New Monument Honors Japanese Americans Incarcerated in North Dakota During World War II

(Photo courtesy of Dennis Neumann, United Tribes Technical College via the North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – United Tribes Technical College on Sept. 5 will hold a dedication ceremony for a new monument honoring the memory of Japanese Americans who were imprisoned there during World War II.

During the war, the U.S. government incarcerated more than 100,000 people of Japanese descent. Some were held in military posts like Fort Lincoln, which would later be converted into United Tribes Technical College in the late 1960s. Almost 2,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned at Fort Lincoln beginning during the 1940s.

Through the Snow Country Prison Japanese American Internment Memorial, United Tribes and Japanese American historians hope to call attention to what incarcerated families suffered and how they resisted persecution by the U.S. government, the college’s website for the memorial notes.

It’s also meant to recognize the common experience shared by Japanese Americans and Indigenous communities who faced forced removal and oppression by the United States.