Japanese American internment from 1942-1946

• August 10, 1942: Minidoka Internment Camp is open, only nine months after Pearl Harbor. It is located near Jerome, Idaho.. The Seattle Japanese have been incarcerated for four months up to this point.
  • According to the National Park Service: Minidoka Internment website: Life inside Minidoka 1
  • Also known as Hunt Camp
  • 33,000 acres and 600 buildings
  • Total population was 13,000 internees from Washington, Alaska and Oregon.
  • In operation from August 1942-October 1945.
  • Almost half of the population came from Camp Harmony Assembly Center.
    • Living Conditions
      • First internees came to Minidoka as the camp was still under construction. There was not any hot or even running water and there was no sewage system.
      • Buildings in camp:
        • Administration office
        • Warehouse buildings
        • 36 residential blocks
          • Toshiko Senda and her family were in Block number 37.
          • Yaeko Yoshihara and her family were in the last block built at Minidoka because the entire Bainbridge Island Group transferred from Manzanar Internment camp to Minidoka to be closer to the Pacific Northwest Japanese.

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  1. Burton , J., M. Farrell, F. Lord and R. Lord. “Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites.” National Park Service: Minidoka Internment. http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/anthropology74/ce9.htm ( 17 January 2001 ).