“He asked me, ‘When I look at Heart Mountain, I’ve always seen the mountain and the area as something beautiful and happy and it makes me feel calm and at peace. What do you see when you look at the mountain?’”
View of Heart Mountain taken from Cedar Mountain in Cody, WY. (photo by Heidi Hansen)
Driving into Cody, WY, one of our most prominent geographic landmarks – the solitary peak of Heart Mountain on the northern horizon – signals that I’m almost home. Once part of the Absaroka Mountain Range nearly 60 miles away, Heart Mountain is a geographic mystery as well as a popular hiking feat for locals. When I look at the mountain I’m reminded of the unique beauty and variation of the Big Horn Basin east of Yellowstone National Park. But the limestone cap of this mountain once cast its shadow over a Japanese-American Internment Camp established during WWII by executive order. During the war, the camp grew to house over 11,000 internees making it the third largest city in Wyoming at the time (by today’s standards, it would still be a big place in Wyoming!). What do today’s Japanese and Japanese American people see when they look at the mountain?
This is a scene of the internment camp in Heart Mountain, WY, during World War II. Painting by Joshiro Miyauchi (1888 – 1984).
The Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, which sits on the same land where the camp once stood, aims to answer this question. According to their website, “Through photographs, artifacts, oral histories, and interactive exhibits, guests to the Center experience life at Heart Mountain through the eyes of those Japanese and Japanese Americans that were confined here during WWII.” I talked with board member and Northwest College anthropology teacher Aura Newlin (also my friend and Zumba buddy) about the center’s mission and why it matters to tell more than one story about Heart Mountain. Her story of Heart Mountain is both personal – her great-grandparents were interned in the camp – and professional – she shares the story of Heart Mountain at academic and professional conferences and with her students in the classroom.
Aura Newlin and her husband Michael Gould, taken after they moved to from Cleveland to Cody, WY. Courtesy photo.
Below are the highlights from our interview:
On using multiple perspectives in a museum
Me: “What I always take away from the museum – and why it reminded me of what we are talking about in class – is the way the museum draws on stories from former internees to tell the story.”
Aura: “Yes, the museum was very deliberately crafted to be told through the voices of the internees versus a place like Manzanar (National Historic Site) … which is told from a more separate historic perspective, that’s an outsider perspective, and maybe even a government perspective. The museum was very deliberately designed to tell the story from the point of view of the people who lived there.
“… I think they were really careful to tell all of the different stories in the museum. They didn’t want to portray it as only this ugly thing … There is a nice balance there, to show how awful internment was, but also the positive … of how resilient the people were.”
On the value of multiple perspectives
Me: “My basic question is: what happens to our view of a place or people when we hear more multiple stories?”
Aura: “Well what I try and impart to my students … is the whole practice of looking at something from multiple points of view, like hearing something from multiple voices and multiple stories, doesn’t allow you to stereotype anymore. If you look at a people or a place that way, it gets rid of any notion that all of those people are the same, or this place is only like this.
“In Cody, there is a mindset of some people around town who say we don’t need to be talking about the camp at Heart Mountain. They say, ‘The government did the best they could, maybe it was bad, but we just need to move on from it.’ I always wonder if they knew the stories (of Heart Mountain internees) if they might think of it differently. You know, just the other day … I heard someone use the word “Jap.” I was taken aback – I’d never heard someone actually say the word before and he didn’t know I was a “Jap” too. He was talking about how his dad was in Pearl Harbor when the “Japs” bombed it. And I don’t know if he knew it was a derogatory word. But I started thinking, would he be able to stereotype like that if he knew the other sides of the story?”
On how stories diverge
Aura: “One idea we explore at Heart Mountain (Interpretive Center) relates to how we define patriotism by these different and fascinating ways that the Japanese Americans did – or didn’t – serve in the military.
The Heart Mountain Honor Roll honors the former internees who served in the U.S. Armed Forces. (courtesy photo)
“The first strand is those who volunteered … My grandpa was one of the first to volunteer (he was not interned) and a lot of people interned at Heart Mountain volunteered to serve. They were very overtly saying, ‘I’m going to prove my patriotism. My country might think I’m a threat, but here’s my chance to say, I’ve never know anything but this country, I love this country, and I’m going to lay my life down for this country. …’ The second stand is those who were drafted … Most of those who were drafted went. They said, ‘Yeah, I wouldn’t have chosen it, but if you want me to go, I’ll go. I’ll show my patriotism.’ My great uncle Clarence Matsumara was drafted (after obtaining leave to attend college) and he served in the all Japanese infantry Unit 442 that was one of the most decorated units in WWII.
“The third strand is those who resisted, the draft resisters. … There were a few from every camp, but at Heart Mountain there were 63 resisters, it was kind of a movement. They said, ‘I’m just as patriotic as anybody else, I want to serve my country. But you have stripped us of our constitutional rights, and until you restore those rights to me and my family – until you set us free – no, I’m not going to fight for you. It goes against my morals and my sense of patriotism.’ There was a mass trial in Cheyenne for these men … they were all sent to federal prison. …
“It becomes impossible to talk about patriotism, or generalize one notion of patriotism, if we consider these three approaches.”
On whose stories get lost
Me: “What do we miss when we learn about Heart Mountain from one perspective?”
Aura: “One of the narratives that I think gets lost when we talk about internment is, well, we often say 120,000 people were put in these camps and 2/3 were American citizens. The ‘citizens’ part is often what grabs people’s attention. They say, ‘What?! We did this to our own citizens?” So what gets lost in framing it that way – not that it’s always a bad way to frame it – is that it was also terrible for the 1/3 who were immigrants. These were people who, many of them wanted to become citizens but there was no way to do that, people that came here through legal routes.”
On the legacy of Heart Mountain
Me: “How do your students react to learning about Heart Mountain?”
Aura: “Its interesting teaching Heart Mountain to my students, a lot of them have no idea that this even went on. I think it comes down to their history teacher … Some students (from the area) say ‘I knew there was this thing out there, but I never knew what it was.’ And students from other states, other countries are like ‘I had no idea.’ I had one student who was from the area, but didn’t know much about the history until he learned about it in my class. He asked me, ‘When I look at Heart Mountain, I’ve always seen the mountain and the area as something beautiful and happy and it makes me feel calm and at peace. What do you see when you look at the mountain?’
“I told him, ‘It makes me feel happy too.’ It’s that I have a fierce sense of pride now when it comes to this place because I’m able to be really actively telling the story. It makes me sad to know that my grandparents – that’s the closest thing for me – that they were kind of spit on and treated horribly. But I feel so happy that I can be part of this now so I can share the museum with people and tell my students about it. It would be sad if we couldn’t tell the story – if I knew this horrible thing happened right here and I couldn’t say anything about it. So it’s a good feeling … It’s a powerful somber thing, but mostly a positive thing because we are telling the story now.”
Read about my visit to Heart Mountain Interpretive Center here.
Veg Out West 
Heidi,
The Heart Mountain Interpretive Center sounds like a fabulous place. I really like the idea of a multi-modal and multimedia exhibit reflecting multiple stories and narratives; it’s a wonderful way to reflect many different stories in different ways, which can give us different insights into the peoples telling a story. It adds value to our readings and video this week, too, in corroborating the need for multiple narratives, as well as their importance. I can see how you’re applying your knowledge to your blog, in this post and in your post about the Interpretive Center, and see what multiple narratives add to our understanding of history.
I’m starting to understand the idea of representation so much better through your explanation of the Interpretive Center and how it presents the multiple-voiced narrative. It isn’t always the easiest way to experience history, but it might be the most effective. This was a very effective and touching blog post. Thank you for posting it.
Thank you for sharing about the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center and its history. I live across the Agate Pass bridge from Bainbridge Island, Washington where a thriving Japanese American community lived from the early 1900s until WWII when the families were removed from their homes and relocated at various internment camps in the US. One of my colleagues from Olympic College has conceived of an archeological project at the location of the township of the Japanese community before the internment, and it has received wide support from the local community. I hope that the project makes even a tiny bit of the impact in this county that Heart Mountain Interpretive Center in Wyoming obviously has.
There are many stories, hidden stories, in US history which help to broaden an appreciation for the sacrifices that people have made and the wrongs that citizens have endured.
Hi Teresa,
I hope the project on Bainbridge Island works out! That is fascinating and heart breaking history. And thanks for your comment “there are many stories … which help broaden an appreciation for the sacrifices that people have made and the wrongs that citizens have endured.” Couldn’t have said it better myself!