(gentle music) - When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, our west coast became a potential combat zone.

(gentle music) (oriental music) - [Narrator] Beyond Heart Mountain is a story about the history of the Japanese residents who thrived in downtown Cheyenne on West 17th Street, where they lived and worked beginning in the 1920s.

The two-block area declined in part due to racial injustice towards Japanese, during and following World War II.

The community was finally dispersed by the 1970s.

Since then the neighborhood has been very quiet.

There was a renewed interest in the once vibrant Japanese community by a housing development planned to be built at 509 West 17th Street, site of the last building standing.

The Lotus condominium project in the Nishigawa neighborhood was a renaissance for me.

Nishigawa means "west side" in Japanese.

I realized that returning to my old Japanese community reminded me a lot about what I had forgotten and wonder what kind of ancestor I'll end up being while there were many prominent Japanese families in Cheyenne.

This documentary focuses on those who had a presence on the West 17th Street, downtown community.

It's also a memoir of sorts since my stories and perspectives are included to provide context and also because my family lived and worked in the neighborhood.

The story tells about the importance of social cohesiveness among a community of people and how that relates to fostering and maintaining a sense of place where we can all live, work and play.

I interviewed four of my childhood acquaintances who had a presence in the Japanese neighborhood in west Cheyenne.

We visited in an online Zoom room.

Terie Miyamoto's family owned Baker's Place.

Her aunt Marge is one of the last surviving members of the Nisei generation from Wyoming.

Both now live in Denver.

- It's a part of Cheyenne's history that we treasured because we are a part of it.

And we knew the people and families that lived in it, and they supported one another.

And I think that's pretty much gone.

You don't see communities anymore where they're homogeneous kind of ethnicity anymore.

They're pretty diverse.

- [Narrator] As kids, Robert Walters and I shared Presbyterian Church youth activities.

Robert also worked in the Japanese neighborhood at the City Cafe.

He's now an attorney in Cheyenne who studied the Japanese experience during World War II.

- Even though there was a Japanese business community there, it was really not Japanese owned or owned by Japanese people.

So, but those were people that were very hardworking and they were, they were a strong pillar of the community, but like a lot of things in Cheyenne, things that seem to be staples have disappeared.

- [Narrator] Brand Matsuyama is older than me.

He grew up in Cheyenne and now lives in Washington State.

His family lived in west Cheyenne and owned the California Fish Market.

- I wouldn't have been born.

I don't think, had not been for the war and relocation it would have been no reason for my mom who was born in Auburn, which is south of Seattle, would have been no reason for her to ever go to Wyoming, which she met my dad, had they not been relocated.

- [Narrator] Carol Lou Kishiyama Hough, and her family purchased the California Fish Market from the Matsuyama's.

She's a shirttail cousin of mine.

Her sister Jeanie married my dad's youngest brother, Jake.

Carol Lewis still lives in Cheyenne.

- I just keep hoping that things will change around as far as the racism and the bullying.

It seems like it's all flared up again.

I was in the grocery store when the COVID and all started and I was in line.

And this gentleman behind me said very, very loud.

You know, it's the Chinese that have started all this and that's why we're going through all this.

I just turned back around, but he said it again and louder.

And I thought I'm 70 years old and I'm still going through this.

- [Narrator] This story is a personal and cultural survey of the once vibrant 400 and 500 blocks of West 17th Street in downtown Cheyenne, which included businesses like Baker's Place owned and operated by the Miyamoto brothers and their African-American partner, Johnny Baker.

- Baker's Place was my grandfather Tomizo Miyamoto's bar restaurant.

And he was in partnership with Johnny Baker, who was an African-American businessman there in Cheyenne.

And my grandparents lived above the bar.

They had a two-bedroom apartment, and I know my parents lived there for a short while.

- [Narrator] Brian Matsuyama was the neighbor of Johnny Baker.

- Tell me about Johnny Baker.

- He lived next door to us.

He was a black guy that owned the bar that later the Miyamotos took over.

As a young kid, and again, left Cheyenne pretty young and as a young kid, my hours, and Johnny's didn't really coincides.

So I didn't see a whole lot of them, but he seem like a really nice guy.

He's a good neighbor.

- I grew up with Linda Miyamoto and Terie.

So we would ride our bikes all over town and we'd go to the Wild Theater and we'd go to the Roedel's.

- My aunt Marge, who's sitting with me.

She was there with their youngest son, Bill Miyamoto and their younger daughter, Linda Miyamoto.

And they lived there quite a few years and above the bar.

So this is Margaret Miyamoto and she's my aunt.

She was born on May 17th, 1928.

So she's 92 and she is the last surviving Nisei Miyamoto that we have in our family.

- And Lyndon, Doug and Marge lived upstairs from there.

So I remember going up there and stay in with Linda and then going during the day and helping Doug clean the bar.

- [Man] I can't really remember a whole lot about him.

- [Narrator] I don't think anybody can.

I can't find anything about Johnny Baker anywhere.

And so it's very odd.

There was some people that say he's just a ghost.

- I remember what he looked like, white fringe around the completely bald dome, and a little bit on the heavy side.

As I say, he seemed like a very nice guy.

And he's a good neighbor.

- [Narrator] During World War II, Baker's Place was the only integrated bar in Cheyenne.

The establishment was anecdotally frequented by Sammy Davis Jr. when he was stationed nearby at the Fort Warren Army Base.

Despite racial segregation in Cheyenne at the time the future entertainer spoke fondly about his basic training days in Cheyenne.

- [TV host] Who helped you?

- A man in the army.

I could read, but I couldn't write.

And Sergeant Williams was his name, and I started reading.

- [TV Host] What was the first book you ever picked up and read?

- Three Musketeers.

- [TV Host] The three Musketeers.

(audience laughing) - [Narrator] A block west of Baker's Place was the City Cafe.

Mrs. Yoshio Shuto and her nephew, Tommy owned the business that would become the central gathering place for the Japanese community.

The pork noodle bowl was my favorite and still is given a choice when eating out in any Japanese restaurant.

- I was born at Warren Air Force Base.

My dad was stationed at, station there when my mom had me.

I really have no memory of it.

I just know that that's the case.

When my folks divorced when I was entering seventh grade, we moved off base.

We'd lived in military housing and then went to McCormick Junior High.

And it was about that time that my mom got me a job at City Cafe washing dishes.

And so that was my introduction also to Tommy Shuto, who was the owner of, proprietor of City Cafe.

- We would go there at least once a week, or do take out.

And I know my grandparents were very good friends with Mrs. Shuto who was the owner and Saiki San who was the cook.

- You know, City Cafe was really more of a continental restaurant.

It had some Chinese dishes, chow mien, foo young, but it had some, what were called Japanese dishes, which really were recipes that were somewhat modified to attract the American consumer.

I mean, you didn't have sushi, you didn't have ramen.

- I went to the City Cafe pretty often.

That's probably the times when we went out to eat, 90% of those times was the City Cafe.

And my dad was pretty close with Mrs. Shuto and Saiki San.

I think he would often go down there to help them if they needed translation or, you know, doing papers, paper work and things.

Whenever he did that, he'd always come home with a bag full of hamburgers and French fries and cokes for the kids that they would send us.

- Tommy was a shrewd businessman.

He knew what his customers liked and he made it, you know, but he also did things like a prime rib or rainbow lobster, you know, pot roast with gravy and carrots and potatoes.

So Tommy didn't feel like he needed to convert people to real Japanese food, certainly Japanese food that he grew up with.

- We'd always get the pork udon.

And my brother's favorite was the breaded veal.

We loved the breaded veal, or we do the terriyaki.

You always get terriyaki.

Those were kind of the main stays that we would get.

- I remember eating in the booths in front of the cafe as a family.

And we often ran into other, other Japanese families when you'd go in there.

Then there were some times when the cafe was closed, they would be hosting smaller groups of people in that back room.

- I can remember they had the booths in the front and the counter, and then you had to go through the kitchen.

And in the kitchen, there was a tree growing through the kitchen eating area.

And then there would be a back room, which was a community room where you would have like community dining because they just had big, long tables that you just shared your meals with them.

There'd be doctors and lawyers, people of all diverse backgrounds eating together there.

So, and it would be a wonderful place to where we, sometimes I think they showed Japanese movies there, too.

- And the kids would sit around the jukebox up in front.

Mrs. Shuto would set it up so that we could play anything we wanted and that was, that was a super treat.

I remember a couple of times doing that with other kids.

I remember times when we would go in there and I think it was probably the Okomoto boys and Ted Miyamoto's kids.

- Well, we always went there on, I believe, it was Friday nights to watch the old Japanese movies and all the kids and the women would sit in the restaurant and watched the movies.

- [Narrator] After hours, the City Cafe was hopping the Shutos hosted community gatherings, black and white samurai movies played in the front while drinking and card games were played in the back.

(people speaking Japanese) - Tommy drove this El Camino, super sports, you know, back in the day when it was not looking like a truck, but it functionally was like a truck.

It was very useful to him and he would, he taught me how to drive.

You know, he didn't live very far from me, so, so I would usually stick around the restaurant wait for him and then we would leave.

It almost was more like a family atmosphere than anything else.

You know what I mean?

None of us were related, but there were Japanese, you know, I think he tried to hire as many Japanese people, women in particular to work either as waitresses or in the kitchen, you know, as far as dishwasher, you know, he just wants, you know, he was happy to help out kids who were in junior high and high school who had Japanese parents.

- [Narrator] The City Cafe was a place that bound the Japanese community together.

There were other businesses in the neighborhood that included a barber shop owned by the Matsushima family.

California Fish Market was owned first by the Hashimotos, then the Matsuyamas, and later by the Kishiyamas.

- I do remember the fish market.

I remember the layout walking in the front door counter on the right.

There was a Coca Cola tub.

I don't know if you, you would probably know these better than me, but a Coca Cola tub with coke in it sitting in cold water, person of fish market, plenty of ice.

So I think my dad probably kept that there because it was kind of a hangout for something the nisei guys would come in and smoke cigarettes and drink a coke and chat with him.

And beyond that there was store room and a small office.

So I can kind of remember the layout of it and spend a whole lot of time there, obviously, that younger kid.

But I do remember going in there.

- No, it's really funny because the only recollection that I have is the fish market.

There was a black gentleman named Kokomo and he used to just come to the fish market or sit on the corner.

He was very disabled, but he came to the fish market and asked my dad, if he could buy me.

(laughing) And I'd go run away into the fish market.

- [Narrator] A Japanese food store, where tofu was made was operated by the Suzuki family.

The Kubotas had the Pool Hall before my grandfather acquired it at number 516.

- And then my dad and grandpa and Okomotos and everybody would go to the Pool Hall.

It was fun.

We got to go into the Pool Hall once in a while, but not very often.

- I never got to go in.

- You never got to go to the Pool Hall?

- No.

I had to stay outside or, because my dad would go restock the coke machine like on Saturday.

And I couldn't, I couldn't go in.

- [Narrator] My paternal grandparents, lived in the neighborhood and worked nearby.

Their home, where they raised 12 or 13 sons and daughters is now a vacant lot.

Even in Cheyenne, the Japanese neighborhood never fully recovered from the racial injustice Japanese experienced following World War II.

- When they were on the farm.

I think, I believe I've showed you the paperwork.

And it said basically they were the enemy of the state.

So they had to have Mr.

Pitch sign when they were leaving the farm who was in the car, the make of the car and where they were heading to.

And then once they came to like Cheyenne or Denver or Scottsbluff, they had to go to a county building or to the police or sheriff and check in and let them know where they were going.

- All my aunties and my mom went to internment camps.

So my mom from Seattle, her family was sent to Minidoka, Idaho there.

And then my aunt Marge who's sitting next to me.

Her family was sent from Yuba City to Amache here in Colorado.

And my aunt Connie, whose family lived in Los Angeles, they were sent to Heart Mountain in Wyoming.

- That was the hardest thing to see.

Mom was born in the States.

You know, she wasn't an immigrant and all of her family was born here and to be treated like that, I just, it's still hard.

- In my mom's case, I think it was a deliberate choice on her part, not to introduce us very much to Japanese culture, except certain social events.

And every once in a while it would come up in conversation.

But you know, that was pretty much my introduction to Japanese culture.

I developed it personally after college and when I was, when I moved from Wyoming to California.

- Jeanie and Jake kept the, you know, New Year's Eve dinners and cooking and Jeanie was the only one that kept going with the Japanese cooking.

And I think that's because of your grandma, Grandma Ou and the Highway Cafe and everything.

- [Narrator] It wasn't until The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan that a formal apology was made to Japanese Americans.

That law was shepherded by US Senator Alan Simpson from Wyoming and California Congressman Norm Mineta.

- Congressman Norman Mineta with us today was 10 years old when his family was interned in the congressman's words, my own family was sent first to Santa Anita Racetrack.

We showered in the horse paddocks.

Some families lived in converted stables, others in hastily thrown together barracks.

We were then moved to Heart Mountain, Wyoming, where our entire family lived in one small room of a rude tarpaper barrack.

- [Narrator] The two men went out was a boy scout growing up in Cody.

The scout troop visited the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp.

Norm was an attorney and fellow scout.

The two lawmakers continue to be friends today.

World War II was very jarring to my parents.

They were even kicked out of the American Bowling Congress.

The ABC eventually rescinded its exclusionary and racist policies.

Soon after the leagues were integrated, the bowlers and my family returned to championship forum.

My dad's team won the league title in 1954.

Auntie Elsie also bowled on a championship team.

(ball rolling on floor) (tenpins rumbling) - [TV Host] In, carry, strike, first lane.

(audience applause) - [Narrator] My parents socialized me to be all American.

I didn't really even self identify as Japanese either.

- When I was a kid in Cheyenne, within the house, we lived with my grandparents, and Japanese was spoken with them, obviously.

- The whole language thing was so challenging.

I think that you felt like it would be better for us kids not to have that complication for lack of a better word.

Now today's thinking would be, gosh, the multicultural thing is a good thing.

- Dad always wanted us to speak English and we never hardly spoke Japanese unless mom and daddy were talking Japanese to each other, but he didn't want us to speak Japanese.

I don't think because of what he had to go through.

- My parents and with their Nisei friends was always English except when they wanted to talk and the kids couldn't understand.

So there was no push for us to learn Japanese because that was their secret code.

But there was not a push away from Japanese things either.

We had rice every day and we even had some Japanese records that I used to listen to.

Some of my younger brothers had gone into the 442 in the army.

A couple of older brothers were released to go work on farms in Moreland.

And she was released to go to cook and did housework, got on a train that went to Cheyenne where she got off.

I suspect that must've been a change to a bus or something.

But it was night, and she went to a telephone booth to take a look at a book and see if she could find any Japanese names in there so she could get a recommendation for a hotel to stay.

And she found Takahashis, gave them a call and Marie told her to stay where she was.

And then Marie came down, picked her up and took her home.

There's unanimity, I think, in two, I'm not surprised, but anyway, she took her home.

They became fast friends.

And then so my mother would come back to the district from Moreland and be reintroduced to my father.

Had it not been for relocation, they would've never met, I'm sure.

- [Narrator] There was no Japanese spoken around the house and little mention of Japan by my grandparents.

My family, being part of the Japanese community, I've wondered how my socialization is an example of why the neighborhood dried up into an asphalt desert.

After my grandparents and parents passed away, there was little cultural glue to keep my sister and me engaged.

As we went our separate ways with what few bites of Japanese culture we retained.

For me, that's always having a Tupperware filled with rice in the refrigerator and pouring shoyu over just about everything, including split pea soup.

Throughout this story, you'll notice the names O'Hashi and Ohashi, how and why this happened are subjects of family lore.

One possible explanation, in anglicized Japanese, The long O has a dash called a macron over it.

When handwritten, the macron may have slid over and been mistaken for an apostrophe.

In Japanese, Ohashi means "big bridge" as opposed to chopsticks.

The best explanation, my father was born on St. Patrick's Day and some school principal changed his name.

(Irish music playing) (people laughing and shouting) (Irish music playing) Maybe it's a combination of both, but nonetheless, I've had this Japanese Irish thing following me around since junior high school.

It was also a way for me to blend in better with my classmates.

Wyoming students learn about Wyoming history first in the fourth grade, and then in the seventh grade.

I don't remember learning anything about the World War II, Japanese relocation camps in Mrs. Canoesin's fourth grade class.

- [TV anchor] Training of children is difficult.

Americanism taught in the schools and churches and on the playgrounds, loses much of its meaning in the confines of a relocation center.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] I learned more about dinosaurs and the prehistory of Wyoming.

It wasn't until the 1980s, when I was living in Lander that I learned anything about the Heart Mountain Relocation Center between Cody and Powell.

At the time I was writing for a small newspaper called the Wyoming State Journal published in Lander.

I call it from the paper and I drove up to Park County to check out the place.

At the time, It wasn't very well marked.

We stopped at the Buffalo Bill Museum and asked for directions.

The attendant said there's a tall chimney, look for a turn off the road, and then after the railroad tracks, drive up a big hill.

When I first explored the ruins, The Bureau of Reclamation stored rolled-up snow fence in one of the abandoned barracks.

Those original structures look pretty much the same today.

And now on The National Register of Historic Places.

The site is maintained by a local nonprofit that oversees the grounds and the museum.

After the war, some of the barracks were sold to veterans for a few bucks a building, others were sold and moved all over the state, including north of Riverton.

Those became the Cottonwood Cottages.

The Heart Mountain Relocation Center was one of 10 camps set up around the country following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

World War II wasn't mentioned much around my household growing up.

My mom told me about how she and her classmates collected cans and bottles to support the war effort.

As it turned out, Japanese Americans living in the middle of nowhere Wyoming seemed to be a little threat to the national security.

Besides, my parents were both native-born citizens.

My dad was from Kent, Washington and my mom from Thermopolis, Wyoming.

My sister Lorinda and I are both Wyoming natives and Baby Boomers who grew up in Cheyenne during the 1950s through the 1970s.

My immediate family wasn't relocated to a camp, while my grandfather and uncle George were in California at the wrong time.

My grandfather's truck farming business evolved into The Western Growers Exchange in downtown Cheyenne.

while no longer in business, the storefront still exists in front of the Union Pacific Railroad Yard.

In addition to working with local producers, he directly sourced fruits and vegetables from the highly fertile and productive central valley of California.

They were in Oxnard on a buying trip shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

- Yesterday, December 7th 1941, a date which will live in infamy.

United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by Naval and Air forces of The Empire of Japan.

- [Narrator] After 10 years of international tension, the United States imposed trade embargoes to slow Japan's global expansion that in part, led to the bombing and the United States' entering into World War II.

President Franklin Roosevelt issued executive order 9066 in April 1942, ordering Japanese, mostly on the west coast to be uprooted and sent to one of 10 relocation camps after processing at an assembly center.

My grandfather and uncle were stuck and unable to return home.

Despite their pleas, they were sent to the Tulare Assembly Center in central California.

That assembly center was the converted fairgrounds.

After several months, my auntie Elsie successfully worked with local, state and federal law enforcement officials.

They get them back to Wyoming in 1942.

Had my grandfather and uncle been further detained, they would have been sent to a war relocation camp likely in Arizona.

Relocation camps were like small cities except for being hemmed in by a tall barbed wire fences and guards armed with machine guns.

(sentimental music) All the camps had recreation centers where a variety of activities happened.

Baseball was played on makeshift fields.

Internees could attend various places of worship.

When ill or infirm, each camp had hospitals and healthcare facilities.

Students were provided elementary and high school educations.

- [TV anchor] Some of the teachers are Caucasians.

Some are evacuees, Americans of Japanese ancestry.

- [Narrator] At the Wyoming State Archives.

I came across a photo from the 1945 Heart Mountain High School yearbook.

One of my biology teachers at Cheyenne East High School was Ms. Jean Cooper, before teaching in Cheyenne.

She taught at The Heart Mountain High School.

I was surprised she didn't mention anything to me about her teaching stint there.

Reading through the microfilm copies of the 1990 Wyoming Tribune Eagle, there was a story about an anonymous Cheyenne teacher who's counting her experiences at Heart Mountain, when immigrant story is that of my paternal grandparents Toichi Ohashi and Natsu Unago.

My dad's family ended up in Wyoming as typical turn-of-the-century immigrants.

They first settled in Alaska and Washington state.

(upbeat music) He brought his family to Wyoming by way of Monte Vista, Colorado.

He began his truck farming business there buying vegetables from area farmers.

He also parked his panel van on the roadsides and sold his produce to passers-by and eventually ended up on the West 17th Street neighborhood that evolved into the heart of the Cheyenne Japanese community.

During the 1950s, the Japanese in Cheyenne formed the Skyline Nisei Club in response to the racist backlash of World War II.

Among the founding members were my Nisei parents, Frank O'Hashi and Sumiko Sakata.

My mom was the first club secretary Hank Omoto served as the club's first president.

He was a mechanic at one of the local garages and quite a fishermen.

Nisei is the term for second generation Japanese born in the United States.

Their Japanese immigrant parents were known as Issei.

My generation is Sansei.

The generation descriptors are derived from Japanese numbers, ichi, ni, san and so forth.

When I was young and a frequent denizen of the West 17th Street neighborhood, I took the area for granted, going there mostly with my parents.

My dad worked for Coca Cola and I got to tag along on weekends and help restock the coke products around town.

I wasn't allowed into my grandfather's Pool Hall at number 516, where there was a coke machine.

I might've been exposed to the libertine men and the scarlet women who frequented Pool Halls in The Music Man, Professor Harold Hill warned about.

My dad made me wait at the door.

I remember the stale smell of tobacco in the room dimly lit by fluorescent glowing lights above each green felt table.

Large extended families were typical of Japanese in Cheyenne.

This photo was taken in our backyard on Windmill Road, maybe at my sister's birthday party around 1967.

I remember having to give up my bedroom when my grandfather had to move in with us for a few months.

My grandmother was unable to care for him.

And at the same time, keep the highway cafe, our family business open.

The Japanese population grew in Wyoming in part because of jobs on the railroad.

One such immigrant was my maternal grandfather Jusaboro Sakata.

He started out in Washington State and ended up as a foreman for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad as the Thermopolis and Ortha railroad sections in Wyoming.

He later returned to Japan and married Toki Iwasaki.

What's interesting about her family while she ended up in Wyoming, her brother landed in Peru.

That was the first country to establish diplomatic relations with Japan.

Peruvian Japanese were deported as a result of World War II with many South American Japanese interned in the United States at relocation camps operated by The Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Prior to World War II, Japanese-Americans enlisted in the US Army mostly in Hawaii, but there were many Japanese soldiers stationed at Fort Warren, west of Cheyenne being trained to fight the war in Europe.

Shortly before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the US War Department sensed the impending war.

Japanese American soldiers preparing for combat were reassigned to desk jobs.

Non-commissioned officers were demoted.

Arthur Michael Sakata in his book, Nisei: the silent Americans, writes about an incident that involved my aunt, Hisako Sakata.

She worked for the Fort Warren Base chaplain.

She and some of the other local Japanese organized a big holiday party for Japanese soldiers set for December 7th 1941 at the Japanese Community Center in downtown Cheyenne.

Nobody was in the mood to enjoy the fancy Japanese food and music after Pearl Harbor was bombed.

World War II amplified Japanese institutionalized discrimination.

My long-lost cousin Jerry, auntie Joan and uncle Tom led their lives elsewhere because of the Wyoming Miscegenation Law, which was on the books beginning in 1913.

My mom's brother, George, kept up the family tradition and worked for the Burlington Northern Railroad.

He moved out of Wyoming largely because he was in a mixed-race relationship and married elsewhere and never to return to Wyoming.

The United States' Supreme Sourt ruled miscegenation laws unconstitutional in 1967.

I knew that three of my uncles enlisted in the highly decorated all-Japanese 442nd regimental combat team.

I didn't think to ask them anything about their experiences.

As I grew older, I understood the war intellectually, but wasn't sure how I felt about it emotionally.

(sensational music) - This is a note I found from Toshio Suyematsu that he'd sent to my mother, and he says the impact of Pearl Harbor was softened tremendously as against the Japanese in Cheyenne, almost solely due to the high respect and credibility of Bill with Cheyenne community and local officials.

Bill was responsible for drawing this loyalty creed, which did much to calm the emotions and suspicions against the Japanese in Cheyenne.

- It's a sad chapter in, I think, the nation's history, because it was something where people got caught up in the fervor about how a class of individuals could not be trusted.

They need to be put there.

They were told that it was for their protection, but really, you know, history has told us that there were a lot of economic, political forces.

- There was a feeling certainly that my father had and his younger brother and my uncle, Harry.

Many of his closest friends were early volunteers for the 442nd through the war.

My dad would, I'm sure, serve too, had he not had a heart condition.

So, you know, for these guys, they felt they were American even before the war.

I think that they would have felt that way had the war not occurred, but there was an additional impetus to be American as well.

And whether that influenced, you know, how they brought up the kids.

I never really felt any pressure to be an American, but it just, I was just following their lead.

- [TV anchor] Five hundreds of proud members of the 442nd Infantry Regimen, mostly American-born Japanese swings down Constitution Avenue in Washington for another ceremony in their honor.

There are 3,600 Purple Hearts in this outfit earned in the bitter battles of Salerno and Anzio.

Regimental colors are brought forward to receive the eighth Presidential Unit Citation held by the 442nd.

The Nisei hear President Truman's tribute.

- You fought not only the enemy, but you fought prejudice and you've won.

Keep up that fight and we'll continue to win.

We'll make this great Republic stand for just what its Constitution says it stands for, the welfare of all the people all the time.

- [Narrator] I didn't pay much attention to the Japanese community history in Cheyenne until researching this project.

When my grandparents were alive, we had annual summer gatherings at their homes.

Those events happened generally during Cheyenne Frontier days.

I have slews of cousins who used to attend the annual reunions.

We were once close, but now live our separate lives and scattered all over the country.

Because the Nisei and Nisei generations are gone, we are rarely in touch unless there is a death in the family.

Soon we'll be mourning ourselves.

The Japanese population generally reflects Wyoming's boom and bust cycle.

According to the 1910 US census, the Japanese population increased from 303 to 1,590 surpassing the number of Native Americans.

That population increase is generally attributed to work available on the railroads and in agriculture.

After World War II, the Japanese population decreased significantly in part due to overt and institutional exclusionary policies such as the Wyoming Alien Land Act that forbade land ownership by Japanese immigrants.

- The Alien Land Act in Wyoming is an interesting creature because that did not get enacted till the Japanese were starting to be released from the internment camps.

In Wyoming's case, I think the concern was if we don't develop, if we don't enact The Alien Land Act, when these Japanese people start being released from Heart Mountain, they might decide to stick around and then they might acquire property in Wyoming.

And therefore it was kind of a scare tactic type of thing.

I think that is utilized at that time too, to justify that was, that was the principle basis.

You know, originally, you know, State of Wyoming was not all that excited about an interment camp being located in the state, but they, you know, the area farmers benefited from it because they got all sorts of cheap labor, you know, during harvest time.

Japanese people would enter into lease relationships with property owners here in Wyoming.

And I think that's true of, or it's my understanding that's true of a large number of businesses that were run by Japanese people in the downtown area around West 17th Street.

You know, those were all owned by Americans who were willing to lease them out to different Japanese families who had developed, you know, some position of trust, hardworking, you know, good investment type of thing.

- [Narrator] In 2010, the number of Japanese in Wyoming declined to 485 residents, according to the US census.

Once the population of Japanese declined, more important is the sense of community that was lost.

Following World War II and the Japanese community that disappeared, there was a flight by downtown businesses to suburban shopping centers where residential growth was burgeoning.

There are ongoing efforts to revive the area.

It has been demonstrated in other communities that denser housing attracts retail and other amenities.

Three examples include Old Town in Fort Collins, Colorado, the CenterPointe Apartments in Casper, Wyoming, and the Holiday Neighborhood built on the former drive-in movie site in Boulder, Colorado.

Tangible amenities of downtown are more interesting if there are stories attached to them.

That's why the work of two of my East High School classmates is so important.

John and his brother, Jim Deneen developed a chunk of their family's former car dealership property into the Lotus townhouses.

The Cheyenne Historic Preservation Board deemed the last building standing at the 509 West 17th Street location to be worthy of preservation.

- The downside to letting the building come down would be that we lose that physical connection that tangible history that people can touch and see.

- The building, while it's old is not necessarily in great shape, but it is representative of a cultural area in the town.

So maybe it doesn't make sense to preserve the building so much as to tell the story of the culture surrounding the building.

- [Narrator] After a hearing, the board allowed John and Jim to demolish the building with the understanding that history of the Japanese neighborhood would be completed as nommage to the Japanese community.

The new residents in the neighborhood will have a better understanding of the community story that will inform other public and private efforts to revive all of downtown Cheyenne.

Adding more residents to the downtown area will result in more vibrant neighborhoods.

Did we learn anything from the Japanese American experiences during World War II?

Remembering the stories in the past better informs the present about how to make way for a better future.

- [TV anchor] At these three location center, the evacuees were met by an advanced contingent of Japanese who had arrived some days earlier and who now acted as guide.

Naturally the newcomers looked about with some curiosity.

They were in a new area on land that was raw and pain, but full of opportunity.

- [Narrator] Seeds of racial and ethnic justice will be planted.

Some will take root.

Stories can provide nourishment for social change.

(sentimental oriental music) As for myself, I knew I was getting old, but I didn't think it would happen this fast.

After completing this movie, I've come to realize that I should do what I can putting my twilight years to bring stories about the Japanese experiences in Wyoming to light.

The old chimney and dilapidated buildings located outside Cody, are just a pile of rubble.

But for Japanese Americans, like me, who are a generation removed from the anger and hostilities generated by World War II, the ruins represented a legacy which will last far beyond Heart Mountain.

- [TV anchor] This brief picture is actually the prologue to a story that is yet to be told.

The full story will begin to unfold when the raw lands of the desert turn green, when all adult hands are at productive work on public lands or in private employment.

It won't be fully told only when circumstances permit the loyal American citizens once again, to enjoy the freedom we in this country cherish, and when the disloyal we hope have left this country for good.

(sensational music) (upbeat music)