Matsumoto>Matsumoto, Mieko. "[http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Heart%20Mountain/ Heart Mountain] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227025128/http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Heart%20Mountain/ |date=February 27, 2014 }}," ''Densho Encyclopedia''. Retrieved May 14, 2014.</ref> Among the inmates, the [[Ateji|notation]] "{{Nihongo|心嶺山|3=Shinreizan}}" was sometimes applied.{{cn|date=February 2023}}

Heart Mountain is perhaps best known<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Brief History of Heart Mountain Relocation Center {{!}} WyoHistory.org |url=https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/brief-history-heart-mountain-relocation-center |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220111202843/https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/brief-history-heart-mountain-relocation-center |archive-date=2022-01-11 |access-date=2022-12-12 |website=www.wyohistory.org}}</ref> for many of its younger residents challenging the controversial draft of [[Nisei]] males from camp in order to highlight the loss of their rights through the incarceration. The [[Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee]], led by [[Frank S. Emi|Frank Emi]] and several others, was particularly active in this resistance, encouraging internees to refuse U.S. military induction until they and their families were released from camp and their civil rights were restored. Heart Mountain had the highest rate of draft resistance of all ten camps, with 85 young men and seven Fair Play Committee leaders ultimately sentenced and imprisoned for [[Selective Service Act of 1940|Selective Service Act]] violations.<ref name='Resistance-Muller'>Muller, Eric L. "[http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Draft%20resistance/ Draft resistance] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140319025736/http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Draft%20resistance/ |date=March 19, 2014 }}," ''Densho Encyclopedia''. Retrieved May 14, 2014.</ref> (At the same time, 649 Japanese American men<ref name="dropbox.com">{{Cite web|url=https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2nihl23t9tg7uxv/AAAUYc2PkAR72q99FMxy7jGfa/14)%20SOLDIERS%20AND%20CAMPS?dl=0&preview=!SOLDIERS+AND+THE+CAMPS+(Alphabetical)+646B.pdf&subfolder_nav_tracking=1|title=Dropbox – Error}}</ref>—volunteers and draftees—joined the American military from Heart Mountain. In 1944, internees dedicated an Honor Roll listing the names of these soldiers, located near the camp's main gate.)

In 1988 and 1992 the U.S. government passed laws formally apologizing to Japanese Americans for the internment-era violations of their constitutional, state, and personal property rights; and establishing a temporary fund to pay limited reparations ($20,000) to still-living former internees (or their children) who applied and qualified for them.<ref name=st>{{Cite news |first=Jack |last=Broom |title=The Unlikely Story Behind Japanese Americans' Campaign for Reparations |url= https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/03/24/820181127/the-unlikely-story-behind-japanese-americans-campaign-for-reparations |work=[[NPR]] |date=March 24, 2020 |access-date=June 4, 2022}}</ref> The site of the Heart Mountain War Relocation Center is considered to be the best preserved of the ten incarceration centers constructed during World War II.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}} The street grid and numerous foundations are still visible. Four of the original barracks survive in place. A number of others sold and moved after the war have been identified in surrounding counties and may one day be returned to their original locations.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}} In early 2007, {{convert|124|acre|ha|0}} of the center were listed as a [[National Historic Landmark]]. The Bureau of Reclamation owns {{convert|74|acre|ha|0}} within the landmark boundary and currently administers the site. The remaining {{convert|50|acre|ha|0}} were purchased by the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, a nonprofit organization established in 1996 to memorialize the center's internees and to interpret the site's historical significance.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

The Foundation runs the '''Heart Mountain Interpretive Center''', opened in 2011, located at 1539 Road 19, Powell.<ref>Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. "[http://www.heartmountain.org/visit.html The Heart Mountain Interpretive Center] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140517121027/http://www.heartmountain.org/visit.html |date=May 17, 2014 }}." Retrieved September 17, 2014.</ref> The museum includes photographs, artifacts, oral histories and interactive exhibits about the wartime relocation of Japanese Americans, anti-Asian prejudice in America and the factors leading to their enforced relocation and confinement.

==Establishing the camp==
[[File:Wyoming- Heart Mountain- Layout Plan - DPLA - bdbf91209c9e3bd5661918948184b79a.jpg|thumb|right|Plan of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, 1945]]
===Pre-war history===
The land that would become the Heart Mountain War Relocation Center was originally part of the [[Shoshone Project]], an irrigation project under the auspices of the Bureau of Reclamation. In 1897, {{convert|120,000|acre|ha}} of land surrounding the [[Shoshone River]] in northwestern Wyoming was purchased by [[Buffalo Bill|William "Buffalo Bill" Cody]] and Nate Salisbury, who in May 1899 acquired water rights to irrigate {{convert|60,000|acre|ha}} surrounding [[Cody, Wyoming]].<ref name=Shoshone1>Stene, Eric A. "[http://www.usbr.gov/projects//ImageServer?imgName=Doc_1305642556544.pdf Shoshone Project History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140517114743/http://www.usbr.gov/projects//ImageServer?imgName=Doc_1305642556544.pdf |date=May 17, 2014 }}," (U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, 1996), p 3.</ref> After the project proved too costly for the original investors, the Wyoming State Board of Land Commissioners petitioned the federal government to take it over. The rights for the Cody-Salisbury tract were transferred to the Secretary of the Interior in 1904 and the Shoshone Project was approved later that year as one of the earliest Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) projects.<ref name=Shoshone1/><ref name=HMnomination>Miyagishima, Kara M. "[http://www.nps.gov/nhl/find/statelists/wy/HeartMountain.pdf National Historic Landmark Nomination] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140503154922/http://www.nps.gov/nhl/find/statelists/wy/HeartMountain.pdf |date=May 3, 2014 }}" (National Park Service, November 2004). Retrieved May 14, 2014.</ref>

In 1937 during the [[Great Depression]], the BOR used private contractors and [[Civilian Conservation Corps]] laborers to begin construction on the Shoshone Canyon Conduit and the Heart Mountain Canal, as one of a number of governmental infrastructure projects. The conduit, spanning {{convert|2.8|mi}}, was completed in September 1938. Construction on the unfinished canal stopped after the United States entered World War II.<ref name=Matsumoto/><ref>Stene, Eric A. "[http://www.usbr.gov/projects//ImageServer?imgName=Doc_1305642556544.pdf Shoshone Project History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140517114743/http://www.usbr.gov/projects//ImageServer?imgName=Doc_1305642556544.pdf |date=May 17, 2014 }}," pp 14–17</ref>

===Executive Order 9066===
Shortly after the Japanese [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] on December 7, 1941, President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] issued [[Executive Order 9066]], which authorized military commanders to create zones from which "any or all persons may be excluded." The War Department had requested this and designated Western Washington and Oregon, southern Arizona, and all of California as Exclusion Zones on March 2, 1942. Four days later, the executive order informally extended to [[Alaska]], covering the entire [[West Coast of the United States]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/Guard-US/ch5.htm |title=Chapter V: Japanese Evacuation From the West Coast, page 143 |access-date=July 8, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190708052055/https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/Guard-US/ch5.htm |archive-date=July 8, 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref> It defined Japanese Americans, Italian Americans and German Americans as peoples to be excluded from these areas. Soon after the War Department initiated the removal of over 110,000 Japanese Americans from these areas, forcing them into temporary "assembly centers" run by the [[Internment of Japanese Americans#WCCA Civilian Assembly Centers|Wartime Civil Control Administration]]. Typically, these centers were hastily converted large public spaces, such as fairgrounds and horse racing tracks, while construction on Heart Mountain and the other more permanent "[[Internment of Japanese Americans#WRA Relocation Centers|relocation centers]]" were completed.

[[File:Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Heart Mountain, Wyoming. Looking west over the Heart Mountain Rel . . . - NARA - 538782.jpg|thumb|Heart Mountain, Wyoming. Looking west over the Heart Mountain Relocation Center with its sentry namesake, Heart Mountain, on the horizon. (NARA 538782)]]

===Building Heart Mountain===
On May 23, 1942, the War Department announced that one of the camps for displaced Japanese Americans would be located in Wyoming, and several communities, hoping to capitalize on internee labor for irrigation and land development projects, vied for the site.<ref name=HMnomination/> Heart Mountain was chosen because it was remote yet convenient, isolated from the nearest towns but close to fresh water and adjacent to a railroad spur and depot where Japanese Americans, as well as food and supplies, could be off-loaded.<ref name=Matsumoto/>

On June 1, 1942, the Bureau of Reclamation transferred {{convert|46,000|acre}} of the Heart Mountain Irrigation Project and several CCC buildings to the [[War Relocation Authority]], the branch of the [[Western Defense Command]] responsible for administration of the incarceration program.<ref name=Matsumoto/><ref name='HMWF-LifeInCamp'>Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, "[http://www.heartmountain.org/lifeincamp.html Life in Camp] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329155654/http://www.heartmountain.org/lifeincamp.html |date=March 29, 2019 }}" Retrieved May 14, 2014.</ref> More than 2,000 laborers, including men employed by the Harza Engineering Company of Chicago and the Hamilton Bridge Company of Kansas City, began work on June 8, under the direction of the [[U.S. Army Corps of Engineers|Army Corps of Engineers]].<ref name=HMnomination/> The workers enclosed {{convert|740|acre}} of arid buffalo grass and sagebrush with a high barbed wire fence and nine guard towers. Within this perimeter, 650 military-style barracks were laid out in a street grid, with administrative, hospital, educational, and utility facilities, and 468 residential dormitories to house the internees.<ref name=HMnomination/>

All of the buildings were electrified, which was at the time a rarity in Wyoming, but due to time constraints and a largely unskilled workforce, the majority of these "buildings" were poorly constructed. Army higher-ups gave the site's chief engineer only sixty days to complete the project, and newspaper ads recruiting laborers promised jobs "if you can drive a nail" while workers boasted that it took them only 58 minutes to build an apartment barracks.<ref name=Matsumoto/><ref name=HMnomination/> Thousands of acres of surrounding land were designated for agricultural purposes, as the center was expected for the most part to be self-sufficient.

==World War II==

===Life in camp===
[[File:Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Heart Mountain, Wyoming. "Tubbie" Kunimatsu and Laverne Kurahara . . . - NARA - 539481.jpg|thumb|"Tubbie" Kunimatsu and Laverne Kurahara demonstrate some intricate [[jitterbug]] steps, during a school dance held in the high school gymnasium, November 1943.]]
The first inmates arrived in Heart Mountain on August 12, 1942: 6,448 from Los Angeles County; 2,572 from Santa Clara County; 678 from San Francisco; and 843 from Yakima County in Washington.<ref name='HMWF-LifeInCamp'/> After being assigned a barracks based on the size of their families, they began making small improvements on their new "apartments," hanging bed sheets to create extra "rooms," and stuffing newspaper and rags into cracks in the shoddily constructed walls and floors to keep out dust and cold.<ref name=Matsumoto/> Some inmates went so far as to order tools from [[Sears|Sears & Roebuck]] catalogs in order to make repairs.<ref name=Mackey>Mackey, Mike. "[http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/haiku/mackey.htm A Brief History of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center and the Japanese American Experience] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808182937/http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/haiku/mackey.htm |date=August 8, 2014 }}." Retrieved May 14, 2014.</ref> Each barracks unit contained one light, a wood-burning stove, and an army cot and two blankets for each member of the family. Bathrooms and laundry facilities were located in shared utility halls, and meals were served in communal mess halls, both assigned by block. Armed military police manned the nine guard towers surrounding the camp.

Leadership positions in Heart Mountain were occupied by European-American administrators, although [[Nisei]] block managers and [[Issei]] councilmen were elected by the inmate population and participated, in a limited capacity, in administration of the camp.<ref name=Matsumoto/> Employment opportunities were available in the hospital, camp schools and mess halls, as well as the garment factory, cabinet shop, sawmill and silk screen shop run by camp officials, although most inmates received a rather paltry salary of $12–$19 a month, due to the WRA's decision that the Japanese could not earn more than an army private regardless of job.<ref name=Matsumoto/><ref name='HMWF-LifeInCamp'/> (Caucasian nurses in the Heart Mountain hospital, for example, were paid $150/month compared to the $19/month given Japanese-American doctors)<ref name='HMWF-LifeInCamp'/><ref name=Mackey/> Additionally, some inmates worked on the unfinished Heart Mountain Canal for the Bureau of Reclamation, or did agricultural work outside the camp.
[[File:Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Heart Mountain, Wyoming. In his barracks home at Block 7 - 21 - NARA - 539206 - Restoration.jpg|The home of the Hosokawas, with (left to right) Alice and [[Bill Hosokawa]] with their son Mike, Reports Officer [[Vaughn Mechau]], Center Librarian Margaret Jensen, and High School Mathematics Teacher [[Julena Steinheider]]|thumb]]  
Children of inmates began school in barrack classrooms in October 1942. Books, school supplies, and furniture were limited. Despite the poor condition of the facilities, attending school offered a sense of normalcy to camp children. In May 1943, the camp high school had been constructed, and the elementary school restructured. The high school, which educated 1,500 students in its first year, featured regular classrooms, a gymnasium and library. Its sports team, including its football team, The Heart Mountain Eagles, eventually competed against other local high school teams.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.heartmountain.org/lifeincamp.html|title = Life in Camp|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190329155654/http://www.heartmountain.org/lifeincamp.html|archive-date = March 29, 2019|url-status = dead}}</ref>

Other sporting events, movie theaters, religious services, crafting groups, and social clubs kept inmates entertained and provided a distraction from the dullness of camp life. Knitting, sewing, and woodcarving were popular not only for entertainment, but because they allowed inmates to improve their dilapidated living conditions. Among children, Girl and Boy Scout programs flourished, as many Nisei had been members before internment. Heart Mountain's thirteen scout troops and two Cub Scout packs were the most of any of the ten camps.<ref name="Matsumoto" /><ref name="HMWF-LifeInCamp" /><ref>{{Cite web|url = http://scoutingmagazine.org/issues/9911/d-wwas.html|title = Scouting in World War II Detention Camps|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231608/http://scoutingmagazine.org/issues/9911/d-wwas.html|archive-date = March 3, 2016|url-status = live}}</ref> Scouts participated in normal scouting activities such as hiking, craft making, and swimming.

===Draft resistance===
In early 1943, camp officials began to administer a "Leave Clearance Form," better known as the [[Internment of Japanese Americans#Loyalty questions and segregation|loyalty questionnaire]] because of two controversial questions that tried to distinguish loyal and disloyal Japanese Americans. Question 27 asked whether men would be willing to serve in the armed forces, while Question 28 asked inmates to forswear all allegiance to the Emperor of Japan. Many, fearing it was a trick and any answer would be misconstrued, or, offended by the questions' implications, answered "no" to one or both questions, or gave a qualified response like, "I will serve when I am free." Soon after, Kiyoshi Okamoto organized the [[Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee]] to protest the infringement of Nisei citizen rights, and Frank Emi, Paul Nakadate and others began posting fliers around camp encouraging others not to respond to the questions.<ref name=Emi>Newman, Esther. "[http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Frank%20Emi/ Frank Emi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190417125844/http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Frank%20Emi/ |date=April 17, 2019 }}," ''Densho Encyclopedia''. Retrieved May 14, 2014.</ref>

[[File:Form letter included in case file exhibits - NARA - 292806.tif|thumb|This document was included in the case of the U.S. vs. Kiyoshi Okamoto, et al. Okamoto and his co-defendants, members of the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee, were indicted for conspiring to assist other Heart Mountain residents in their challenge to [[War Relocation Authority]] policies and the [[Selective Service Act of 1940|Selective Service Act]] as it applied to camp inmates. This letter to local Selective Service boards in California was apparently prepared as a model for internees to use to protest their eligibility for the draft. (NARA 292806)]]

When draft orders began arriving in Heart Mountain, Emi, Okamoto and the other leaders of the Fair Play Committee held public meetings to discuss the unconstitutionality of the incarceration and encourage other inmates to refuse military service until their freedom was restored. On March 25, 1944, twelve Heart Mountain resisters who had not reported for their draft physicals were arrested by U.S. Marshals. Emi and two other Committee members who had not received draft notices (due to their age or domestic status) tried to walk out of camp to highlight their status as prisoners of the government.<ref name=Emi/>

In July 1944, in the largest mass trial in Wyoming history, sixty-three Heart Mountain inmates were prosecuted after refusing to show up for their induction and convicted of felony [[draft evasion]].<ref name='HMWF-LifeInCamp'/><ref name=FPC>Muller, Eric L. "[http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Heart_Mountain_Fair_Play_Committee/ Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190506175616/http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Heart_Mountain_Fair_Play_Committee/ |date=May 6, 2019 }}," ''Densho Encyclopedia''. Retrieved May 14, 2014.</ref> A total of 300 draft resisters from eight WRA camps, including an additional 22 from Heart Mountain sentenced in a subsequent trial, were arrested for this charge, and most served time in federal prison.<ref>"[https://www.pbs.org/itvs/conscience/resistance/index.html Conscience and the Constitution: Resistance] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150503213908/http://www.pbs.org/itvs/conscience/resistance/index.html |date=May 3, 2015 }}" (PBS). Retrieved May 14, 2014.</ref> The seven older leaders of the Fair Play Committee were convicted of conspiracy to violate the Selective Service Act and sentenced to four years in federal prison.<ref name=FPC/> While the [[Poston War Relocation Center|Poston]] concentration camp in Arizona had the highest number of resisters of any camp, at 106, Heart Mountain's 85 resisters from a much smaller population gave it the highest overall rate of draft resistance.<ref name='Resistance-Muller'/>

Although Heart Mountain is remembered primarily for its organized resistance to the draft, approximately 650 Nisei joined the U.S. Army from this camp, either volunteering or accepting their conscription into the legendary 100th Infantry Battalion,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://encyclopedia.densho.org/100th%20Infantry%20Battalion/ |title=100th Infantry Battalion |access-date=November 19, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190909125238/http://encyclopedia.densho.org/100th%20Infantry%20Battalion/ |archive-date=September 9, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> the famed 442nd RCT<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://encyclopedia.densho.org/442nd%20Regimental%20Combat%20Team/ |title=442nd Regimental Combat Team |access-date=November 19, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191220143733/http://encyclopedia.densho.org/442nd%20Regimental%20Combat%20Team/ |archive-date=December 20, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> and MIS.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Military%20Intelligence%20Service/ |title=Military Intelligence Service |access-date=November 23, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191218195958/http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Military%20Intelligence%20Service/ |archive-date=December 18, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> Fifteen of these young men were killed in action and fifty-two wounded. [[Joe Hayashi]] and [[James K. Okubo]] posthumously received the [[Medal of Honor]] for valor in battle, making Heart Mountain the only one of the ten WRA camps to have more than one Medal of Honor recipient.<ref name='HMWF-LifeInCamp'/> In late 1944, camp inmates erected an Honor Roll in front of the administration building listing the names of these soldiers. This wooden tribute stood for five decades, until the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation removed the deteriorating display for preservation. An accurate reproduction, completed in 2003, now stands in place of the original.<ref name='HMWF-About'>Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, "[http://heartmountain.org/thefoundation.html About HMWF] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210233833/http://heartmountain.org/thefoundation.html |date=February 10, 2015 }}." Retrieved May 14, 2014.</ref> The original Honor Roll is being conserved and restored.

===The end of the war===
By the time Roosevelt rescinded Executive Order 9066 in December 1944 and announced that Japanese Americans could begin returning to the West Coast the following month, many had already left camp, most for outside work or to attend college in the Midwest or East Coast. Beginning in January 1945, internees began to leave Heart Mountain for the West Coast, provided by administrators with $25 and a one-way train ticket to the location they had been picked up from three years earlier.<ref name='HMWF-LifeInCamp'/> However, even with the earlier group of resettlers, only 2,000 had left by June 1945, and the 7,000 still remaining within Heart Mountain for the most part represented those who were too young or too old to easily relocate.<ref name=Mackey/> Many Japanese Americans, barred from owning their pre-war homes and farms by [[California Alien Land Law of 1913|discriminatory legislation]], had nothing to return to on the West Coast, but they were prohibited from homesteading in Wyoming by an [[Alien land laws#Utah and Wyoming|alien land law]] passed by the state legislature in 1943 (a law that remained in place until 2001).<ref name=Matsumoto/> Another Wyoming law excluding them from voting further discouraged Japanese Americans from staying in Wyoming.<ref name='HMWF-LifeInCamp'/> The last trainload of former inmates left Heart Mountain on November 10, 1945.<ref name=Matsumoto/><ref name=Mackey/>

==Preservation and remembrance==
After Heart Mountain closed, most of the land, barracks and agricultural equipment were sold to farmers and former servicemen, who established homesteads on and around the camp site.<ref name=Matsumoto/><ref name='HMWF-LifeInCamp'/> The Heart Mountain Irrigation Project continued after the war, and much of the camp's surrounding acreage was tilled for irrigation agriculture. Remnants of the hospital complex (including foundations and 3 buildings), a Heart Mountain High School storage shed, a root cellar, the Honor Roll World War II Memorial and a portion of a remodeled barrack are the only buildings still standing today.

The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, established in 1996, has worked to preserve and memorialize the site and events, educate the general public about the Japanese American incarceration, and support research about the incarceration so that future generations can understand the lessons of the Japanese American incarceration experience. The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation is overseen by a 16-member Board of Directors and is led by the Chair, Shirley Ann Higuchi, a descendant of former internees. The board also includes former internees, scholars, and other professionals working on the local and national level. The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation gained [[National Historic Landmark]] status for the site in 2007 and on August 20, 2011, opened the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center.<ref name="NikkeiView">{{Cite news | last = Asakawa | first = Gil | url = http://www.nikkeiview.com/blog/2011/08/heart-mountain-internment-camps-new-interpretive-learning-center-opens-this-weekend/ | title = Heart Mountain internment Camp's New Interpretive Learning Center Opens This Weekend | date = August 18, 2011 | access-date = August 28, 2011 | publisher = Nikkei View: The Asian American Blog}}</ref><ref name = "PowellTribune-Olson">{{Cite news | last = Olson | first = Ilene | title = Heart Mountain Lesson: Never Again | url = http://www.powelltribune.com/news/item/8657-heart-mountain-lesson-never-again | publisher = Powell Tribune | date = August 23, 2011 | access-date = August 28, 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110914050705/http://www.powelltribune.com/news/item/8657-heart-mountain-lesson-never-again | archive-date = September 14, 2011 | url-status = live }}</ref><ref name = "PowellTribune-Schweigert">{{Cite news | last = Schweigert | first = Tessa | title = Returning To Heart Mountain | url = http://www.powelltribune.com/news/item/8642-returning-to-heart-mountain | publisher = Powell Tribune | date = August 18, 2011 | access-date = August 28, 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110913025929/http://www.powelltribune.com/news/item/8642-returning-to-heart-mountain | archive-date = September 13, 2011 | url-status = live }}</ref> The Center features a permanent exhibit that provides an overview of the history of the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans and the background of anti-Asian prejudice in America that led to it. Along with additional rotating exhibits, these photographs, artifacts and oral histories explore the incarceration experience, constitutional and civil rights issues, and the broader issues of race and social justice in America. Visitors can also participate in a walking tour of the site and its remaining structures. Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation [[Norman Y. Mineta]] and retired U.S. Senator [[Alan K. Simpson]], who met as Boy Scouts on opposite sides of the barbed wire fence surrounding the Heart Mountain compound, were Honorary Advisors to the Foundation.<ref name="Simpson Mineta">{{Cite web|title=Simpson-Mineta Leaders Series|url=http://www.twc.edu/internships/washington-dc-program/internship-experience/LEAD-colloquium/simpson-mineta-leaders-series|website=The Washington Center|access-date=February 10, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210234643/http://www.twc.edu/internships/washington-dc-program/internship-experience/LEAD-colloquium/simpson-mineta-leaders-series|archive-date=February 10, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=WASHINGTON TALK: FRIENDSHIPS; The Heat of War Welds A Bond That Endures Across Aisles and Years|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/26/us/washington-talk-friendships-heat-war-welds-bond-that-endures-across-aisles-years.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=April 26, 1988|access-date=February 8, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022005258/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/26/us/washington-talk-friendships-heat-war-welds-bond-that-endures-across-aisles-years.html|archive-date=October 22, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Foundation hosts an annual pilgrimage at Heart Mountain, the first of which coincided with the Interpretive Center's 2011 opening.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.poweredbythepeople.com/categories/contractors.php|title=Heart Mountain Relocation Center Construction Project|publisher=The Powered by The People construction Group|date=March 27, 2012|access-date=May 17, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150522223739/http://www.poweredbythepeople.com/categories/contractors.php|archive-date=May 22, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Terminology==
{{Further|Internment of Japanese Americans#Terminology debate}}
Since the end of World War II, there has been debate over the terminology used to refer to Heart Mountain and the other camps in which [[Japanese Americans]] were incarcerated by the [[United States Government]] during the war.<ref name="ManzanarControversy">{{Cite web | title = The Manzanar Controversy | url = https://www.pbs.org/weekendexplorer/destinations/california/mammoth/manzanar.htm | publisher = Public Broadcasting System | access-date = July 18, 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20050207005151/http://www.pbs.org/weekendexplorer/destinations/california/mammoth/manzanar.htm | archive-date = February 7, 2005 | url-status = live }}</ref><ref name = "DanielsTerminology">{{Cite journal | last = Daniels | first = Roger | title = Incarceration of the Japanese Americans: A Sixty-Year Perspective | journal = The History Teacher | volume = 35 | issue = 3 | pages = 4–6 | date = May 2002 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DiYkKJ8nkpAC&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.historycooperative.org%2Fjournals%2Fht%2F35.3%2Fdaniels.html&pg=PA479 | access-date = July 18, 2007 | doi = 10.2307/3054440 | jstor = 3054440 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151017183011/https://books.google.com/books?id=DiYkKJ8nkpAC&pg=PA479&lpg=PA479&dq=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.historycooperative.org%2Fjournals%2Fht%2F35.3%2Fdaniels.html&source=bl&ots=uVKt535BE3&sig=ZovX73fxfKEvdW9FJyjoLbhF59Y&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mWxYVZWQC8esUfX1gagI&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.historycooperative.org%2Fjournals%2Fht%2F35.3%2Fdaniels.html&f=false | archive-date = October 17, 2015 | url-status = live | url-access = subscription }}</ref><ref name = "Ito-MotherJones">{{Cite news | last = Ito | first = Robert | title = Concentration Camp Or Summer Camp? | publisher = Mother Jones | date = September 15, 1998 | url = http://motherjones.com/politics/1998/09/concentration-camp-or-summer-camp | access-date = November 18, 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110104212013/http://motherjones.com/politics/1998/09/concentration-camp-or-summer-camp | archive-date = January 4, 2011 | url-status = live }}</ref> Heart Mountain has been referred to as a "War Relocation Center," "relocation camp," "relocation center," "[[internment camp]]," "incarceration camp," and "[[concentration camp]]," and the controversy over which term is the most accurate and appropriate continues to the present day.<ref name = "Reflectionsiii–iv">{{Cite book | title = Reflections: Three Self-Guided Tours Of Manzanar | url = https://archive.org/details/reflectionsinthr00unse | url-access = registration | publisher = Manzanar Committee | year = 1998 | pages = iii–iv}}</ref><ref name="CLPEF">{{Cite web | title=CLPEF Resolution Regarding Terminology | publisher=Civil Liberties Public Education Fund | url=http://www.momomedia.com/CLPEF/backgrnd.html#Link%20to%20terminology | year=1996 | access-date=July 20, 2007 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070703101302/http://www.momomedia.com/CLPEF/backgrnd.html#Link%20to%20terminology | archive-date=July 3, 2007 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="DenshoTerminology">{{Cite web | title = Densho: Terminology & Glossary: A Note On Terminology | publisher = Densho | url = http://www.densho.org/default.asp?path=/assets/sharedpages/glossary.asp?section=home | year = 1997 | access-date = July 15, 2007 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070624065352/http://www.densho.org/default.asp?path=%2Fassets%2Fsharedpages%2Fglossary.asp%3Fsection%3Dhome | archive-date = June 24, 2007 | df = mdy-all }}</ref> Scholars and activists have criticized "internment camp" for being a minimizing, misleading [[euphemism]], as Japanese Americans were not there for protection, performed forced labor, and could not leave.

== Notable internees ==
*[[Hideo Date]] (1907–2005), a painter.
*[[Kathryn Doi Todd|Kathryn Doi]] (born 1942), Associate Justice of the California Second District Court of Appeals.
*[[Frank S. Emi]] (1916–2010), Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee leader and civil rights activist. 
*[[S. Neil Fujita|Sadamitsu "S. Neil" Fujita]] (1921–2010), graphic designer who served in the [[442nd Infantry Regiment (United States)|442nd Regimental Combat Team]].
*[[Evelyn Nakano Glenn]] (born 1940), a professor of Gender & Women Studies and of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and founding director of the Center for Race and Gender (CRG). Also interned at [[Gila River War Relocation Center|Gila River]]. 
*[[Mary Matsuda Gruenewald]] (1925–2021), memoirist. Also interned at [[Tule Lake National Monument|Tule Lake]].
*[[Joe Hayashi]] (1920–1945), 442nd RCT volunteer posthumously awarded [[Medal of Honor]].
*[[Bill Hosokawa]] (1915–2007), author and journalist, editor of the camp newspaper "Heart Mountain Sentinel."<ref name=stb>{{Cite news |first=Jack |last=Broom |title=Newsman Bill Hosokawa defeated bias, his own anger |url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004012907_hosokawaobit14m.html |work=[[Seattle Times]] |date=November 14, 2007 |access-date=February 29, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071217192337/http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004012907_hosokawaobit14m.html |archive-date=December 17, 2007 |url-status=live }}</ref>
*[[Momoko Iko]] (1940–2020), an American playwright.
*[[Estelle Ishigo]] (née Peck) (1899–1990), an American artist married to a Nisei.
*[[George Igawa]], leader of the George Igawa Orchestra, a jazz big band formed by musicians interned within the camp, which played for dances around the region.
*[[George Ishiyama]] (1914–2003), businessman and former president of Alaska Pulp Corporation. Also interned at [[Topaz War Relocation Center|Topaz]].
*[[Hikaru Iwasaki]] (1923–2016), an American photographer.
*[[Lincoln Kanai]] (1908—1982), social worker and civil rights activist who brought a legal challenge to the eviction of Japanese Americans from the West Coast.
*[[Gyomay Kubose]] (1905–2000), a Buddhist teacher. 
*[[Kiyoshi Kuromiya]] (1943–2000), an author and civil and social justice advocate. 
*[[Yosh Kuromiya]] (1923–2018), Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee member who resisted the draft on constitutional grounds and promoted understanding of the Nisei draft resisters in film and public forums. 
*[[Bob Kuwahara|Robert Kuwahara]] (1901–1964), animator.
*[[Bill Manbo]] (1908–1992), an amateur photographer.
*[[Sam Mihara]] (born 1933), an American author and history educator.
*[[Norman Mineta]] (1931–2022), [[United States Secretary of Transportation]] under [[George W. Bush]] and [[United States Secretary of Commerce]] under [[Bill Clinton]].<ref>{{Cite web | last =Matthews | first =Chris | year =2002 | url =http://www.scoutingmagazine.org/issues/0201/d-wwas.html | title =A Pair of Boy Scouts | work =Scouting Magazine | publisher =Boy Scouts of America | access-date =December 16, 2006 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070506210034/http://www.scoutingmagazine.org/issues/0201/d-wwas.html | archive-date =May 6, 2007 | url-status =live }}</ref>
*[[Lane Nakano]] (1925–2005), American soldier turned actor.
*[[Fusataro Nakaya]] (1886–1952), medical doctor (1916 graduate of University of Illinois Medical College), member of California Medical Association, Vice President of Los Angeles Japanese Association.
*[[Shigeki Oka]] (1878–1959), Issei newspaper publisher who was recruited by the British Armed Forces in World War II.
*[[Benji Okubo]] (1904–1975), an American painter, teacher, and landscape designer.
*[[James K. Okubo]] (1920–1967), 442nd RCT veteran posthumously awarded the [[Medal of Honor]]. Also interned at [[Tule Lake National Monument|Tule Lake]].
*[[Mary Oyama Mittwer|Mary Oyama]] (1907–1994), a journalist and community organizer.
*[[Albert Saijo]] (1926–2011), poet.
*[[Doris Ota Saito]] (born 1933), illustrator.
*[[Nyogen Senzaki]] (1876–1958), Rinzai Zen monk who was one of the 20th century's leading proponents of Zen Buddhism in the United States.
*[[Louise Suski]] (1905–2003), first woman editor-in-chief and English-section editor-in-chief at ''[[Rafu Shimpo]]''.
*[[Teiko Tomita]] (1896–1990), a tanka poet.  Also interned at [[Tule Lake National Monument|Tule Lake]].
*[[Otto Yamaoka]] (1904–1967), an American actor and businessman who worked in Hollywood during the 1930s.

==See also==
{{Commons category|Heart Mountain War Relocation Center}}
* [[Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project]]
* [[Japanese American internment]]
* Other camps:
:* [[Gila River War Relocation Center|Gila River]]
:* [[Granada War Relocation Center|Granada (Amache)]]
:* [[Jerome War Relocation Center|Jerome]]
:* [[Manzanar]]
:* [[Minidoka National Historic Site|Minidoka]]
:* [[Poston War Relocation Center|Poston]]
:* [[Topaz War Relocation Center|Topaz]]
:* [[Tule Lake Unit, World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument|Tule Lake]]
:* [[Rohwer War Relocation Center|Rohwer]]

==References==
{{Reflist|3}}

==External links==
* [https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv832459/op=fstyle.aspx?t=k&q=heart+mountain Heart Mountain Relocation Center records] at the [[American Heritage Center]]
* [https://digitalcollections.uwyo.edu/luna/servlet/uwydbuwy~41~41 Digital collection of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center] at [https://digitalcollections.uwyo.edu/luna/servlet AHC Digital Collections]
* [https://ahcwyo.org/page/2/?s=heart+mountain Heart Mountain blog posts] at [https://ahcwyo.org/ AHC blogs]

* [https://calisphere.org/search/?q=BANC+MSS+2002%2F356+cp Heart Mountain Relocation Center records, 1943–1945], [[Bancroft Library|The Bancroft Library]]
* [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/search?query=BANC%20PIC%201988.078--C;group=Items Pig pens at Heart Mountain Relocation Center &#91;graphic&#93; / painted by Estelle Ishigo], [[Bancroft Library|The Bancroft Library]]
* [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/hb5d5nb7c1/ Activities and entertainment at Heart Mountain Relocation Center] – [[Bancroft Library|The Bancroft Library]]
* [http://www.heartmountain.org/ Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation] – Visitor center site
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120506033759/http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/anthropology74/ Confinement and Ethnicity] — National Park Service study on the relocation of Japanese Americans during World War II (out-of-print but can be consulted here for information on Heart Mountain and all ten relocation centers)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160916040320/http://www.nwc.edu/library/special/hmdpp/ Heart Mountain Digital Preservation Project] — History and photographs from the Hinckley Library, Northwest College, Powell, Wyoming.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061216073229/http://www.nps.gov/archive/manz/ccheartmountain.htm Fact sheet from the US National Park Service]
* [http://library.bbhc.org/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=all&CISOBOX1=&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOOP2=exact&CISOBOX2=Heart%20Mountain%20Relocation%20Center&CISOFIELD2=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOOP3=any&CISOBOX3=&CISOFIELD3=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOOP4=none&CISOBOX4=&CISOFIELD4=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=/JRS&t=a Images of Heart Mountain Relocation Center by Jack Richard, from Buffalo Bill Historical Center's McCracken Research Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110820011457/http://library.bbhc.org/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=all&CISOBOX1=&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOOP2=exact&CISOBOX2=Heart%20Mountain%20Relocation%20Center&CISOFIELD2=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOOP3=any&CISOBOX3=&CISOFIELD3=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOOP4=none&CISOBOX4=&CISOFIELD4=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=%2FJRS&t=a |date=August 20, 2011 }}
* [https://calisphere.org/search/?q=BANC+MSS+2006%2F226 Roy Nakata papers on departing the Relocation Center, circa 1939–1945], [[Bancroft Library|The Bancroft Library]]
* [http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv10263 Guide to the Heart Mountain War Relocation Papers at the University of Montana] Contains publications and other items produced at the Relocation Center
* {{Cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vo0lBgYISR4C |work=[[Boys' Life]] |date=December 1970 |title=Scout troop 379 of Heart Mountain}}
* {{Cite web | last =Matsumoto| first = Mieko | title=Densho Encyclopedia: Heart Mountain | website = encyclopedia.densho.org | publisher = Densho |url=http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Heart%20Mountain/ | access-date=July 13, 2016}}
* {{Cite web | last =Wakida| first = Patricia | title=Densho Encyclopedia: Heart Mountain Sentinel (newspaper) | website = encyclopedia.densho.org | publisher = Densho |url=http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Heart%20Mountain%20Sentinel%20%28newspaper%29/ | access-date=July 13, 2016}}
* [http://www.heartmountainfilm.com/ "The Legacy of Heart Mountain"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220419221831/http://www.heartmountainfilm.com/ |date=April 19, 2022 }} Documentary about life at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center.
*[https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/12317034 Archive of Takeo Shikamura and Hatsu Shikamura], East Asia Library, [[Stanford University Libraries|Stanford Libraries]]. This archive contains papers relating to the Shikamura family's internment at Heart Mountain.

{{Japanese American internment camps}}
{{NRHP in Park County, Wyoming}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Internment camps for Japanese Americans]]
[[Category:National Historic Landmarks in Wyoming]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Park County, Wyoming]]
[[Category:Residential buildings completed in 1942]]
[[Category:Museums in Park County, Wyoming]]
[[Category:History museums in Wyoming]]
[[Category:World War II museums in the United States]]
[[Category:Military and war museums in Wyoming]]
[[Category:Ethnic museums in Wyoming]]
[[Category:Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming]]
[[Category:Museums of Japanese culture in the United States]]
[[Category:World War II on the National Register of Historic Places]]
[[Category:1942 establishments in Wyoming]]
[[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Park County, Wyoming]]
[[Category:Temporary populated places on the National Register of Historic Places]]
[[Category:Asian-American culture in Wyoming]]
[[Category:History of Wyoming]]
[[Category:History of racism in Wyoming]]