Learned what it meant to be called “Jap” in Heart Mountain

While we were in camp, I began to learn what it meant to be called “Jap.” All the time… Occasionally, the administration of the camp —which was all White—let us out on little tours, fieldtrips, you know, for children, fieldtrips to Cody, Wyoming, which was like, one of those single-street, towns in the middle-West...I don't know how your town was but, one or two main streets and that’s it. So, then, you see signs in the windows, “No Japs welcome here,” “You’re not...” any way, all kinds of handmade signs all around there, even from a child’s point of view you can tell the fieldtrip was ridiculous.

Date: September 15, 2017
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Jennifer Cool
Contributed by: Jennifer Cool, Matthew Purifoy