Join us for a talk about the Heart Mountain Agricultural Program at the Park County Library in Cody

More info here

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EXCITING NEWS!

The 2018 Heart Mountain Pilgrimage Yearbook is now available! 

This yearbook features hundreds of photos and an array of reflections across 74 pages from the 2018 Pilgrimage weekend. Go to our SHOP WEBSITE to purchase a copy.

 

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Summer Exhibit!


Come and experience our current musical exhibit, “Songs on the Wind”!

 

For more info, click here

 

 

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"Fort Sill, Oklahoma, served as a detention site for nearly 700 individuals of Japanese descent who were rounded up and imprisoned by the FBI shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. All were accused of sympathizing with or aiding Japan in the war, but none had any evidence of their disloyalty presented against them. They were simply influential people in a community that looked like the enemy, and that was reason enough for their detention. Like today, manufactured stereotypes were the root of the unjust trauma forced upon our ancestors 75 years ago.


The migrant children bound for Fort Sill did nothing wrong, just as the Japanese Americans did nothing to deserve their detention. They are simply the victims of an unreasoned fear of Latin American migrants fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries. Their punitive treatment amounts to nothing less than a repeat of the racism that caused immeasurable hardship on our families more than 75 years ago."

The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation Board of Directors writes about the use of Fort Sill as a detention center.

Go to our News Page to read the full statement.

 

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CBS Sunday Morning visited Heart Mountain this summer to speak with Norm Mineta and Al Simpson about their friendship that was formed as boy scouts on both sides of the Heart Mountain fence. Capturing interviews and footage of our 2018 Pilgrimage, this is a great segment.

Watch the full piece here 

 

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Chair Shirley Ann Higuchi addresses the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census.
 

Administration's census case is built on a foundation of lies
-The Salt Lake Tribune

"We all know the administration’s census case is built on a foundation of lies. The proposed census question has a political, not a government objective. The court now has the power to avoid the repeat of another misuse of census data that imprisoned one group of people 77 years ago and threatens to disenfranchise another now.

Commentary: Japanese American wartime incarceration sites faced with potential budget cuts
-The Salt Lake Tribune

"After meeting with Democratic and Republican members of Congress two weeks ago, my colleagues and I in a coalition of Japanese American groups felt inspired and re-energized by the bipartisan support we received for the program that dedicates money to preserving the sites were 120,000 Japanese Americans were confined by the government during World War II...Now we’re going to need that bipartisan support again to overcome the funding cut in the budget plan released Monday. It calls for eliminating the funding for the JACS program for 2020.
America needs a forum to learn about this history. We will not stop seeking the restoration of this vital program, and we need your support."

 

Guest Opinion: Border separation policy risks causing long-term mental health problems
-The Billings Gazette 

"As I researched my upcoming book about the incarceration and its effects on my family and the Japanese American population as a whole, I found multiple examples of people who questioned their place in society, their value as human beings and the hypocrisy of a nation that often pays lip service to humanitarian concerns...We have the power now to prevent the need for another program devoted to preserving the record of how a misguided administration can mistreat a community. There are already signs of forces pushing back."
 

Commentary: Immigrants have long fought bravely for the United States
-The Salt Lake Tribune

"We are greater as a nation when we all work together. The Army learned that during the war when Japanese American soldiers took on the hardest fighting. Certainly, the Lost Battalion in France knew that when Japanese American soldiers rescued them while surrounded by Germans in the Vosges Mountains. Our military represents our country better when it reflects the full diversity of the people who live here and want to serve. Using misguided security concerns to limit that diversity doesn’t make us stronger."
 

Bush Redressed Heart Mountain Wrongs
-The Billings Gazette

"Forty-five years after World War II, the U.S. government did the right thing and apologized for its wartime abuse of civil liberties. Every president isn’t perfect, but President Bush embodied true leadership by maintaining a sense of political decency and decorum."

 

-The Seattle Times

"After the war, when the incarceration of Japanese Americans was deemed one of the worst human-rights violations in U.S. history, the government eliminated the question about nations of birth and vowed to keep the information confidential. Not anymore."

Commentary: There is No Test to Becoming American
-The Salt Lake Tribune 

"As I look at where my family has gone since my grandparents moved here, I see a quintessentially American story that would have been lost if we had been denied citizenship."

  

 

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In the summer of 2018, the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation broke ground on an exciting new project. With the help of a Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant from the National Park Service, we began the first phase of restoration on root cellar. While the grant covered much of the cost of this project, we need to complete the work. We are now working to raise $65,000 to complete this critical first phase of our grant obligations. 

The root cellar tells the story of a Japanese American community that refused to be broken, and overcame incredible odds to feed and care for its people. We look forward to the day when we will be able to safely open the cellar for public tours. We ask that you help us in raising the funds necessary to complete these first steps. Any amount raised beyond our initial goal will go toward future restoration of the cellar. Together, we can keep this important piece of history standing, a witness for future generations.

 

EXCITING NEWS! The 2017 Heart Mountain Pilgrimage Yearbook is here! 

This special keepsake features hundreds of photos and an array of reflections across 75 pages from the 2017 Pilgrimage weekend.
 

Click HERE to order your copy!

Email info@heartmountain.org to reserve your copy of the 2018 Pilgrimage Yearbook (this will be available at the 2019 Pilgrimage or will be shipped to you)

  

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HMWF Chair Shirley Ann Higuchi Writes About Proposed For-Profit

Detention Centers

"The prophets of “American exceptionalism” claim we are better than this, and I believe we are. Our policies should

reflect that, and change should start by curtailing the arbitrary and capricious roundup of immigrants without

criminal records and the use of for-profit detention centers."

 

-Salt Lake Tribune

 

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HMWF Chair Shirley Ann Higuchi Writes About the Current Relevance of Japanese American Incarceration

 

"Racism, under whatever justification its supporters can find, is still racism. It goes against what makes us all Americans. There is no racial or religious test for being an American. We should not start one now."

 - USA TODAY

"Setsuko Saito was my mother. My parents met at Heart Mountain. Without 9066, I would not be here. Still, it’s my hope that no future American families will be formed in this way, because our nation’s leaders did not resist the easy call of racism and overreaction."

- History News Network

 

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We rescued an original Heart Mountain Barrack from demolition and brought it back. But there is still much to do. 

Please help us stabilize and preserve this important Historic Structure!