Veteran’s Day’s invisible heroes

Blackfoot High School students learned about the bravery of the Japanese-Americans on the West Coast who were gathered up and put into internment camps following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II.

But these men still believed that America was their home and wanted to protect it, even though many of them were plucked out of their lives and fenced in by barbed wire in the Minidoka internment camp just outside of Rupert.

Even veterans attending the assembly Wednesday were shocked to see pictures of the conditions.

, “And the concentration camps and the wires and everything and I said to the fellow next to me, I said wow we did the same thing that the Nazis did and it was really shocking to me and it made me very sad,”Veteran Reina Alvera said.

Students listened closely- and watched a Power Point presentation that showed powerful images.

One vet who attended the assembly says its important to revisit history especially when it’s in your own backyard. “They need to know our history so that they won’t fall into the same trap that our forefathers fell into.”Frank Hall, who served in the Navy, said.

Camp Minidoka was named a national monument by former President Bill Clinton in 2001.