Monday, January 22, 2001

 

Volume 37, Issue 3; ISSN: 0511-4187

 

Proclamation 7395--establishment of the Minidoka Internment National Monument

William J Clinton

 

 

� January 17,2001

 

 

� By the President of the United States of America

 

 

� A Proclamation

 

 

� The Minidoka Internment National Monument is a unique and

irreplaceable historical resource which protects historic structures

and objects that provide opportunities for public education and

interpretation of an important chapter in American history-the

internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

 

 

� On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed

Executive Order 9066, authorizing the Secretary of War and military

commanders to designate military areas from which "any or all

persons may be excluded" and to "provide for residents of any such

area who are excluded therefrom, such transportation, food, shelter,

and other accommodations as may be necessary."

 

 

� Starting in early 1942, military authorities began designating

military exclusion areas in the States of California, Washington,

Oregon, and Arizona, and the territory of Alaska. Following the

signing of Executive Order 9066, American citizens and resident

aliens of Japanese ancestry living in the designated exclusion areas

were ordered to evacuate their homes and businesses and report to

temporary assembly centers located at fairgrounds, horse racetracks,

and other makeshift facilities.

 

 

� To provide more permanent accommodations for the evacuees,

President Roosevelt established the War Relocation Authority (WRA)

in March 1942. The WRA oversaw the construction of ten relocation

centers on Federally owned lands in remote areas of six western

States and Arkansas, including the Minidoka Relocation Center in

Idaho. Alaskan Native residents of the Aleutian and Pribiloff

Islands and members of other ethnic and religious groups were also

relocated or interned during the course of the war.

 

 

� Established in August 1942, the Minidoka Relocation Center, also

known as the Hunt Site, was located on Federal lands in Jerome

County, in south central Idaho. During its operation from August

1942 to October 1945, the population reached a peak of 9,397

Japanese Americans from Washington State, Oregon, and Alaska. The

Center included over 33,000 acres of land with administrative and

residential facilities located on approximately 950 acres. The

Center had more than 600 buildings including administrative,

religious, residential, educational, mess, medical, manufacturing,

warehouse, security, and other structures.

 

 

� Living conditions at Minidoka and the other centers were harsh.

Internees were housed in crude barracks and cramped quarters, and

they shared communal facilities. Internees engaged in irrigated

agriculture, livestock production, and light manufacturing to

produce food and garments for the camp. Approximately 1,000

internees from Minidoka served in the U.S. military. Fiftyfour

Japanese American servicemen from Mini oka were killed in action.

 

 

� Section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 U.S.C. 431),

authorizes the President, in his discretion, to declare by public

proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric

structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest

that are situated upon lands owned or controlled by the Government

of the United Stated to be national monuments, and to reserve as a

part thereof parcels of lands, the limits of which in all cases

shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper

care and management of the objects to be protected.

 

 

� Whereas it appears that it would be in the public interest to

reserve such lands as a national monument to be known as the

Minidoka Internment National Monument:

 

 

� Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United

States of America, by the authority vested in me by section 2 of the

Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, U.S.C. 431), do proclaim that

there are hereby set apart and reserved as the Minidoka Internment

National Monument for the purpose of protecting the historic

structures and objects of historic interest contained therein, all

lands and interests in lands owned or controlled by the United

States within the boundaries of the area described on the map

entitled "Minidoka Internment National Monument" attached to and

forming a part of this proclamation. The Federal lands and interests

in land reserved consist of approximately 72.75 acres, which is the

smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the

structures and objects to be protected.

 

 

� All Federal lands and interests in lands within the boundaries of

this monument are hereby appropriated and withdrawn from all forms

of entry, location, selection, sale, or leasing or other disposition

under the public land or other Federal laws, including but not

limited to withdrawal from location, entry, and patent under the

mining laws, and from disposition under all laws relating to mineral

and geothermal leasing.

 

 

� The Secretary of the Interior, pursuant to legal authorities, shall

manage the monument and shall transfer administration of the

monument to the National Park Service to implement the purposes of

this proclamation.

 

 

� To carry out the purposes of this proclamation and to interpret the

relocation and internment of Japanese Americans during World War II,

the Secretary of the Interior, through the National Park Service,

shall prepare a management plan for the monument within 3 years of

this date.

 

 

� This proclamation does not reserve water as a matter of Federal law

nor relinquish any water rights held by the Federal Government

existing on this date. The Secretary shall work with appropriate

State authorities to ensure that any water resources needed for

monument purposes are available.

 

 

� The establishment of this monument is subject to valid existing

rights, provided that nothing in this proclamation shall interfere

with the operation and maintenance of the Northside Canal to the

extent that any such activities, that are not valid existing rights,

are consistent with the purposes of the proclamation.

 

 

� Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge or diminish

the rights of any Indian tribe.

 

 

� Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke any existing

withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation; however the national

monument shall be the dominant reservation.

 

 

� Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not to

appropriate, injure, destroy, or remove any feature of this monument

and not to locate or settle upon any of the lands thereof.

 

 

� In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth

day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand one, and of the

Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and

twenty-fifth.

 

 

� William J. Clinton

 

 

� [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., January

19, 2001]

 

 

� NOTE: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on

January 22.