Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II returned to the Colorado River Indian Reservation last week to discuss their shared history.
The U.S. government forced 19,000 Japanese to live at three internment camps on the reservation. The goal was to develop the land for farming, roads and other infrastructure.
"The basis of our present-day wealth is the result of the activities during the war years by the Japanese," Michael Tsosie, the director of the tribal museum, told The Los Angeles Times.
Berkeley artist and researcher Ruth Okimoto, 71, was 6 when she was sent to the reservation. She uncovered documents that detailed how the Office of Indian Affairs and the War Department selected certain Japanese Americans for development plans.
"If what we did helped them, then I guess it was worth the suffering the Japanese endured during the war," Okimoto told the paper.
Get the Story:Celebrating a shared history (The Los Angeles Times 2/19)
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An Internment Camp Within an Internment Camp (ABC News 2/19) $rl Colorado River Indian Tribes - http://critonline.com
