Looking Back at the Infamous Camp

By Amy Larson

Teresa Tamura grew up in Nampa, but before she began work on MINIDOKA: An American Concentration Camp (Caxton Press, 2013), she hadn’t seen the site, just hours from her home.

“In Memory of Minidoka,” an article in the Seattle Times, sparked a journey of discovery for her regarding the impact of Executive Order 9066 issued on February 19, 1942, following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The order authorized the removal of 120,000 West Coast Japanese-Americans, justified as a “military necessity.” A random, unexplainable “jagged line” drawn through Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, and engulfing Alaska took some and left others, the largest forced relocation in United States history.