Heart Mountain press releases include announcements about upcoming events, new exhibits, general news about the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation and the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, and other important information.
For high-resolution archival and contemporary photographs related to Heart Mountain and more information about the site and organization, consult our Media Kit or contact us at info@heartmountain.org with queries.
For news related to the Japanese American Confinement Sites Consortium (JACSC), click here.
Read through recent and past Heart Mountain press releases below:
Heart Mountain Website of Translated Literary Journal Wins Award
A series of literary articles and poetry published by first-generation Japanese immigrants incarcerated at Heart Mountain during World War II has been awarded the best website prize by the Wyoming Historical Society.
New Lifetime Achievement Medal Named After Heart Mountain Vice Chair Douglas W. Nelson
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation recognized the contributions made by its longtime Vice Chair Douglas Nelson during its annual pilgrimage last weekend by presenting him with a lifetime achievement award.
Heart Mountain Pilgrimage Will Feature New Awards, Highlight Key Speakers
Three Japanese Americans who help build the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation will receive the organization’s first lifetime achievement awards during its annual Pilgrimage that starts Thursday, July 27, and runs through Saturday, July 29.
Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation Regrets Supreme Court Affirmative Action Decision
For too long, Asian Americans have been used as a wedge between the nation’s White majority and other peoples of color, and that was unfortunately true again in the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action for Black and Hispanic/Latino college admissions.
Heart Mountain Exhibit Celebrates Neighborhood Where Japanese and Black Americans Found Solidarity
When Executive Order 9066 forced Japanese Americans living in the Los Angeles neighborhood known as J-Flats from their homes and into incarceration camps, their African American neighbors came to their aid.
Heart Mountain Workshops Feature Public Event on Montana Sedition Act Abuses
For the first time, the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation will open to the public a session of its workshops for teachers from around the country for a presentation on the mistreatment of German American war resisters in Montana during World War I.
National Park Service Awards Major Grant for Mineta-Simpson Institute Exhibit
The Mineta-Simpson Institute at Heart Mountain has taken another step closer to completion with the awarding of a $149,646 grant from the National Park Service to help fund an exhibit dedicated to the lives and careers of Secretary Norman Mineta and Senator Alan Simpson.
Heart Mountain Publishes Japanese-Language Edition of Setsuko’s Secret
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation has published a Japanese-language edition of Setsuko’s Secret: Heart Mountain and the Legacy of the Japanese American Incarceration by Shirley Ann Higuchi, the chair of the foundation’s board. The new edition is a joint project of HMWF and a group of Japanese scientists who studied in the United States under Dr. William Higuchi, a former Heart Mountain incarceree and Shirley Ann Higuchi’s father.
Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation Releases Translations of Rare Camp Writings
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation is releasing a new digital exhibit featuring English translations of poems, essays and short stories written in Japanese by first-generation immigrants incarcerated at Heart Mountain during World War II. Called the Heart Mountain Bungei, the poems were published in Japanese and distributed primarily to the Japanese-speaking residents who lived in the camp between August 1942 and November 1945.
Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation Appoints Aura Sunada Newlin as Executive Director
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Aura Sunada Newlin as its permanent executive director, which culminates a months-long, nationwide search. She is a fourth-generation Wyomingite, fourth-generation Japanese American, graduate of the University of Wyoming and former anthropology professor at Northwest College in Powell. She was the longtime Heart Mountain board secretary before agreeing to serve as interim executive director.
Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation Presents Night of Taiko and Shakuhachi
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation is proud to present a performance by the San Jose Taiko drumming ensemble and shakuhachi grand master Michael Chikuzen Gould at 7 p.m., Saturday, March 18 at Northwest College’s Nelson Performing Arts Center.
HMWF Decries Attacks on the Loyalty of Asian American Member of Congress
Eighty-one years ago, 120,000 people of Japanese descent were incarcerated without evidence, because opportunistic politicians used their ethnicity to question their loyalty after the Imperial Japanese government’s attack on Pearl Harbor. As much as we want to believe that the arc of the moral universe, while long, eventually bends toward justice, the recent attacks on Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., by a handful of her House colleagues have shown us that not enough has changed over the last 81 years.
Heart Mountain Opens New Exhibit on Ties Between Holocaust and Japanese American Soldiers
The Heart Mountain Interpretive Center will open on Saturday, February 18, its new exhibit, Parallel Barbed Wire, which features the remarkable stories of Heart Mountain incarceree Clarence Matsumura and Holocaust survivor Solly Ganor.
HMWF Challenges Proposed Fee Increase for Immigration Files
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation has filed a public comment with the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service protesting a near quadrupling of the fee to process and copy the immigration files of Japanese immigrants to the United States in the 20th century, many of whom were incarcerated in Heart Mountain and other camps during World War II.
