Context Podcast Digital Collection

Johanna Bringhurst: Hello, everyone, and welcome to Context. This program is brought to you by the Idaho Humanities Council with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The views expressed here today do not necessarily represent those of the IHC or the NEH. My name is Johanna Bringhurst. And joining us today is Doctor Rebecca Schwartz. Doctor Schwartz has served as a full time professional in academia since 2008, and is currently the dean of Academic Pathways for Columbia Gorge Community College.

This month, she's taking on a new role as vice president of instruction at Blue Mountain Community College. A graduate of the University of Idaho who, with degrees in philosophy and international studies, she later earned her Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy from the University of Utah. Her academic work centers on history of education, particularly as it relates to the 20th century in the Pacific Northwest.

Doctor Schwartz has a particular interest in history as it relates to student success. Born in a rural area of northern Idaho characterized by lack of diversity. Working internationally was a transformational experience for her since her return from Japan. She has worked at five higher education institutions. Rebecca, thank you for joining us today to talk about a little known area of World War Two history in Idaho.

Dr. Rebecca Schwartz: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Johanna Bringhurst: So in 1940, a Boise construction company called the Morrison-Knudsen Corporation won a contract to build military airbase facilities on Wake Island in the South Pacific. This was a substantial construction contract under the National Defense Program in 1941. Hundreds of workers from southern Idaho sailed from San Francisco to join nearly a thousand other workers on Wake Island. Morrison-Knudsen was a major employer here at that time.

How big of a deal was this defense contract for Idaho?

Dr. Rebecca Schwartz: It was a major deal. As you said, we had hundreds of workers. at one point, there was over a thousand. There's 1100 people from Idaho on that island. And we're talking about a period in Idaho history where the the population of Boise was 30,000 people. So a thousand people from the treasure Valley on a tiny island in the Pacific was huge.

Everyone knew somebody that was going there. Everyone knew a family with a son or a husband or a cousin that was there. So it was, a large, economic boon for the area because everyone had these jobs. But it was also sort of exciting. We're all going to go do this work abroad and make this money and come back, and it's going to be, you know, so good for Idaho.

Johanna Bringhurst: Most people, I think, are familiar with the attack on Pearl Harbor that day of infamy, December 8th, 1941. But Wake Island was also attacked the same day. Can you describe what happened?

And some people talk about how it was the next day after Pearl Harbor, because Wake Island's on the other side of the International Dateline. It was as you said just literally hours later that they first did a bombing campaign, and then they did, naval assault on the island. And what was kind of fascinating, as we said, there was over 1100 contractors on the island,

Where we come to the massacre of Wake Island.

Johanna Bringhurst: Did the people on Wake Island know about the attack on Pearl Harbor? Were they aware of the broader context of what was happening?

Then they had the Navy, Navy try and do again ground, invasions. And they had two of those try and happen. And in between those waves of attacks, the American forces were calling for help calling for aid, getting back and forth, having this communication with, the US government and their allies. And so they, they everyone sort of knew what was happening, but no one quite knew what to do.

So the U.S. was trying to send, reinforcements. They tried to send both provisions and reinforcements and sort of the best laid plans type scenario. They tried at least twice to send provisions. One, they sent a ship out and then called it back, because they saw that Japan was sending another wave and they thought this one ship would just be going to slaughter.

And so they sent another, a bigger, like an armada, a whole force, to go in and get supplies and reinforcements to, Wake Island. And they hit some rough weather. one of the supply ships was slower than anticipated, and it was supposed to arrive December 22nd, which was about two weeks after the start, and it was delayed.

And on December 23rd is when Japanese were able to take Wake Island. And so then there was no reason to continue with the reinforcements, and they again returned.

Johanna Bringhurst: So it sounds like the attack on Wake Island was probably more impactful to people in Idaho than what had happened in Pearl Harbor. Can you describe what it was like for people in Idaho learning about the news of Wake Island?

Dr. Rebecca Schwartz: It absolutely was more impactful, as, I mean, Pearl Harbor was a devastating event in American history, obviously. but it was it was a naval base in which people from around the country were there. And so I think the entire country felt that attack, sort of, you know, we all felt like we were attacked because the country was attacked in that spot.

It was on the news every night. So people in Idaho were hearing their loved ones, their families, their friends who were in danger. They were hearing, you know, they're trying to send reinforcements there. And they it was there was a little bit of propaganda in there, too, that, you know, these strong Americans are holding out against the forces of the Japanese.

And like at one point, one of the one of the leaders on Wake Island said, if you could send some supplies, that would be great. And he was like, we really need these supplies. But it got back to people that they reported. It was saying if they would send us more Japs, we're ready for them because they were having these kind of discussions and, and promotional things.

It was really a good, place for sort of like isolationist movements because you could do all these things. And so they it wasn't the most, metropolitan state to begin with. And now we're being attacked by these people and it really started a political discussion and, and sort of this growing, feeling toward the Japanese that, that really start to permeate the state at the time, more than other states, as we'll see, and in subsequent actions of the state, that the anti-Japanese sentiment that evolved from this was extreme.

Johanna Bringhurst: Why did the Japanese attack Wake Island? I think you said it mostly was sand and birds. It's why.

Dr. Rebecca Schwartz: So it had the one distinction of it, and that was it was a series of rocks and sand that were between Hawaii and Japan. And so, remember, this is the 1940s. Planes needed a place to refuel. They couldn't make it that distance. And so they had sort of, a review, of the strategic importance. And the US had actually sort of annexed Wake Island 50 years previously in the late 1890s.

And by the 19 aughts, Japan had recognized this is an island that belongs to the U.S. everyone knew it was sort of this U.S. territory, but nobody cared because there was nothing there. And it had a history of sort of like. At one point, in I think the 1920s, Japanese ship was injured in a storm and needed repairs.

It just went to Wake Island and stayed there and recovered. They went there and hunted birds when they needed food. Other countries just kind of stopped at Wake Island because it was a series of rocks. It was a place to do repairs. It was a place to get fresh water, and it was uninhabited. So it was, you know, it was fine to be there.

but when it became obvious that Japanese expansion was happening, the U.S. didn't want them to take Wake Island, because that would give them a foothold that put them closer to Hawaii, put them closer to the US mainland, and if they needed a place to refuel their planes or dock, their own navy, it was a strategically important place.

so it was actually ranked as the third priority in the Pacific. It was after Pearl Harbor, then midway, then Wake Island was the most important strategic locations in the Pacific to the US.

Johanna Bringhurst: How did the battle resolve itself? What happened in the end?

So it's it is a really, a story of sort of the resilience of us. But, at the end of the day, they were captured. Of the 1600, most of them were shipped to P.O.W. camps elsewhere in the Pacific. Only about 360 stayed on the island, and they stayed to not mince words, they stayed as slave labor primarily.

they the Geneva Convention wasn't honored by Japan. It didn't really even exist at this point. and they kept the people to do the work that they were already doing. They wanted them to build, an airfield, but instead of building it for the US, they wanted to build it for Japan. They also wanted to reinforce Wake Island.

They ended up bringing gun turrets and all sorts of reinforcements to, to stave off any American invasions of the island that might come later. And so this again just pile of rocks became this major stronghold. And and they kept these 360 people there for to build those turrets, build the airlines, build all the parts to it.

Johanna Bringhurst: So it was the workers who were kept on Wake Island. Did they spend their major of the war there? What happened to them?

We could use them instead. Plus, there was no pressure from the US. Don't kill all of our people. Obviously. and so even just during that decision time that, that 2 or 3 days, this is December, it's kind of cold, it's rainy and they're on a pile of rocks and they're all outside. They talk about how they had to kneel in the gravel in the rain, day and night, while they waited to know what was going to happen to them.

And at the end they said, you know, through the grace of the Emperor, we are going to give you your lives. And, no one knows if this is real. But reportedly, one of the men shouted, well, thank the bastard for us. Like so they were even after all of that there, in theory, had good spirits, but they they stayed on the island.

360 of them stayed on the island of the 1600. The others were sort of being shipped out to all these other P.O.W. camps, none of which had, particularly lovely facilities or experiences. But the 360 were just slave labor. They were worked day and night, primarily. there was a little bit of class difference because, like, in all things, there were the people who knew how to work the equipment.

There were the laborers, there were there are these, men who who could work with their hands. But then there were the managers, the people who were a little bit higher up in Morrison-Knudsen, who could talk a little better, could have a little bit of better connections and were politically protected a little bit more. And even on Wake Island, they had slightly different experiences.

So you saw the laborers again working day and night, literally worked to death sometimes. And slightly better treatment of office or slightly better treatment of managers. but long term, in 1943, they moved the majority, I think it was, 260, prisoners off again. They moved them to other camps and they left 96, 97, prisoners on to continue the work.

Then there was one more volunteer. A doctor said, I'm going to stay behind to and take care of, see to the medical needs of these men. and none of them survived. It was a, They long story short, they are they are buried in a mass grave on Wake Island. in 1943, when it became obvious that Wake Island was no longer serving the strategic needs of Japan, they decided to abandon it.

And sure enough, one person was missing. And so they then did a search and once again, that one, this sort of nameless person, they think was in hiding on the island for about two weeks until he was found and beheaded and tossed into a grave. And to add sort of insult to injury, Japan, when they were asked like, what happened to these people on Wake Island, their first report was they were killed in a bombing raid by US fighters that us kept bombing us, and it was so hard and we tried to protect them, you know, we put them all into, an air raid shelter, and it just took a direct hit and

they were all wiped out, and it was oh, so sad. And it wasn't until later that it was discovered that they had all been just unceremoniously executed.

Johanna Bringhurst: Oh, man.

Dr. Rebecca Schwartz: Sorry, I should I should have put a warning on that's that story. It's.

Johanna Bringhurst: Yeah, that is, it's just heartbreaking to think about the families that were waiting for years to hear news.

And one of the most heartbreaking records from his diary for me is when he says, this person died. He survived only five days after the death of his son because his son was also on the island with him. And so it's remember it because they're they're not soldiers, they're workers. And it's really common for families to be in the same business.

Johanna Bringhurst: well, thank you for sharing, stories about specific families also. That is not something I had thought about before. what happened to the workers that were sent off the island that were put in P.O.W. camps?

Johanna Bringhurst: Why were the workers killed? Why were they treated so poorly in camps? How did the Japanese military view these men who were workers, not military?

it was capturing land. It was, you know, the supremacy of the Japanese people was about so, so these other people weren't really people. They were less than. The Japanese emperor was designed by God. These were his rules. And these people, again, they were just less than human. And so killing them was not like killing a real person.

they talked about in, in some P.O.W. camps, they, when they were doing some very dark work, they referred to them as logs, and they would talk about how many logs did you cut down today? You know, this. And they were those are how many people did you kill? So it really wasn't to them, you know, it wasn't murder.

It was clean up. We want this island and it has all these things on it that we don't need. So we're going to get rid of it and clean it up. But then they realized, hey, we can use them. And it was it was tools, not people. These were tools to be used, used and discarded when they no longer had value.

Johanna Bringhurst: And I know I that is this is, more emotional and heavy than I was expecting. I am wondering if the families back in Idaho, did they have any word during the war about who was alive, where they were, what was happening? I mean, did anyone escape to kind of report what happened.

but generally no one really escaped that. The closest there was was, you know, there was a few attempts to escape. They were caught. They were beaten, that that person who wrote the 98, that that's how we know there was 98 at the end, he wrote a message. the 98 rock you might be familiar with.

But he wrote that in the two weeks that he escaped. But again, you are an island, and it is an island far from anything. And so it was really hard to escape, like you couldn't really escape on your own. You have to have a way to get off the island, which was rare. and so escape. Escape wasn't really.

They talked about it. Some of the diaries talk about how there's constant rumors of escape. There's constant rumors of rescue. There's, you know, always all this talk. But even they even the diaries talk about how those whispers got monotonous because it was so it was so hopeless.

Johanna Bringhurst: So, by and large, most Americans and the families in Idaho had no idea if their family member who worked for Morrison-Knudsen was alive or perish or even where they were.

Dr. Rebecca Schwartz: They probably knew that they were alive. They, because the majority of them did survive. Forget, of the I think it was at the height that we don't know the exact numbers ever, because it was such a big operation. There were constantly boats coming in and out, taking people on, taking people off. But total we think there were about, 1215, 1218 civilians at the time of the attack.

there were about 1100 at the end of the attack, and there was about, 180 who died in the course of the two years. So 180 of 1200, you had good odds that your family members survived, but the Japanese weren't keeping good records. It was, again, those diaries and the other prisoners who were keeping those kind of records.

and it's hard to say this. I can't you can't put yourself in the mind of, of the people then. But as I commented before, the people who are higher up the managers, the officers were treated a little better. They also wrote letters and in their diaries that their treatment was better, that, you know, the Japanese weren't terrible to them, that they, you know, they all went fishing together and, you know, they had drinks together sometimes all these things.

And so, yeah, so it some people did know, like so-and-so passed away because they were able to tell those. But again, Japan was really clear on not telling the numbers of people who had passed away. They would sometimes save the numbers until there was another bombing raid and then say, oh, 22 people died in this bombing raid. It was 22 people over the previous time like that, because in the same way, America had the propaganda going about how brave these would be.

Japan had the propaganda of how, you know, they were so strong and the stupid Americans killing their own people.

Johanna Bringhurst: Right. So it sounds like it was about a thousand who returned home after the war. And I imagine that was a process over time of, men returning back home. I wish, I wish we could see those reunions. That must've been really special.

Dr. Rebecca Schwartz: Well, and it's it wasn't really that long a process because, remember, it wasn't like there was a lot of flights or a lot of options. So there would be a lot of people on this boat and they would all arrive in, you know, Seattle at the same time, and then they'd all be on the train together at the same time.

And that train would arrive in this location. And, and people knew where those trains were coming and they would be met in Idaho with, with cheers and welcome and congratulations. And thanks.

Johanna Bringhurst: Yeah. Wonderful to think about that. Did any of the workers share stories or write memoirs after they came home? Was it talked about?

Johanna Bringhurst: for for some of.

but they did have, like I said, the those diaries and, and things like that. So, there was material available. We had records that people kept, but I, I don't think they were. They weren't inclined that generation, not just these Wake Island, but that generation was not one to.

We don't know if it really happened, but somebody said this and and this. So even even like the 98, we think it was 98. That's what's written on the stone. We know that the Japanese knew exactly how many people were there because they could count them and find that one was missing, but we're not entirely sure that that number is 100% accurate.

and it's things we don't know if it was two weeks or if maybe the Japanese were saying different things. So it's it's really hard to have perfectly accurate information, especially when it was just such. I mean, it was a horror. It was just the the worst conditions you could possibly imagine for years that these men were going through.

And so how would you even relate? The worst thing you can imagine on paper is it makes sense that they wouldn't want to relive it. And even if they were inclined, how how could you how could you articulate something of of that magnitude?

Johanna Bringhurst: Absolutely. After the war, when everything was done, where any of the Japanese leaders who are on Wake Island and executed the 98, were any of them held accountable?

So it was a little quicker then like the Nuremberg trials, for example. but the two leaders, which would have been Sakaibara, and and one more and Tachibana, they were both sentenced to death for the, the massacre that was that happened. they were also they were captured and sent to death. However, only one one was given life imprisonment.

In 1947, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. but the other one was hanged in 1947. And the one who was hanged, was the one, Sakaibara, who, he beheaded the prisoner the the last of the 98 and ordered their their massacre to begin with. And he he was put to death.

Johanna Bringhurst: What about leaders in the P.O.W. camps? You described pretty horrific conditions. There. Were any of those, Japanese military leaders held accountable after the war?

But there were several there were several put to death. There were several who were imprisoned. there were several who again went on trial, but just not in sort of the televised ways of the Nuremberg trials.

Johanna Bringhurst: But you we hinted earlier that the events on Wake Island really impacted how Idahoans felt about the war and felt about the Japanese in particular. Can you explain how those events on Waiheke Island impacted how Idahoans and Americans treated Japanese on our shores during the war?

the Japanese, camps, they could leave the area. And there's only really two examples of people being stopped and imprisoned while they were traveling. And those are both in Idaho. there was only two examples of students being detained when they went to college, and only one of them was, in the in the winter. One is in in September it was much later, but one was in March and it was in Idaho.

we had the governor saying that, you know, Japanese are rats and we should put them on their island and sink it into the ocean. And you were saying that in, in public spaces.

Johanna Bringhurst: We should say to that there was just in case you're listening to. No, there it there was a Japanese incarceration camp in Idaho. admitted dock near the Twin Falls area. We have recorded some of, some Context episodes about Minidoka, so I'll refer our listeners to learn more about that here. but so Idahoans were encountering Japanese Americans during the war.

you had people with giant signs saying like, no Japs allowed. You had all this anti-Japanese rhetoric. And by the time the fall rolled around, they had been relocated to Minidoka, and they were being let out of Minidoka to go work in the sugar beet fields because and they some of the agriculture people, some of the farmers expressed their gratitude to their Japanese compatriots for coming and doing that work under really difficult circumstances is those Japanese Americans stepped up and put their labor towards this workforce.

Johanna Bringhurst: It's also one of the bizarre twists of this really difficult part of our history, that it was only Japanese-Americans in certain coastal parts of the West Coast that were incarcerated, while Japanese-Americans who were, like you said, living on in interior states, were not incarcerated. So I think that may have added some confusion and challenge to the situation.

Right. And and it was literally, you know, dozens and dozens of different areas. It wasn't, you know, one order making zones. It was they had maps, and it was from this street to this street on this state, and then over expanding it from the street to the it was a it was really hard to track and figure out in the moment.

Johanna Bringhurst: Because so many people in Idaho are not familiar with this history. not just Wake Island, but also Japanese incarceration. And could you speak a little bit about why this story matters so much, why it's important, and why it's an important part of Idaho's history?

Dr. Rebecca Schwartz: I think it's a really important of Idaho's history, because there's sort of a historical residence that happens that we see the long shadow. There's there's a great, great book called The Long Shadow of Decay, in America. And so it talks about how this event happened. And then, you know, the whole history of Idaho. This was only a few years, but it rings through, through history.

I know my grandfather would rage about Japanese, and I never understood it. He he had very choice words for the Japanese people. And then it seemed like on a dime sometimes would turn around and talk about Mr. Furukawa, his neighbor, who was his friend and fought in the European campaign for the U.S. and how the U.S. didn't treat Mr..

I don't think most people know about Wake Island and if you I say this to any Idahoans listening, if your family's from Idaho, look back. See if you have an uncle or a cousin. They might have been there if somebody knew. Oh yeah, everybody knew each other. So everyone would have a story of, you know, Bill Wilcox went there and he had this experience and he never spoke about it again.

But after he died, we found his papers. And it was all this, that and and those stories exist in the household in Idaho. They exist in families in Idaho, but they've never been discussed. And I think that that's really a shame, because you see this sort of. Ongoing issue, I would say Idaho still has something of a reputation about not being the most diverse state, not being the most welcoming state.

And sort of the reasoning isn't discussed. And if it's not discussed, how do we ever overcome? Like, how do we change? How do we how do we know where we're going if we don't know where we are coming from?

Johanna Bringhurst: I think sometimes people don't know how to really understand or come to understand complicated history. And that is so the story of Idaho. Why do we need to wrestle with this? Why do we need to know, the good, the bad, the ugly about our past?

I don't know if I'll ever see my husband again. And it's it's again. It's it's really not a happy story. And people like happy endings. They like stories of of, you know, we all we all were okay in the theater. We all had this great moment. People survived. And that is the happiest we can say.

Johanna Bringhurst: Rebecca, I want to thank you for joining me today and helping us learn more about this really important part of Idaho history, but also help us understand the value of wrestling with the ugly sides of our history. Thank you so much for the energy you've put into researching and writing about this.

Dr. Rebecca Schwartz: Thank you so much for having me. It's like I said, it really revitalizes my love of this topic to be able to tell people about it and and remember all these little minute parts that I can't always write about. But they make such good stories sometimes. So I'm really delighted to be able to tell people more about it.

Johanna Bringhurst: Thank you. Thank you so much.

Dr. Rebecca Schwartz: Thank you.