The first time I saw Heart Mountain, it was a bleak and dreary day. That suited the mood of what we were about to endure – an interpretive center that breathes life into the story of an internment camp where Japanese Americans were held during World War II.

The interpretive center here is one of the very best I’ve ever experienced as they do a wonderful job not just telling the story but making you feel something for strangers.

It’s called empathy and we don’t have enough of this emotion these days.

It is an undeniable fact that Japan was our enemy and an unwaveringly cruel one at that. We were at war and our government argued that Japanese immigrants on this soil could present a threat. Never mind that many of these people had lived here for years and were proud, loyal Americans. Many were young children who should have been attending school with their friends and working on their Boy Scout projects.

Our government drew an arbitrary line down the western part of the United States and said anyone west of the line had to be contained. Never mind those folks living in the entire rest of the country. We were only concerned about the Japanese Americans who lived in that small area.

These camps were in places like Colorado, California, Wyoming and Arizona. About 2/3 of the 120,000 people sent to these camps were American citizens.

Heart Mountain is located near Cody, Wyoming which must have felt like a forsaken place, too cold and windy for west coasters who came without decent clothes, shoes or coats for the cold weather.

They left behind jobs, homes and businesses. They left behind middle class status. They left behind people and places important to them. They were permitted to bring just what they could carry in a suitcase and forced to sell, store or give away the rest of their possessions. They were not permitted to have pets and were forced to leave them behind.

They were assigned small barracks with thin walls, potbelly stoves for heat, and not enough fuel to go around.

Yet, they created a community where their children were educated and where they formed social clubs that made life better in that place. Many remained patriotic, proudly flying their American flags and insisting that their country would not do this to them if it weren’t for the good of the nation.

I read a comment by a man who said that they could have been marched off to their deaths and wouldn’t have known better. They went because they thought it was the right thing to do.

Racism toward Asian American people wasn’t a new concept. White farmers and business people didn’t like the competition from these “lesser” neighbors. It was commonly believed that Asian people were innately inferior and could never be real Americans.

Can you imagine?

But it’s this kind of racism that allows otherwise reasonable people to buy whatever lies and hysteria politicians are selling. It is this kind of racism that justifies ignoring the Constitution of the United States in favor of cruel indifference and a refusal of due process to those who have done nothing wrong.

How do you teach democracy in an internment camp?

That’s one of many questions you’ll explore there.

Heart Mountain is one of the single most important places I have visited and one that every American should experience for themselves. Honestly, I am doing a horrible job telling you this story. That’s due in part because it is such a complicated story to unwind and relate in a blog. Entire books have been written about what we did to those people and about what happened to some of them when they left. It’s also because this is one of the most gut wrenching places I have seen.

Our tour started with a short video that gave an overview of the Heart Mountain story. By the time the lights went up, I knew we were in for a special experience. Everyone should know these stories because we are doomed to repeat our mistakes when we ignore our history. This white washing of American history because it makes people feel bad for things that weren’t their fault is absolutely one of the dumbest things I have heard. Learning from the mistakes of our culture and the people before us is part of being human.

After the video, there are interactive displays, photos, and artifacts to help you learn the stories and understand the challenges these folks faced here.

The last time I saw Heart Mountain was a couple of days later. We returned to walk a short trail at sunset. At the center of this trail is a monument to the approximately 750 young men and women who were Heart Mountain residents who served their nation’s armed forces during World War II. These are the same young people whose liberties were stripped away by that very government.

Fifteen of them gave their lives for that nation.

We were there at the end of a beautiful day as the setting sun began to stripe the sky with colors only found in nature. It felt a little like nature was paying tribute to those who served as well as those who were born and died here, the ones who lost their homes and livelihoods, the ones who started over with a bus ticket and $25 in their pocket along with the silence of their government.

If you ever find yourself in the Cody area, please go visit Heart Mountain and experience it for yourself. If you are so inclined, there are many books written about the internment camps. Perhaps try reading one of them for help grasping why this matters. Visit Heart Mountain online.