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Minidoka - destructive impact of camp life

To view video, Click Here. Akiko K. recalls the destructive impact of camp life at Minidoka on her family.

"The thing I felt most was the lack of privacy, and that there wasn't anyplace you could just go and sit down and reflect. It was just like, hey, everybody's around, and it's just -- was no privacy. And also the warm interaction with the family was missing, because we used to spend so much time together talking, and joking, and singing and all that. You don't have that kind of opportunity in a barrack with six cots lined up and your meals are at a mess hall. You know the mealtime used to be a happy time, where we discussed things and had fun, and share things. And so, it was just a lack of that kind of comfort. My parents never complained, but we also never got together like that anymore. We didn't sit down and share food together; we didn't sit down and eat together. And we're all going in and out of the barracks at different times. And so there was a lack of that kind of... lack of communication as well."

Akiko K. Interview - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

Located at 4,000 feet of elevation on uneven terrain in southern Idaho, Minidoka was in the Snake River Plain of Jerome County, 15 miles east of Jerome and 15 miles north of Twin Falls. The 33,000 acres of arid desert was dominated by sagebrush.

Minidoka held people primarily from Washington, Oregon, and Alaska; in 1943 many of the incarcerees from Bainbridge Island, Washington, were transferred at their own request to Minidoka from Manzanar.

To view facts and photos of Minidoka, Click Here to view Densho's interactive Sites of Shame map. Then click on the red dot corresponding to Minidoka. Courtesy of Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project