As summer began our family was preparing to go on a pilgrimage together. Six of our seven children were able to travel together to their mother’s (Karen’s) birthplace near Twin Falls, Idaho. The drive took about nine hours. Our oldest daughter, Tina, flew to Boise where we picked her up at the airport before driving on to Twin Falls.
Minidoka Pilgrimage
Here is a photo of Karen standing under a sign put up by the State of Idaho. This was the only marker we found that tells where the camp was located. It was placed next to a turnoff from Idaho State Highway 25.
Karen’s Testimony
In the mid 1980’s, I experienced the power of God and the brokenness of the Lord. At that time the Lord gave me a vision. I saw a guard tower with a soldier holding a rifle and barbed wire. The voice of the Lord said that fear and terror had come into my life and God was going to replace it with His love. I was born in a relocation camp called Hunt Camp, which was later changed to Minidoka Camp. The Japanese community came to the Minidoka Camp on the 60th anniversary of its creation. There remained only the foundation of the guard tower and waiting room, a Japanese rock garden, and the clearing where a mud hole had been dug for a swimming pool. I had seen pictures of the camp but I have never seen a guard tower or barbed wire in any of the pictures. The site confirmed my vision. In my vision I saw a small portion of the barbed wire. I thought the barbed wire was around the guard tower to protect the guard from us but when I got there I saw the barbed wire was all around the camp to keep us in. I found out that it was not until 1999 that an archeological grant was given by the government to find the camps and set them up as national monuments. The Minidoka Camp was not commemorated until 2001. This was the first time most of the Japanese had ever seen the remains of the camp.
Ron’s Testimony – Minidoka, one of several Japanese internment camps where Americans of Japanese ancestry were imprisoned during World War II, is about a thirty minute drive north of Twin Falls. People traveled from all around the U.S. to come. We met many different people, learned more history, and heard many stories. There were four generations together as well as several who were half Japanese. One young man who is half Japanese helped organize the pilgrimage. He spoke honoring his elders and his words were especially encouraging to our oldest daughter Tina.
The U.S. government had just made Minidoka a national monument after sixty years had passed by. An archaeological team was needed to locate the camp and the placement of the various buildings. Only that which was made of stone remained. The stones are witness stones and they carry a message. This included a Japanese stone garden, the lower part of a guard tower, and the stone walls of a building where those visiting the internees waited. Some of these visitors were Japanese American soldiers who fought the Nazis in Africa. They came to visit their parents who were prisoners of the very nation they were fighting to defend – The United States. Such are the contradictions that awaited us at Minidoka.
It was a deep time for all of us and it will take some time to process all we learned and experienced. For me it was very moving to stand on the land where 10,000 people were imprisoned because of fear and then look around and see nothing left to tell you that it was a small city of prisoners who melted in 110 degree heat in the summer and froze in the winter. They all lived in tarpaper barracks with almost no privacy. It was here that my wife of 40 years was born in the summer heat of 1943. These were her roots, her beginning formative years. She was born a prisoner of fear and terror. Now our Lord Jesus sends Karen to heal the sick and bring comfort to the homeless, the hurting, the broken, and the mentally ill through ministry on the streets of downtown Portland in the midst of homeless youth. So here in this forsaken barren land, in Minidoka, her children and her husband hugged her and wept and laughed together. We give our Lord Jesus praise and thanksgiving for His healing, kindness, and enduring mercy.
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