The Heart Mountain Barracks Project
Licensing |
In 1942, hundreds of thousands of Japanese Americans, living on the West Coast were forced to live in internment camps due to Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066. After the War, the government sold these buildings for only a dollar, and were later used by owners as storage areas for farm equipment. As a part of their exhibition, the Japanese American National Museum hoped to educate and help individuals envision the harsh lifestyles that Japanese Americans had to endure at the internment camp. In 1994, this idea started to become a part of reality when Nancy Araki and Bacon Sakatani happened to run into each other. Things started to just fall into place as time went on, and with the help of many volunteers and families, they were able to relocate the Heart Mountain Barrack to Los Angeles's Little Tokyo. The Nissei and Sanseis had the opportunity to not only witness history, but also experience it. This display touched the hearts of a number of individuals that experienced, or had family that went through camp life, and has also educated others about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during Word War II. This album shows a brief glimpse of history behind the barrack that stands today in the National Museum.