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The Japanese-American Internment Experience

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With Jane Clayson in for Tom Ashbrook

A new museum in Wyoming tells the story of the thousands of Japanese-Americans imprisoned during World War Two.

A Japanese internment camp guard tower at Heart Mountain.  (National Archives)
A Japanese internment camp guard tower at Heart Mountain. (National Archives)

One of the most recognized dates in modern U.S. history is December 7, 1941: The attack on Pearl Harbor. A far lesser known date is February 14, 1942, which, for some, had equally big consequences.

On that day, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. That order led to the detention of more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans in internment camps around the country, for years. One of those camps was in Heart Mountain, Wyoming. Back then, it was surrounded by barbed wire. Today, it’s a new museum.

This hour On Point: Revisiting Heart Mountain and the stories it tells.
-Jane Clayson

Guests

Shirley Ann Higuchi, chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation Board of Directors.

Eric Muller, professor of Law at University of North Carolina and author of "American Inquisition: The Hunt for Japanese American Disloyalty in World War II."

Toshi Ito, former internee at Heart Mountain in Wyoming.

Photographs

More

PBS documentary "Conscience and the Constitution"
http://youtu.be/LwpPNL2FB9o

Playlist

“Silent Flight and Sleeping Dawn Heart has Asked for Pleasure” by MONO
“Don’t Fence Me In” by Ella Fitzgerald
“Blue Bicycle” by Haushka

This program aired on August 26, 2011.

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