Minidoka Internment camp opens visitor center

EDEN, Idaho (AP) — Visitors to the Minidoka War Relocation Center in southern Idaho will get a closer sense of what life was like for thousands of Japanese Americans forced to live at the internment camp during World War II now that a new visitor center has opened at the site.

Hanako Wakatsuki, chief interpreter for the Minidoka National Historic Site, told The Times-Newsthat the visitor center has on-site staff for the first time since the National Park Service began developing the location. Now visitors can take guided tours or walk through the camp on their own.

The internment camp incarcerated 13,000 people of Japanese heritage between 1942 and 1945. Two-thirds of them were American citizens, and half of them were children. All were living in Oregon, Washington state and Alaska when they were forced to live at the camp.

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