Minidoka - Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial

Bainbridge Island was the first community in the United States where Japanese Americans were taken from their homes under Executive Order 9066. In March 1942, men, women and children walked to the ferry dock under armed guard and were sent to remote concentration camps, including Minidoka in Idaho. The memorial marks the location of that dock.

The park site is also a story of resilience and community. Many residents of Bainbridge Island continued writing letters and maintained ties with their Japanese American neighbors. After the war, many of those who were incarcerated returned to the community.

Today, the memorial offers a quiet space for reflection, learning and remembrance. Visitors can visit the Memorial Wall, take the path to the historic pier and experience immersive learning and a sense of the weight of departure. The site is accessible by road or by shuttle from the state ferry dock.

History of Japanese American Incarceration

In 1942, the signing of Executive Order 9066 created exclusion zones on the West Coast, paving the way for the mass incarceration without due process of 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals.

Within weeks, families were forced to leave their lives behind — sell or give away their property, find homes for their pets, and say goodbye to friends and neighbors. First imprisoned at “Assembly Centers” and forced to live in local stockyards and horse stalls at racetracks and fairgrounds, they were later moved to “internment camps” or “relocation camps” in remote interior areas of the West.

Blog Post

Confronting America’s Dark Past

80 years ago, the federal government imprisoned innocent civilians for their Japanese ancestry. Today, survivors and their descendants fight to preserve the sites where these injustices took place — and…

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Families from Alaska, Washington and Oregon were imprisoned for three years at Minidoka in remote south central Idaho. A total of 13,000 people were imprisoned in harsh and cramped conditions, surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by military police. Families found ways to cope and attempted to create normalcy through daily activities. Incarcerees cleared the surrounding public land, created a farming irrigation system and provided labor to neighboring farms. Over 900 Japanese Americans at Minidoka enlisted in the U.S. military while their families remained imprisoned at Minidoka.

Minidoka closed on October 28, 1945. Families were forced to once again rebuild their lives, uncertain where to move, resettling and persevering despite the discrimination they faced. Survivors and their descendants continue to carry the pain and trauma of being labeled as disloyal and traitors by their own country, simply because of their ancestry. This pain of discrimination continues to resonate today in the Japanese American community as our country continues to fight racism and hate crimes targeting Asian Americans and other communities of color.

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Return to Manzanar

As the number of Japanese-American incarceration camp survivors dwindles, a new generation strives to keep the story alive.

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Today, survivors and descendants of Japanese American incarcerees hold annual pilgrimages to Minidoka and other incarceration sites to heal from this painful history. The Minidoka National Historic Site provides public education on the history of forced incarceration of Japanese Americans leading up to World War II and the importance of protecting civil and constitutional rights in the United States. Congress and presidents of both parties have taken official actions to acknowledge that the incarceration of Japanese Americans was a gross violation of civil rights.