Students at Heart Mountain Relocation Center in northwest Wyoming began classes in October 1942. During this first school year, classes were held in repurposed barracks. On May 27, 1943, Heart Mountain High School was completed. Roughly 1500 students attended Heart Mountain High School during its first year of operation (1943-1944). The school remained open for the 1944-1945 school year before closing as result of the decision to close the camps by the fall of 1945.
Executive Order 9066:
In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the incarceration from 1942 to 1946 of approximately 120,000 adults and children of Japanese ancestry, many of whom were United States citizens. They were expelled from their homes and placed in incarceration camps without due process and in violation of their civil rights. These camps were euphemistically referred to as “relocation centers” or “internment camps”. After decades of advocacy by the Japanese American community, in 1988 the United States issued a formal apology and began redress to survivors of Japanese incarceration during World War II.
This collection consists of one copy of the 1945 Heart Mountain High School incarceration camp yearbook, the Tempo. The 1945 issue was the second of two issues, the first printed the year before in 1944. The book once belonged to the Assistant Principal of Heart Mountain High School, Ralph A. Forsythe.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions apply.
Heart Mountain High School Tempo, 1945 (SC 014.10)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The Heart Mountain High School Tempo was donated by John A. Forsythe and delivered by Patti Hirahara in 2015 (MS 2015.06). The item was originally owned by John Forsythe's father, Ralph A. Forsythe.
This collection was processed by Steven Bingo.
In 2021, in response to evolving societal understanding regarding the language used to describe the impact of Executive Order 9066, this finding aid was revised to more accurately provide context to the mass incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry during World War II.
George and Frank C. Hirahara Photograph Collection of Heart Mountain, Wyoming, 1932-2016
Tom T. Hide Collection, 1925-2012
Okubara Family Collection, circa 1943-2008
Takeda Family Collection, 1938-circa 2012
Kenneth Nishiyori Collection, 1942-1944
George and Doris McIntyre Papers, 1944-1945
Mari Tsuruyama Okumura Collection, 1936-2014
Patti Hirahara Collection, 1955-2020
Terry Ishihara Collection, 1989-2012
Mike Mackey Collection, 1940-2002
Fusataro Nakaya Photographs, circa 1944
Nabata Family Collection of Heart Mountain Photographs, circa 1942-1945
Frank Chin Oral History Collection, 1974-1986
Inez Puckett McEwen Collection on Japanese-American Incarceration, 1942-1943
Japanese American Redress Collection, 1976-2000
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.