[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 14 (Monday, January 22, 2001)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 7347-7350]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-2100]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 14 / Monday, January 22, 2001 /
Presidential Documents
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[[Page 7347]]
Proclamation 7395 of January 17, 2001
Establishment of the Minidoka Internment
National Monument
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
The Minidoka Internment National Monument is a unique
and irreplaceable historical resource which protects
historic structures and objects that provide
opportunities for public education and interpretation
of an important chapter in American history--the
internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the Secretary
of War and military commanders to designate military
areas from which ``any or all persons may be excluded''
and to ``provide for residents of any such area who are
excluded therefrom, such transportation, food, shelter,
and other accommodations as may be necessary.''
Starting in early 1942, military authorities began
designating military exclusion areas in the States of
California, Washington, Oregon, and Arizona, and the
territory of Alaska. Following the signing of Executive
Order 9066, American citizens and resident aliens of
Japanese ancestry living in the designated exclusion
areas were ordered to evacuate their homes and
businesses and report to temporary assembly centers
located at fairgrounds, horse racetracks, and other
make-shift facilities.
To provide more permanent accommodations for the
evacuees, President Roosevelt established the War
Relocation Authority (WRA) in March 1942. The WRA
oversaw the construction of ten relocation centers on
Federally owned lands in remote areas of six western
States and Arkansas, including the Minidoka Relocation
Center in Idaho. Alaskan Native residents of the
Aleutian and Pribiloff Islands and members of other
ethnic and religious groups were also relocated or
interned during the course of the war.
Established in August 1942, the Minidoka Relocation
Center, also known as the Hunt Site, was located on
Federal lands in Jerome County, in south central Idaho.
During its operation from August 1942 to October 1945,
the population reached a peak of 9,397 Japanese
Americans from Washington State, Oregon, and Alaska.
The Center included over 33,000 acres of land with
administrative and residential facilities located on
approximately 950 acres. The Center had more than 600
buildings including administrative, religious,
residential, educational, mess, medical, manufacturing,
warehouse, security, and other structures.
Living conditions at Minidoka and the other centers
were harsh. Internees were housed in crude barracks and
cramped quarters, and they shared communal facilities.
Internees engaged in irrigated agriculture, livestock
production, and light manufacturing to produce food and
garments for the camp. Approximately 1,000 internees
from Minidoka served in the U.S. military. Fifty-four
Japanese American servicemen from Minidoka were killed
in action.
Section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16
U.S.C. 431), authorizes the President, in his
discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic
[[Page 7348]]
landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and
other objects of historic or scientific interest that
are situated upon lands owned or controlled by the
Government of the United States to be national
monuments, and to reserve as a part thereof parcels of
lands, the limits of which in all cases shall be
confined to the smallest area compatible with the
proper care and management of the objects to be
protected.
WHEREAS it appears that it would be in the public
interest to reserve such lands as a national monument
to be known as the Minidoka Internment National
Monument:
NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, by the authority vested in me
by section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225,
U.S.C. 431), do proclaim that there are hereby set
apart and reserved as the Minidoka Internment National
Monument for the purpose of protecting the historic
structures and objects of historic interest contained
therein, all lands and interests in lands owned or
controlled by the United States within the boundaries
of the area described on the map entitled ``Minidoka
Internment National Monument'' attached to and forming
a part of this proclamation. The Federal lands and
interests in land reserved consist of approximately
72.75 acres, which is the smallest area compatible with
the proper care and management of the structures and
objects to be protected.
All Federal lands and interests in lands within the
boundaries of this monument are hereby appropriated and
withdrawn from all forms of entry, location, selection,
sale, or leasing or other disposition under the public
land or other Federal laws, including but not limited
to withdrawal from location, entry, and patent under
the mining laws, and from disposition under all laws
relating to mineral and geothermal leasing.
The Secretary of the Interior, pursuant to legal
authorities, shall manage the monument and shall
transfer administration of the monument to the National
Park Service to implement the purposes of this
proclamation.
To carry out the purposes of this proclamation and to
interpret the relocation and internment of Japanese
Americans during World War II, the Secretary of the
Interior, through the National Park Service, shall
prepare a management plan for the monument within 3
years of this date.
This proclamation does not reserve water as a matter of
Federal law nor relinquish any water rights held by the
Federal Government existing on this date. The Secretary
shall work with appropriate State authorities to ensure
that any water resources needed for monument purposes
are available.
The establishment of this monument is subject to valid
existing rights, provided that nothing in this
proclamation shall interfere with the operation and
maintenance of the Northside Canal to the extent that
any such activities, that are not valid existing
rights, are consistent with the purposes of the
proclamation.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge
or diminish the rights of any Indian tribe.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke
any existing withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation;
however the national monument shall be the dominant
reservation.
Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not
to appropriate, injure, destroy, or remove any feature
of this monument and not to locate or settle upon any
of the lands thereof.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
seventeenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two
thousand one, and of the
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Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and twenty-fifth.
(Presidential Sig.)
Billing code 3195-01-P
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[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD22JA01.181
[FR Doc. 01-2100 Filed 1-19-01; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-C