Japanese Internment Camp in Northern Idaho (Idaho Falls, Twin Falls: houses, university, camps)

[pimit2]

Internment camps - another name for prison camps - were employed to detain some 120,000 people of Japanese heritage shortly following the attack on Pearl Harbor. It's a shameful part of our country's history.

Researchers from the University of Idaho have found the location of the first internment camp where the U.S. government used people of Japanese ancestry as a workforce during World War II. This small camp was in the mountains near Kooskia. A Japanese workforce? Yes....and they were used extensively doing road work on famed U.S. Highway 12.

For more, read this Associated Press story:

http://news.yahoo.com/researchers-un...camp-170350272


pimit2 (Bob)

[elkotronics]

If they were anywhere near the Hobo Cedar Grove they had some huge, beautiful trees to enjoy. I read about the tall cedars on the internet and one Saturday my friend and I went looking for it. It didn't look like the trees were going to be that tall, but after walking into the forest I immediately saw that I was wrong. A few of the pumpkin trees were 12' in diameter at the bottom and really tall! I mean, humdereds of feet tall! I looked up and they just kept going and going and going up!

And Kooskia is the little oakie Idaho town that you access the Hobo Cedar Grove from. Once you get to Kooskia, which is about 22 miles southeast of St.Maries, you just go east a block, south about 2 blocks, then take a left. Follow that road about 22 miles into the boony-berries. Signs will take you there. Do it. If you love the tall trees, you'll absolutely love this visit to the Hobo Cedar Grove.

[mistyriver]

Originally Posted by elkotronics

If they were anywhere near the Hobo Cedar Grove they had some huge, beautiful trees to enjoy. I read about the tall cedars on the internet and one Saturday my friend and I went looking for it. It didn't look like the trees were going to be that tall, but after walking into the forest I immediately saw that I was wrong. A few of the pumpkin trees were 12' in diameter at the bottom and really tall! I mean, humdereds of feet tall! I looked up and they just kept going and going and going up!

And Kooskia is the little oakie Idaho town that you access the Hobo Cedar Grove from. Once you get to Kooskia, which is about 22 miles southeast of St.Maries, you just go east a block, south about 2 blocks, then take a left. Follow that road about 22 miles into the boony-berries. Signs will take you there. Do it. If you love the tall trees, you'll absolutely love this visit to the Hobo Cedar Grove.

Somehow I'm doubting the interred prisoners were enjoying the cedars.

Thanks for the article, Bob. I didn't know there was a internment camp in Idaho. I'd always thought of them as a California thing. Probably from "Farewell to Manzanar".

[Keim]

Elkotronics: You are mistaken. Kooskia is not very close to the cedar grove. It is closer to the river, near Orofino. You are thinking of Clarkia. There is also a neat fossil and gem dig in Clarkia, too.

Your comments about the beauty of the grove are dead-on, however.

I have been to the internment site. Nothing to see.

[KTMMan]

Originally Posted by mistyriver

Somehow I'm doubting the interred prisoners were enjoying the cedars.

Thanks for the article, Bob. I didn't know there was a internment camp in Idaho. I'd always thought of them as a California thing. Probably from "Farewell to Manzanar".

My family and I took the tour through Manzanar last year. Pretty interesting to see how they were housed and treated. As bad a deal as it was for those people, I would rate Manzanar as paradise compared to Heart Mountain Wyoming. As hot as Manzanar in the summer, but twice as cold in the winter.

[banjomike]

There was an internment camp in the Twin Falls area, but I don't know much about it.

A big storage building that was built as a WPA project in the Depression in Tautphaus park in Idaho Falls was used to intern German POW's, some infantry and some Luftwaffe. The Germans were put to work in the spud and sugar beet fields during the day and slept in the building at night. During the winters they worked in the spud houses or cleared snow from the city streets.

[laughing traveler]

I saw a movie recently “The Untold Story: Internment of Japanese Americans in Hawai'i,”

It mentioned that some of the camps can not be found. I find this hard to believe. I think the government knows exactly where they were.

[elkotronics]

Keim - thanks for the correction, the Hobo Cedar Grove is near the tiny town of Clarkia, not Kooskia. So the Japanese were sent nowhere near the Hobo Cedar Grove. I am glad you found that because I don't want to misinform anyone about Idaho. The state is so beautiful and I will always treasure the two years my wife and I lived there!

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

Originally Posted by elkotronics

Keim - thanks for the correction, the Hobo Cedar Grove is near the tiny town of Clarkia, not Kooskia. So the Japanese were sent nowhere near the Hobo Cedar Grove. I am glad you found that because I don't want to misinform anyone about Idaho. The state is so beautiful and I will always treasure the two years my wife and I lived there!

I agree with you on the Hobo cedar groves, pretty spot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo_Ce...Botanical_Area The entire ride up Marble Creek is really nice. There is another amazing cedar grove about 10 miles north of Elk River http://www.visitidaho.org/attraction...nt-cedar-tree/.

Now, Kooskia isn't such a bad place either. Located on the Clearwater river...I think that it was a lot nicer than our guys had it on, say, the Bataan death march. Let alone how Chinese citizens had it under Japanese occupation. While not exactly a shining piece of our history...it pales into comparison of things done by the Empire of Japan in that conflict.

[mistyriver]

Originally Posted by Toyman at Jewel Lake

I agree with you on the Hobo cedar groves, pretty spot. Hobo Cedar Grove Botanical Area - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The entire ride up Marble Creek is really nice. There is another amazing cedar grove about 10 miles north of Elk River http://www.visitidaho.org/attraction...nt-cedar-tree/.

Now, Kooskia isn't such a bad place either. Located on the Clearwater river...I think that it was a lot nicer than our guys had it on, say, the Bataan death march. Let alone how Chinese citizens had it under Japanese occupation. While not exactly a shining piece of our history...it pales into comparison of things done by the Empire of Japan in that conflict.

Pretty sure the Japanese-Americans imprisoned here WERE our guys too. As in, Americans. Only they were civilians and not soldiers who were prisoners of war. You can't even make a comparison. It's an apples vs. oranges thing.