In 1942, while Daniel man­aged a first-aid sta­tion in Oahu, ten-year-old Nor­man Mine­ta loved base­ball and Boy Scouts, grow­ing up in a devot­ed Methodist fam­i­ly. His father, Kunisaku “Kay” Mine­ta, immi­grat­ed to the U.S. at four­teen, orig­i­nal­ly intend­ing to reach San Fran­cis­co but dis­em­barked in Seat­tle. After work­ing his way south and strug­gling with Eng­lish, he was enrolled in first grade at age six­teen, mark­ing the begin­ning of his Amer­i­can jour­ney. Years lat­er, at twen­ty-four, he sought a wife, ulti­mate­ly mar­ry­ing Kane, who trav­eled across the Pacif­ic as a “pic­ture bride.”

As Japan­ese intern­ment began fol­low­ing the attack on Pearl Har­bor, Kay encour­aged his chil­dren, affirm­ing their cit­i­zen­ship despite the impend­ing doom. Exec­u­tive Order 9066 soon forced Japan­ese Amer­i­cans into intern­ment camps, begin­ning with bru­tal evic­tion notices and search­es for con­tra­band. Fam­i­lies, includ­ing the Mine­tas, were coerced into sell­ing their belong­ings at frac­tions of their worth, as dis­crim­i­na­tion ren­dered them pow­er­less to resist.

The Mine­tas jour­neyed to the San­ta Ani­ta race­track, con­vert­ed into a crowd­ed and makeshift intern­ment camp. Norm had to leave behind his dog, Skip­py, an emo­tion­al farewell that haunt­ed him after he nev­er saw the pet again. Upon arriv­ing, the Mine­tas were assigned cramped liv­ing quar­ters with noth­ing but straw mat­tress­es and were sub­ject­ed to con­stant sur­veil­lance. The envi­ron­ment was sti­fling and rem­i­nis­cent of impris­on­ment rather than an evac­u­a­tion.

With no prop­er accom­mo­da­tions, meals con­sist­ed of unde­sir­able, fla­vor­less canned food dis­trib­uted through long lines. Even­tu­al­ly, they were trans­ferred to Heart Moun­tain, a more exten­sive camp hous­ing over four­teen thou­sand peo­ple, sur­round­ed by barbed wire. Life there felt somber, yet moth­ers still found ways to bond over shared expe­ri­ences amid hard­ship.

The chil­dren were offered min­i­mal recre­ation­al activ­i­ties. Scout­mas­ter Glenn Liv­ingston advo­cat­ed for inter­ac­tions between local Boy Scouts and the interned chil­dren, although ini­tial hos­til­i­ty from white fam­i­lies emerged. Ulti­mate­ly, a Boy Scout jam­boree was orga­nized with­in Heart Moun­tain, forg­ing friend­ships across bound­aries of prej­u­dice as boys bond­ed over shared antics.

Despite the intern­ment, the Mine­tas were for­tu­nate. After the war, they returned to Cal­i­for­nia, unlike many Japan­ese fam­i­lies whose lives had been irrepara­bly altered. Nor­m’s nar­ra­tive reflects both the resilience of his fam­i­ly and the trag­ic ram­i­fi­ca­tions of wartime para­noia.