Sources for Building This Website

*Buchanan, Daniel C. One Hundred Famous Haiku, Japan Publications, U.S., 1973.

Densho Digital Archive, Densho.org., The Heart Mountain Sentinel Collection.

Girl Scouts of the United States of America, Leadership of Girl Scout Troops,1943.

Heart Mountain Interpretive Center and Museum, Powell, Wyoming, Heart Mountain.org.

Higuchi, Shirley Ann. Setsuko’s Secret, The University of Wisconsin Press, 2020.

Ishigo, Estelle. Lone Heart Mountain, Library of Congress, 1972.

Oppenheim, Joanne. Dear Miss Breed, Scholastic Inc., 2006.

Mackey, Mike. Heart Mountain: Life in Wyoming’s Concentration Camp, A Western History Publications Book, 2000.

Mackey, Mike. Remembering Heart Mountain: Essays on Japanese American Internment in Wyoming, A Western History Publications Book, 1998.

Todd, Mabel Loomis and Higginson, T.W. Poems by Emily Dickinson, Roberts Brothers University Press: John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, 1890.

Further Reading

            Bazaldua, Barbara, and Willie Ito, illustrator. A Boy of Heart Mountain, Yabitoon Books, Camarillo, CA, 2010.

            Chee, Tracy. We Are Not Free, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, 2020.

            Cushman, Karen. War and Millie McGonigle, Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2021.

            Mochizuki, Ken and Dom Lee, illustrator. Baseball Saved Us, Lee & Low Books, 1993.

            Nagai, Mariko. Dust of Eden, Albert Whitman & Company, 2014.

            O’Connor, Barbara. Halfway to Harmony, Farrar Straus Giroux, New York, 2021.

The First Day, August12, 1942

A single barracks was 120 feet long and 20 feet wide. There were 24 barracks for each block and 30 blocks. When the evacuees first arrived, many of the barracks were unfinished leaving them to stay warm by walking the streets. With over 10,000 people relocated at Heart Mountain, it became the third largest city in Wyoming during the war.

There were nine guard towers with soldiers, each armed with  rifles. The Army was responsible for guarding the outside perimeter of camp. The WRA (War Relocation Authority) responsible for the inside. Policemen, firemen, social workers were employed, along with teachers, doctors, nurses, cooks, and even a librarian. 

Each barracks was divided into six single units. The 20×24 foot units were meant for large families of up to six people. The 20×20, units held four or more people, and the 20×16 units for less than four. The evacuees made due with one single light bulb dangling from the rafters and one coal burning stove. From the beginning, there was severe overcrowding.