Between 1942 and 1945, guard towers and barbed wire fences on this site confined a community of nearly 11,000 forcibly uprooted people of Japanese ancestry, most of whom were American citizens. All were victims of racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and failed political leadership.
For a national park system site, this is a remarkably straightforward confession of historical truth.
Eric notes that he's a member of the board of directors of the Heart Mountain, Wyoming Foundation, and that he designed the web site, but he's too modest to note how important his own work has been to contemporary understandings of this site and its part in a sad episode of our nation's history.
I also recommend Eric's recent interview on "The State of Things," in which he moves from discussing his work tracing his German great-uncle's life and death at the hands of Nazis to discussing the genesis of his interest in Japanese-American history.
No comments:
Post a Comment