<Begin Segment 28>

TI: So Bacon, I think I want to end up, my last question, I notice that you're wearing a shirt that says Heart Mountain Reunion with an X, which I think is, means the tenth one, is that the tenth?

BS: Right.

TI: So you talked about the very first reunion back in 1982, and so I take it now there have been ten reunions. Tell me about that. Why, how was that last reunion? How have the reunions changed over time?

BS: Well, it, I don't know if, if you could say it changed over time. It just, people got older, people have died, but we got people together. I think the most we ever had was a thousand fifty, and it's just, an enjoyable event for us who were at the camp to see each other and so, actually we had eleven. We got a group together, I got a group together in 1995 and we put on a school reunion, just for the school people, just the teenagers. 1997, the Los Angeles group put on another reunion. And the last three years, in 2005, 2007 and 2009, the Los Angeles group put the reunions together. It circulates from Seattle to San Jose and to Salt Lake City.

TI: Will there be another one in 2011?

BS: Yes, we're gonna get another reunion, reunion twelve at Heart Mountain for the first time, so we're getting that going right now.

TI: That's good. Which, actually which leads into, I said that was my final question, but there's one more. I know you're involved with the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, which is currently building an interpretive center in, in Heart Mountain. Can you tell me about that and your involvement with the Foundation?

BS: Just last weekend we had a progress celebration where we showed the newly built interpretive center. We just got the shell up and now the committee is working on putting on the exhibit inside, and so by August 20 of 2011 we should have our grand opening and our Heart Mountain Reunion.

TI: And something that I think is unique about the Heart Mountain group in terms of this interpretive center is the, the involvement and contribution of the people in Wyoming, the, the white people in Wyoming and their support for this interpretive center. And so it's a little unusual and it's, it's unique. I don't think any other camp has that. Why is that?

BS: I don't know. We're lucky to have this interest from the white people in the towns surrounding the camp. I really can't say what motivated them to help us out.

TI: 'Cause you're taking such a leadership role. I mean, that's not to say at Tule Lake or Minidoka that there isn't some involvement, but Heart Mountain just stands out in terms of the people there who have taken such a leadership role in terms of really bringing an interpretive center.

BS: Right. I think they want to right the wrongs of the past. The people of Wyoming were really against the camp being there and they forced the authority to make that into a concentration camp. Otherwise it would've been a reception center where we were not to be under guard and we were to be relocated throughout the country, but it ended up being a camp where we were confined behind barbed wires and armed guards, and so I think this is a good gesture on part of Wyoming to, to put out this history of the camp and maybe they can help undo some of the bad things that were done in Wyoming.

TI: Good. So Bacon, I've come to the end of my questions. Is there anything else that you want to talk about, anything else that is important that you'd like to, to just chat or say?

BS: Well, I would just like to say that through my research of the camp, that the confinement or the incarceration of us Japanese Americans was not necessary, that putting us into the camp was a big mistake. So that should be known and that we suffered because of that.

TI: Well, thank you so much for the interview.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.