Heart Mountain Relocation Center Bibliography

Books from the McCracken Research Library relating to the history of the Heart Mountain Japanese-American relocation camp of World War II, located between Cody and Powell, Wyoming from 1942 to 1953.

Bonner, Robert, and Beryl Gail Churchill. Home in the Valley: Powell’s First Century. WordsWorth, 2008. History of Powell, Wyoming, including information on the World War II Heart Mountain Relocation Center.

Eaton, Allen Hendershott. Beauty Behind Barbed Wire. Harper, 1952. Eleanor Roosevelt wrote the introduction to this review of arts and crafts produced by Heart Mountain camp internees.

Ehrlich, Gretel. Heart Mountain. Viking, 1988. A now classic novel.

Higuchi, Shirley Ann. Setsuko’s Secret: Heart Mountain and the Legacy of the Japanese American Incarceration. The University of Wisconsin Press, 2020.

Hosokawa, Bill. Nisei: The Quiet Americans. Morrow, 1969. An early recounting of Japanese-American history.

Inada, Lawson Fusao. Legends From Camp: Poems. Coffee House Press, 1993. Includes poetry from his personal experiences as a boy growing up in a relocation center.

Inada, Lawson Fusao, Patricia Wakida, and William Minoru Hohri. Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience. Heyday Books, 2000. Presents a wide variety of internment accounts, including from Heart Mountain.

Inouye, Mamoru, Hansel Mieth, Otto Hagel, and Grace Schaub. The Heart Mountain Story: Photographs by Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel of the World War II Internment of Japanese Americans. M. Inouye, 1997.

Kessel, Velma Berryman. Behind Barbed Wire: Heart Mountain Relocation Camp. Velma Berryman Kessel, 1992.

KTOW News. Winter in my Soul. Video cassette, Casper, WY: KTWO News, c1986. Television documentary on the history of the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp; reminiscences of inhabitants.

Larson, T. A. Wyoming’s War Years, 1941-1945. University of Wyoming, 1954. Historical context of the relocation and POW camps in Wyoming during World War II.

Lyon, Dan J. Japanese in Wyoming: Union Pacific’s Forgotten Labor Force. The History Press, 2023. Broad history of Japanese-Americans in Wyoming, ending with the Heart Mountain Relocation Center.

Mackey, Mike, et al. A Matter of Conscience: Essays on the World War II Heart Mountain Draft Resistance Movement. Western History Publications, 2002.

Mackey, Mike. Guilt By Association: Essays On Japanese Settlement, Internment, and Relocation in the Rocky Mountain West. Western History Publications, 2001.

______. Heart Mountain: Life in Wyoming’s Concentration Camp. Western History Publications, 2000.

______. Remembering Heart Mountain: Essays On Japanese American Internment in Wyoming. Western History Publications, 1998.

______. The Equality State: Essays On Intolerance and Inequality in Wyoming. Western History Publications, 1999. Includes discussion on Heart Mountain Relocation Center.

Muller, Eric L. Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II. University of Chicago Press, 2001. Heart Mountain focus.

______. Lawyer, Jailer, Ally, Foe: Complicity and Conscience in America’s World War II Concentration Camps. The University of North Carolina Press, 2023. The administration of the Japanese-American relocation centers, with Heart Mountain as a case study under the administration of Cody attorney Jerry Housel.

Murphy, Bernard, and James Murphy. Heart Mountain Chronicles: The History of a Japanese Relocation Center. WordsWorth, 2024. Detailed documentation of day-to-day life within the Heart Mountain relocation center.

O’Hashi, Alan, and Alan K. Simpson. Beyond Heart Mountain. Winter Goose Publishing, 2022. Author recounts racism against Japanese-Americans in the West during World War II, outside of the relocation centers.

Pearson, Bradford. The Eagles of Heart Mountain: A True Story of Football, Incarceration, and Resistance in World War II America. Atria Books, 2021.

Roripaugh, Lee Ann. Beyond Heart Mountain. Penguin Books, 1999. Poetry inspired by the Heart Mountain Relocation Center.

Saito, Robert S. My Life in Camps During the War and More. AuthorHouse, 2006. Personal story of an internee at Heart Mountain.

Tateishi, John. And Justice for All: An Oral History of the Japanese American Detention Camps. First edition, Random House, 1984. Accounts from 25 internees during the war, including William Hosokawa at Heart Mountain camp.

Yabu, Shigeru, Willy Ito, and Lai Waitak. Hello Maggie! Yabitoon Books, 2007. Author’s life experiences in the Heart Mountain internment camp, and his pet magpie.

Yamato, Sharon, and Stan Honda. Moving Walls: Preserving the Barracks of America’s Concentration Camps. S. Yamato, 1998. Includes much information on the actual physical barracks used in the Heart Mountain Relocation Center.

Archival Resources

MS 611 Heart Mountain Relocation Center Collection. 20 boxes. McCracken Research Library, Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, WY. https://mccrackenatcenterofthewest.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/resources/653

Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, Powell, WY administered by the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. https://www.heartmountain.org/collections-archives/research/

Heart Mountain Preservation Project, Hinckley Library, Northwest College, Powell, WY. https://nwc.edu/library/heart-mountain-digital-preservation-project/index.html

August 2025/ Nathan E. Bender