Last year's closing ceremony at Minidoka (NPS)

In Jerome County, Idaho, a lone chimney tower and part of a wall mark the spot where 600 buildings once stood. In the 1940s, a bustling community of some 9,000 people went about their daily business at general stores, barber shops, repair shops, a hospital, and schools.

But this was no ordinary American town. Miles of barbed wire encircled the property, and guards stood duty in eight watch towers. Minidoka Internment Camp was one of 10 places where first-generation Japanese immigrants (Issei) and American citizens of Japanese ancestry (Nisei) were forced to live during World War II.

Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in February 1942, Executive Order 9066 called for the immediate relocation of more than 120,000 Issei and Nesei living on the West Coast. Remarkably, those living in other areas of the country were not subject to the order, not even those in Hawaii.

Idaho's Minidoka Internment Camp, hastily constructed on some 950 acres, sat alone at the heart of 33,000 acres of unused federal land. The desolate landscape matched the emotions of the individuals and families sent there as part of the largest forced relocation in American history. Not only were internees stripped of their possessions and sent to live in camps, but many returned home in 1945 unable to resume their former lives because they had lost their houses and businesses.

Discarded dishes, Minidoka's artifacts (NPS)

Today the National Park Service is partnering with a number of organizations to preserve the legacy of the internees for future generations. Yet the National Historic Monument, which has no visitors center and is vulnerable to looters, may get a new neighbor: an enormous animal-production complex that could squelch tourism. This week the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Minidoka one of America's 11 Most Endgangered Historic Places.

In 2001, 72 acres were designated as Minidoka Internment National Monument under the auspices of the National Park Service; five years of collaboration have gone into developing a comprehensive management plan. "Minidoka is a wonderful resource that was almost lost; it was brought into the National Park Service on the verge of obliteration," says Superintendent Neil King. "We've got the plan now, and we are working to bring it back."

At the heart of the 20-year plan is the restoration of a complete residential block where visitors will be able to see how internees lived. The plan also provides for the preservation of cultural resources and artifacts, a monument honoring internees, new visitor facilities, and the expansion of the site's boundaries to encompass additional key areas of the original camp. In addition to telling the Minidoka story at the national monument, off-site education and interpretation will be offered in conjunction with museums, schools, and various organizations.

But as King puts it, the site is not yet ready for prime-time viewing. "We welcome attention and support for the site, but I don't have a staff, and there are no visitor facilities," he explains. Much work lies ahead.

King says he's focusing on two issues: "The people who lived this are aging and becoming unavailable. We've been partnering with the Densho Project in Seattle to record those oral histories," King says.

Entrance to Minidoka (NPS)

"Secondly, there are many remains of buildings scattered around the area. When the camp was decommissioned, land was made available to local farmers and others. Some buildings are in close-to original condition, and we are trying to acquire these and move them back to the site," he explains.

Detailed records and riveting photographs of camp life, many in the hands of the Jerome County Historical Society, paint a picture of this slice of American life: Residents inhabited 35 residential blocks that included barracks, a mess hall, and a simple space they dryly referred to as a recreation hall. They made their own improvements to the stark compound, including building a gym and baseball diamonds. They also labored in surrounding fields to grow their own food, harvesting 7,300,000 pounds of produce in 1944. And they lent beauty to their surroundings by planting trees and flowers.

"Minidoka plays a role in the evolution of civil liberties," says Jim Azumano of the organization Friends of Minidoka, made up of internees and their families. Azumano's parents wed at Minidoka, and his grandmothers, aunts, and uncles all lived there. "Civil liberties are a fundamental part of the American way of life, so preserving the site is important for all Americans," he says.

Minidoka in the 1940s (Densho Digital Archive)

The most important resource in the restoration of Minidoka is the surviving internees. Yosh Nakagawa, sent to Minidoka from his Seattle home when he was in the fourth grade, speaks firsthand of the patriotism that surrounded him there. Despite the distress of being forced to leave home and live in extreme isolation, most Japanese Americans held fast to their loyalty to America. About 1,000 from Minidoka alone enlisted in the military; 73 died fighting for their country—yet their relatives were not allowed to leave the camp attend their funerals. Nakagawa says he was thinking of those soldiers recently when his nephew returned from a tour in Iraq: "They lost their freedom, but their parents sent them out to die for our country. That's what America has to remember: Ironically, it is freedom that puts us all on common ground."

Nakagawa has been instrumental in shaping the plan for the national monument, which emphasizes that this period of history cannot be told by just one person but through many voices. He feels great joy that the stories of internees will be told at last.

"It is just mind-boggling that I have lived long enough to be able to tell my story and see America make amends," he says. "This is not a Japanese-American story; this is an American story. Let us not forget it, so that today and tomorrow we don't make the same mistake."

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