The annual pilgrimage to a site in northwest Wyoming where Japanese-Americans were forcibly relocated to during World War II drew about 440 people this year. Roughly 10 percent were survivors.
Shuko Yoshikami, 86, and his parents and siblings were incarcerated at Heart Mountain near Cody starting when he was 4 years old. They had been living in Los Angeles, California. After touring a museum and looking at original barracks as part of a field trip to the Japanese-American confinement site, he shared what he hopes people remember.
“It's part of an aspect of history that Americans should know about, how things can happen when we don't really understand each other and that it's important to understand each other,” he said. “People have different ways of living, but we're all Americans.”
Yoshikami pointed to the late U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, who was also incarcerated at Heart Mountain, and U.S. Senator Alan Simpson (R-Wyoming) as examples of people from different backgrounds who got along.
His advice for us today? Attend public schools and get to know about other people’s cultures and traditions through food.
“Sushi, in a sense, food, is breaking racial barriers, I think, cultural barriers, and I think that’s a good thing,” he said about the California roll that he says is an American invention, but Japanese, too.
Pilgrimage attendees dined together, attended a play about women’s incarceration experiences and went to an opening for the new Mineta-Simpson Institute, a 250-seat conference center and archive.
Copyright 2024 Wyoming Public Radio