Heart Mountain

Longtime U.S. Sen. Al Simpson died March 14 at his home in Cody at the age of 93. Simpson was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978 and served in that role for 18 years.

Shuko Yoshikami, who's now 86, was just four years old when he, his parents and three siblings were sent by train from southern California to Heart Mountain. They spent about three years there.

After touring a museum and looking at original barracks as part of a field trip to the World War II-era Japanese-American confinement site, Shuko Yoshikami shared how we can get to know one another and avoid mistakes of the past.

One of the few remaining structures at a former Japanese internment camp in Northwest Wyoming is one step closer to being restored.

The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation in Northwest Wyoming is organizing a charter bus trip from Los Angeles for its annual pilgrimage July 25-27th.

Wyoming K-12 teachers now have the option to teach lessons on Japanese-American incarceration in the state during World War II. An official partnership between the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation and the University of Wyoming (UW) helped make it happen.

Japanese-American Sam Mihara was only nine years old when the United States government used fear and security to justify his family's imprisonment at the Heart Mountain Internment Camp in northwestern Wyoming for the entirety of World War II. Since then, Mihara has worked to make sure that history won’t repeat itself. Next week, he’ll be in Laramie for his speaking series “Memories of Imprisonment.” Wyoming Public Radio’s Jordan Uplinger spoke with Mihara.

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.