HISTORY ALONG THE GREAT AMERICAN RAIL-TRAIL
An Uncertain Return and Long Reconciliation On Dec. 17, 1944, the U.S. govern- ment announced mass exclusion was no longer necessary and would end the following month. Incarcerees would be given $25 and a train ticket to anywhere in the country. But for some, release was not a cause for celebration. Many no longer had a home or a job to re- turn to; others worried about their safety back on the West Coast. “Some people didn’t want to go back because they were afraid of what would happen to them,” said Locker. Prejudice against the Japanese had continued to grow during the war. “There was persistent racism. People’s houses were set on fire.” Fearing racial violence in San Francisco, Mihara and his family first left Heart Mountain for Salt Lake City, where his father struggled to open a new business. Eventually, six years after Pearl Harbor, the Miharas returned home to California and “tried to re-create the life we used to have,” said Mihara, who went on to become a rocket scientist at Boeing. Today, the prison camp where the family spent three difficult years is open for those who want to learn more about this tragic era in American history. On the grounds of the Heart Mountain WWII Japanese American Confinement Site, recently named a Smithsonian affiliate, visitors can walk through an original root cellar, a barrack and the hospital building where 556 babies were born. An interpretive center features photographs, arti- facts, oral histories and interactive exhibits that tell the story of Heart Mountain through the eyes of those Japanese and Japanese Americans who were imprisoned there.
Connecting the Great American Rail-Trail in Powell, Wyoming Currently, the Heart Mountain WWII Japanese American Confinement Site is located in a 52-mile gap of the Great American Rail-Trail ® between Cody and Greybull, Wyoming. In 2024, Rails to Trails Conservancy collaborated with the Powell Economic Partnership (PEP) to host a petition in support of a connector through the small city of Powell, one that would contribute to the nationwide trail while providing local residents with the nearby outdoor recreation they lack. “When we’ve done outreach and surveys, what the community says they want is more access,” said Rebekah Burns, PEP’s executive director. “They want somewhere they can take their grandchildren, run after work or bike on a safe pathway.” RTC and PEP’s petition quickly reached its goal of 1,000 signatures, and Burns said the group is now working with the county to begin fundraising and developing plans for the project. > For more great stories on the history of the Great American Rail-Trail, go to traillink.com/historic-places or rtc.li/history-happened-here .
PHOTOS: Opposite page: Sam Mihara, a surviving incarceree of the Heart Mountain WWII Japanese American Confinement Site (as of 2025). | Courtesy Mihara Family Collection. This page: The Heart Mountain Honor Roll memorial to individuals who left the camp for military service | Gates Frontiers Fund Wyoming Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. surviving group of Heart Mountain incarcerees, said that it’s very pos- sible for history to repeat itself. Incarceration “almost hap- pened to other groups during WWII. It almost happened to Mus- lim Americans after 9/11. Even to- day, there are detention centers for immigrants where the conditions are not good,” he said. “We need to be on our guard to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” In the years since WWII, the U.S. government has pardoned the draft resisters, given $20,000 in reparations to each incarceree, and issued a number of formal apologies about Japanese confinement. The first came in 1976 from President Gerald Ford, who called incarceration a “national mistake” that “shall never again be repeated.” But Mihara, one of a small
Ashley Stimpson is a Maryland-based freelance journalist who writes about science, conservation and outdoor adventure.
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