Exploring American Identity

We the People

At Heart Mountain, behind barbed wire and guard towers, incarcerated Japanese Americans lived lives that were unmistakably, and complexly, American. They celebrated Christmas and Obon, played baseball and practiced sumo, wore Sears fashions and traditional kimono. This exhibit invites visitors to explore how American identity was challenged, preserved, and reimagined at Heart Mountain, revealing a powerful story of culture and belonging that expands our understanding of the American experience.

Draft Resistance Behind Barbed Wire

The Patriotism of Protest

Over thirty thousand Japanese Americans fought for the U.S. in the military during World War II. However, others chose the courtroom as their battlefield. This exhibit follows the story of how the government came to draft Japanese Americans who were confined behind barbed wire on the basis of presumed disloyalty, and how the Japanese Americans attempted to stand up not only for themselves, but for the very principles on which the United States was founded. It features profiles of individual resisters, exploring the human faces and stories behind the resistance.