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A darker side of Idaho's history

| July 21, 2015 9:00 PM

Perhaps you know George Takei from his years as "Mr. Sulu" in the first Star Trek series. Perhaps you've seen his inspirational Facebook posts on the wonders of both space and human compassion. But there's one aspect of - and major influence - in his life less recognized.

Los Angeles-born George Takei spent four years in a Japanese internment camp, when he was just a little boy. His father was a California college grad (later, so was George); his mother, a native American citizen. Having done nothing wrong, he and his family were uprooted from their middle class home, school, jobs (dad owned a business) and lives. When they returned none of that remained; like other Japanese-Americans they were homeless, penniless, and the family had to make their way in the streets until they could start over little by little.

He isn't bitter, but he does call it what it was: prejudicial. He knows the argument many had, and some still have, to justify internment during World War II - that "the enemy" was feared and identities unknown (sound familiar today?). His answer to that argument, in an interview with physicist Neil Degrasse Tyson:

"But we didn't inter Germans or Italians."

We did hold more than 100,000 American citizens with Japanese ancestry in 10 official camps in the Western U.S., including Idaho - a chapter little explored in schools. Why not? It's part of our state's history, and history's understanding brings us to who we are today.

Today marks the opening of a traveling exhibit aptly named, "Uprooted: Japanese American Farm Labor Camps" which runs through Sept. 12 at the Human Rights Education Institute. The other nine camps were in California (2), Utah, Arizona (2), Arkansas (2), Colorado, and Wyoming. Think of law-abiding men, women, and children's lives interrupted and subsisting like prisoners in uninsulated tin shacks, guarded by a well-armed military (especially terrifying to children), with no running water. Medical care and nutrition were inadequate; some died.

The camps finally closed between one and three months after the war ended, except the largest in Tula Lake, Calif. (peak population 18,789). That remained open another six months, and was where the Takei family spent most of their internment.

Idaho's camp was in Minidoka. It opened Aug. 10, 1942. Before it closed in October of 1945, its peak population reached 9,397, made up mostly of Seattle and Portland families given only a few days' notice of their forced "move."

What fewer know is there was a forgotten, second WWII internment camp in Idaho not listed with the others and run by the INS - in the mountains near Kooskia. That men's camp was even more austere, a former prison site with harsher conditions which consisted of both American and Japanese nationals imported from various states (and Latin America) for hard labor. Some were kidnapped; the majority volunteered to transfer. Most received meager wages, building a portion of U.S. Highway 12 still used today by drivers headed toward Missoula.

Until recently the Kooskia camp site had no buildings, signs or markers, just a spot of land with a buried history. So a research team from University of Idaho went looking, and in 2013 rediscovered its location by literally unearthing evidence of its former occupants.

Despite internment Japanese Americans fought valiantly for their country. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was entirely Japanese-American, as well as the most decorated unit in the war, winning 18,000 medals.

There's so much more to understand, from multiple perspectives. HREI is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 414 W. Mullan Road in downtown Coeur d'Alene. For more information call (208) 292-2359.

Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at Sholeh@cdapress.com.