Describe your collection here.
The question I seldom hear being asked is "What did the United States Government Gain by Relocating People of Japanese Ancestry into the Intermountain States During WWII?"
In tracing those events of WWII to create a history for my two sons and my grandchildren and those great-greats to follow, I found interesting material that gave me a timeline of my history during WWII and answers to the question above. I did not start out trying to answer the above question, but came across an article in the Pacific Northwest Quarterly, that prompted me to dig deeper into that time period. Later I was able to find more information in the Oregon State website dealing Oregon's history during WWII.
I also found information in California's Homepage and checked Idaho's website which sent me off to the Harry Truman Museum and Library website and a wealth of information about the Evacuation of poeple of Japanese ancestry. I also came across Roger Daniel's collection of government archival papers arranged in nine volumes.
I will provide the readers with some information, but will complete the details after the Denver Conference in July. You can talk to me at the Conference or wait until I get back to my computer to fill in all of answers to several questions that the above question raises.
My parents worked in Idaho after getting a seasonal group leave in 1943 after filling out a 22 question document, no 27 or 28 on October 1, 1942. We stayed in the Twin Falls, Idaho Farm Security Administration camp for the spring to fall and returned to Minidoka Relocation Center.
We repeated this process in 1944, but was given an indefinite leave, which was later extended.
This meant I was able to attend Bickel Elementary School, my parents paid a tution until the government said it was illegal. My research produced information that the Governor's of the Intermountain States did not initially want the "enemy" in their states, and were to leave the states as soon as the war was over. I left Idaho, October, 1949.
I hope I have planted enough tidbits to peak your interest in part of the topic that I will discuss at the Denver Conference Panel about life after leaving the Relocation Center during WWII.
James K. Tanaka (formerly of Portland, Oregon)