MINIDOKA COUNTY, Idaho — Hundreds of people are in Southern Idaho this week to remember a painful past that lies in Jerome.
About 250 survivors and descendants of the Minidoka Concentration Camp are attending a multi-day pilgrimage in remembrance of those who were incarcerated.
More than 13,000 Japanese Americans, most from the West Coast, were imprisoned at the camp. Friday, the Minidoka Pilgrimage Planning Committee hosted a day of education at the College of Southern Idaho.
The day was designed to give people context for the stories they may hear and various issues facing the Minidoka National Historic Site. On Saturday, they will visit the site before returning to Twin Falls and discussing the experience.
"Being a survivor is almost like having PTSD," David Sakura said. "Even now, when I think about what happened, I have a hard time talking about it. And that's why I want to come to be healed in this experience, because this is sacred ground."
Sakura, who now lives in New Hampshire, was six years old when he and his family were forced into the camp. They were there for two years.
More than two dozen of his family members came to the pilgrimage this year, including his kids and grandchildren.
"This is really an important event for me because I'm approaching the age of 90, and this might be my last pilgrimage," he said. "Coming here to Minidoka, is a place for me to heal those wounds that are still very raw."
Planning Committee co-chair Stephen Kitajo said the mission of the annual pilgrimage is to ensure what happened does not happen again to another group. They work toward that goal by visiting the site, learning about its history, hearing stories and passing those stories down to descendants.
"Our history was really repressed, both by the government and by our own relatives who were too nervous to talk about it," Ana Tanaka said. "So, this is us, trying to talk about it and learn about it."
While Friday was a day of learning, Saturday will be a day of reflection as people walk the paths they or their relatives once took.
"It's weird kind of reliving what my grandparents went through but in a very different way," Tanaka said. "You learn a lot more about your family and also your own identity."
A big part of the pilgrimage this year is catching everyone up to speed about the Lava Ridge project, a massive wind farm proposed near the site.
Many people believe having windmills on the horizon will desecrate the area. The Bureau of Land Management will announce whether it is approved this summer.
The agency previously issued its final environmental study.
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