Survivor/Descendant Reflections

By Paul Hiroyoshi Tomita, Minidoka Survivor

In 1998, while cleaning my father's home, I found this piece of scrap wood. Hand painted by my father was his name, and below the following number (12) for "Block" number, (5) for "Barracks" number and the letter (E) for "Section". This item was donated to the Minidoka Museum in 2006. During this same cleaning, I found paperwork designating our "Family Number" (#11940).

On June 5, 2022, for the first time, I was able to walk on the actual location/ground where our family was imprisoned during the war.....some 80 years ago. As I have expressed several times through the years, I did not like being in the Minidoka/Hunt Camp. The dust was unbearable; the wind was relentless and the imprisonment was inhumane.

 Puyallup Assembly Center - April through August, 1942

Minidoka/Hunt Camp- August 1942 through July 4, 1943