The following excerpt is from an article in the August 11, 2011 edition of refu.com:
The grand opening of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation’s long-awaited Interpretive Learning Center on Saturday, Aug. 20, will offer visitors a special opportunity to tour the new museum, located at the former World War II concentration camp in Wyoming’s Park County, where nearly 14,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were imprisoned from 1942 to 1945.
According to Shirley Ann Higuchi, chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, some 1,000 former internees, descendants and supporters across the nation are planning a pilgrimage to the site to honor Heart Mountain survivors and commemorate the opening of this lasting tribute to their experiences. The theme for the three-day celebration, Aug. 19-21, is “Lessons from the Past … Guidance for the Future.” The weekend also will include the world premiere of “All We Could Carry: The Story of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center” by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steven Okazaki.
“The grand opening of the Interpretive Learning Center is the result of an enormous effort to preserve this historic site and interpret what occurred there for the current and future generations of Americans,” said Higuchi, a Sansei whose parents were incarcerated with their families as children at Heart Mountain.
“The Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center and surrounding site will stand as a powerful reminder of the need to balance concern for national security with respect for basic civil rights,” she stated.
Higuchi, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney and past president of the District of Columbia Bar, said it is the only museum of its type built by a private foundation and only the second U.S. museum commemorating the site of a former concentration camp for Japanese Americans.
