Seventy-five years ago today, August 10, the War Relocation Authority opened the Minidoka Relocation Center (pictured left) not far from Twin Falls, Idaho. Over the three years of its existence it would end up confining upwards of 10,000 Japanese resident aliens and American citizens of Japanese ancestry on the basis of their ancestry. It's a somber day in the history of American civil liberties.
It's easy to think that if you know something about Korematsu, you know what this historical episode entailed. But that case is like a veneer; beneath it are the human stories (some 120,000 of them) that reveal the true nature, and true costs, of our constitutional misadventure.
On September 6 I am launching a podcast I'm calling "Scapegoat Cities." Each episode will tell one true story about a Japanese American's experiences that I've uncovered over twenty years of research in archives around the country. The stories are sometimes infuriating, sometimes bittersweet, and always very human and compelling.
The idea behind the podcast is simple: if we insist, as we must, that something like the imprisonment of Japanese Americans never happen again to any group in the United States, it's important for us to know and feel what the imprisonment of Japanese Americans actually was.
A short introductory episode (just 9 minutes) is already available at the podcast’s website here.
If you subscribe now on iTunes, you'll automatically receive the first two full episodes when the podcast officially launches on September 6. If you like what you hear, leaving a review really helps the podcast get noticed. (So does telling your friends!)
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