Former Heart Mountain detainee to speak Sept. 22

What if your family was living a busy and involved life, as respected members of the community, businessmen, civic leaders, homeowners, children active in schools.

Then suddenly, overnight, everything is turned upside down. You are given a few days to pack what can be carried in a suitcase, rounded up by military guards, and removed from your home to a remote area where you must make a new life surrounded by barbed wire fences, guards in towers watching 24 hours a day.

It happened to nine-year-old Sam Mihara in 1942, then living in San Francisco. Mihara, who would go on to become a rocket scientist and a college lecturer, will present a program, “Memories of Heart Mountain,” Tuesday, Sept. 22, at Hot Springs County Museum, Thermopolis, at 6 p.m.

Today, Mihara is a member of the board of directors, Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, and is one of the last survivors who speaks out about Heart Mountain internment camp and its long-term effects upon Japanese-Americans and American society.

Mihara will also speak to Hot Springs County School District #1 students earlier in the day. The Thermopolis events are sponsored by Hot Springs Greater Learning Foundation, with a grant from the Wyoming Humanities Council.

Mihara shows rare footage and photographs of the roundup and transport to the camps, as well as life in the camps. He also offers up observations on how societies can become victims of their own paranoia.

Hot Springs County Library will display photos from Mihara’s collection, along with newly acquired books for all ages on the Heart Mountain experience.

More detailed information and photos of Heart Mountain internment camp are on Hot Springs Greater Learning Foundation website, http://www.hsglf.org.