Minidoka

for viola solo

"...These people are living in the midst of a desert where they see nothing except tar paper covered barracks, sagebrush, and rocks…. The impact of emotional disturbance as a result of the evacuation…plus this dull, dreary existence in a desert region surely must give these people a feeling of helplessness, hopelessness, and despair which we on the outside do not and will never fully understand."

–"Relocation Center Diary" by Arthur Kleinkopf, Superintendent of Education, Minidoka Relocation Center, 1942.

In the summer of 2015, I visited the site of the Minidoka Relocation Center, one of ten concentration camps created in the 1940s to detain Japanese-American citizens against their will. Now a beautifully restored National Historic Site, the grounds of Minidoka offer a wealth of information and survivor testimonials of this dark chapter in our nation's history. Of particular interest to me was a small stream of water beyond the perimeter of the camp. Evidently, the prisoners used to gather next to the barbed wire fence to watch the stream, as the gently flowing water brought them great comfort in the midst of a profoundly dehumanizing experience. This piece is a meditation on that stream, that fence, and those people. 

(Duration 6:00)