Heart Mountain

The Heart Mountain Interpretive Center released English translations of a literary magazine written by the incarcerated.Among the some 14,000 Japanese Americans that were incarcerated in Wyoming during World War II were a lot of people from the artistic and literary scene in Los Angeles.That community came together and started producing art, poetry and essays, but all in Japanese. The Japanese-language magazine was called Bungei, which roughly translates to “arts and literature.”

The U.S. Customs and Immigration Service is proposing to boost fees to process and copy immigration files from the end of the 19th century through the beginning of the 20th century. That could affect family research on people held at Japanese-American internment camps in the Mountain West during World War II.

The Heart Mountain Interpretive Center finally has the green light to start working on its new building. Organizers are hoping the Mineta-Simpson Institute will be more than just a building.

Out of the nearly 14,000 Japanese-Americans who were incarcerated at Heart Mountain during World War II nearly a third were children.Heart Mountain's Communications and Marketing Manager Krist Jessup said the festival is based on a traditional Japanese Holiday that celebrates children. Children's Day, or Kodomo no Hi, is a traditional Japanese holiday and has been celebrated in Japan in some form since the 7th century. The holiday celebrates the growth, happiness, and personalities of children.

This Saturday marks the 80th anniversary of the executive order that allowed all Japanese-Americans living on the West coast to be removed and incarcerated in camps like Heart Mountain between Powell and Cody.

The Heart Mountain Foundation announced The Mineta-Simpson Institute. It's a new section of the interpretive center dedicated to hosting groups and workshops on the legacy of Japanese-American incarceration. As an effort to communicate this new initiative and Higuchi's book, the foundation is holding a discussion (in-person and virtually) in Jackson this Wednesday, August 25.

Heart Mountain was home to nearly 11,000 Japanese-Americans incarcerated during World War II. But this history isn't taught in-depth throughout the nation.

Historian, educator and politician Pete Simpson has received the LaDonna Zall Compassionate Witness Award from the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. The award is a way to honor individuals who may not have been directly affected by the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II but devoted their life to bring awareness and light to the injustice.

A descendant of those imprisoned at Heart Mountain has dedicated her life to the remembrance of what happened to her great grandparents. Now, she will be…

Amid a sharp rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, some Asian Americans living in the Mountain West say they are not surprised by the recent mass shootings at Atlanta-area spas that left eight people dead, including six women of Asian descent.