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Exploring an Abandoned Japanese Internment Camp


james127
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I had a chance this past summer to travel through one of most desolate areas of Colorado where I explored the Granda Relocation Center (also known as Amache) where many Japanese Americans were interred during WWII. A lot of men from this camp ended up going into the 442nd came out of this camp. Pretty sad, but interesting to walk these grounds.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxxnseBh3jw&t=9s

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Sad chapter in American history. I once worked with a man who as a boy was interned at Heart Mountain camp. He and his family lost everything they had except for the few things they could carry when taken away. Despite it all, he had surprisingly few hard feelings about it all. One of the lifelong friends he made in the camp was another boy near his same age named Norm Mineta. It takes a true American to go through all that and still love this country.

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Very interesting video. Indeed a sad chapter in American history. However, as in looking back at many questionable events of the past by today's standards it is impossible to put them in the same context. I was 3 & a half when Pearl Harbor was attacked. I hated the "Japs" as I grew up. I remember that. When as a young man I learned about the internment camps I was shocked that "we" would have done that to fellow Americans. I became more shocked & embarrassed when I learned of the heroism of the Japanese-Americans in the 442nd Infantry. But still today I wonder how I would have felt about the Japanese internment if I were an older fellow on Dec 7th, 1941? Bobgee

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Airborne-Hunter

Still waiting for the Gov't to return the radios and rifles they confiscated when they interned my grandfather...It is important to note that everyone in the camp above received a cash settlement from the government. Other groups did not. We never received anything or our radios or our rifles. Everyone still loved the country. My 97 year old uncle still wants his radio back. Everyone else is dead now. He served 33rd Inf Div 1942-1945 and loves the country more than anyone else.

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Hindsight is great. But internment etc must have seemed a good idea at the time. I just wish we had done the right thing and put their property on hold or gave some compensation right after the war. My Dad was already in the Army when Pearl was attacked and served the fought the whole war in the Pacific. He pretty much hated Japan for the rest of his life. One of his army buddies refused to eat rice 40 years after the war.

 

My father's dad was Italian born and had a radio repair business and was ham radio buff. He also had all his gear confiscated without compensation. But he was allowed to work on defense plants. Strange.

 

It's a good thing that the camp site is memorialized. Thanks for the video.

 

Mikie

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Sad chapter in American history. I once worked with a man who as a boy was interned at Heart Mountain camp. He and his family lost everything they had except for the few things they could carry when taken away. Despite it all, he had surprisingly few hard feelings about it all. One of the lifelong friends he made in the camp was another boy near his same age named Norm Mineta. It takes a true American to go through all that and still love this country.

 

That's one thing that impressed me the most. Despite everything that they went through, they still worked hard, made the best of the community that they were in, and still loved this country. I think a lot can be learned from that.

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Very interesting video. Indeed a sad chapter in American history. However, as in looking back at many questionable events of the past by today's standards it is impossible to put them in the same context. I was 3 & a half when Pearl Harbor was attacked. I hated the "Japs" as I grew up. I remember that. When as a young man I learned about the internment camps I was shocked that "we" would have done that to fellow Americans. I became more shocked & embarrassed when I learned of the heroism of the Japanese-Americans in the 442nd Infantry. But still today I wonder how I would have felt about the Japanese internment if I were an older fellow on Dec 7th, 1941? Bobgee

 

Thanks. I've wondered the same thing. We have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight.

I work in that area fairly regularly, so have stopped by there several times. Cool video.

 

Holy smokes. Not sure what you do but that is one desolate area out there. Thanks for the kind words.

 

Still waiting for the Gov't to return the radios and rifles they confiscated when they interned my grandfather...It is important to note that everyone in the camp above received a cash settlement from the government. Other groups did not. We never received anything or our radios or our rifles. Everyone still loved the country. My 97 year old uncle still wants his radio back. Everyone else is dead now. He served 33rd Inf Div 1942-1945 and loves the country more than anyone else.

 

I wish that I would have expounded on that more in the video. I'm planning on visiting Heart Mountain this next summer and maybe a place in Tennessee where German-Americans were held. Hopefully those will be serve to fill in some of the gaps that I left. I wish I was out in your part of the country. I'd love to sit down and talk with your uncle.

 

Hindsight is great. But internment etc must have seemed a good idea at the time. I just wish we had done the right thing and put their property on hold or gave some compensation right after the war. My Dad was already in the Army when Pearl was attacked and served the fought the whole war in the Pacific. He pretty much hated Japan for the rest of his life. One of his army buddies refused to eat rice 40 years after the war.

 

My father's dad was Italian born and had a radio repair business and was ham radio buff. He also had all his gear confiscated without compensation. But he was allowed to work on defense plants. Strange.

 

It's a good thing that the camp site is memorialized. Thanks for the video.

 

Mikie

 

Yeah, the fact that they lost their property after the war just adds salt to the wound. Awful.

 

Thanks for the video

 

My pleasure. If you see a few that you like and think that others might benefit, feel free to share them.

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Garandomatic

I can understand some of the fears that lead to it, but I think the army knew well before the end of the war that there wasn't a problem with Japanese-American disloyalty, but the FBI continued the internment, unless I'm mistaken. I did read somewhere, interestingly enough, that the FBI itself found documentation in the Japanese embassy's safe that their spies should not waste time trying to turn nisei, because they wouldn't turn on the US. It was far easier to gain information from regular Americans.

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Thanks everyone for the kind words. I've got some plans for 2020 that I think will really translate well on film. Hopefully the result matches what's in my head :)

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