Tour: Minidoka National Historic Site

In the early 1940’s, the Pearl Harbor attack intensified existing hostility towards Japanese Americans. As wartime hysteria mounted, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 forcing over 120,000 West Coast persons of Japanese ancestry (Nikkei) to leave their homes, jobs, and lives behind, forcing them into one of ten prison camps spread across the nation because of their ethnicity. 

A former internment camp in Idaho, Minidoka now stands as a memorial to the nearly 10,000 Japanese Americans forced to relocate here during World War II. Between September 1942 and October 1945, the Minidoka WRA Center was in custody of 13,078 people, and 12,758 were admitted to the Center (Final Accountability Roster of the Minidoka Relocation Center, 1945). The peak population was 9,500 persons in 1942. There were 489 births and 193 deaths at Minidoka, which constituted the 7th largest city in Idaho while it was operational between 1942 and 1945. 

Join City Club of Boise for an in-person guided tour with a National Park Ranger at the Minidoka National Historic Site on Tuesday, September 21, 2021 beginning at 11:00 a.m. 

Minidoka National Historic Site, 1428 Hunt Road, Jerome, ID 83338

This event is free for City Club members and their non-member guest.