"I think I’ll always remember the sound of the gate clanging behind you and knowing that you were finally under, you had barbed wires around you, and you were really being interned.”

Kara Kondo (1916 -2005) American, of Japanese ancestry (Nisei), born in Wapato, Yakima valley, Washington where she spent her childhood. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, at 27 years of age she was removed to the North Portland Assembly Center, Oregon, and then to the Heart Mountain concentration camp, Wyoming. Kondo was on the staff of the camp newspaper, the Heart Mountain Sentinel. Left camp for Chicago, Illinois, and lived in Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Missouri before returning to Yakima, Washington. Became involved in political organization postwar, such as the League of Women Voters. Testified before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians during the redress movement, and became actively involved in groups addressing environmental issues.  Kara Kondo Interview - "The Day of Mass Removal"