‘Act of dissidence’ Memorial dedicated to honor Japanese Americans incarcerated in ND

BISMARCK – North Dakota’s United Tribes Technical College on Friday celebrated the completion of a memorial for the nearly 2,000 Japanese Americans imprisoned there during World War II.

The monument — titled the Snow Country Prison Japanese American Internment Memorial — displays the names of the 1,850 Japanese Americans who were detained on the property.

It’s named after a haiku written by Itaru Ina, who was held prisoner there from 1945 to 1946.

Before the tribal college in Bismarck existed, the property was known as the Fort Lincoln military post. It was used as a prison camp for Japanese Americans and German nationals during World War II.

Many of the Japanese Americans who were sent to Fort Lincoln were community leaders who had spoken out against their imprisonment and were pressured to renounce their citizenship.

The effort to create a memorial on the campus was spearheaded by Itaru Ina’s daughter, Satsuki Ina, who is also a survivor of the incarceration program. She was born at Tule Lake, a detention camp in California, in 1944.

Satsuki Ina said the monument is a commitment to remember the unconstitutional detention of Japanese Americans, even when their stories went untold for decades.

“It’s an act of dissidence,” she said.

There is little public recognition about what the prisoners had suffered, speakers at the dedication noted.

“It’s a story that very few people in our own community knew very much about,” said Barbara Takei, another Japanese American activist who spoke during the dedication. “In the broader community, even fewer people know about it.”

The Revs. Ronald Kobata and Duncan Ryuken Williams led attendees in a Buddhist ritual to honor the Fort Lincoln prisoners, especially those who died during their incarceration.

“A memorial like the Snow Country Prison Japanese American Internment Memorial helps us to feel the presence of all those who experienced wartime incarceration,” Williams said during the dedication.

Williams created a book containing the names of all 125,284 people of Japanese ancestry incarcerated in the United States during the war. The book, called the Ireicho, was part of the dedication ceremony and is on display at United Tribes Technical College Friday and Saturday.

Several speakers drew parallels between the experience of Japanese Americans during World War II and the U.S. government’s persecution of Native nations.

“In both cases, U.S. authorities exercised a paternalistic rationale justifying forced relocation as protective or necessary,” United Tribes Technical College President Russ McDonald said.

Many also compared the imprisonment of Japanese Americans to the modern-day immigration policies of President Donald Trump’s administration.

The law used to justify their incarceration during World War II — the Alien Enemies Act — is the same one the Trump administration invoked to arrest and deport Venezuelan immigrants. (An appeals court on Tuesday ruled against Trump’s use of the law, though the matter is likely to also go before the U.S. Supreme Court.)

“To me, it just shows how vulnerable we are,” Kobata said in an interview before the ceremony. “Stop repeating history. We know that the Constitution isn’t this thing that’s so dependable.”

North Dakota Monitor reporter Mary Steurer can be reached at msteurer@northdakotamonitor.com.

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