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.

Slides in this album 

Album Type

community history

gkkyamaguchi — Last modified Sep 03 2021 2:13 p.m.


Login or register
to contribute to the Nikkei Album

Welcome to the NEW Nikkei Album!

We've launched Nikkei Album in beta, so everyone can now start uploading and creating their own albums. There may be things that don't work quite right yet. Please email us to report any errors.

Browse the Nikkei Album

Get updates

Sign up for email updates

Journal feed
Events feed
Comments feed

Support this project

Discover Nikkei

Discover Nikkei is a place to connect with others and share the Nikkei experience. To continue to sustain and grow this project, we need your help!

Ways to help >>

A project of the Japanese American National Museum


The Nippon Foundation