Setsuko's Secret: Heart Mountain and the Legacy of the Japanese American Incarceration
14A conversation with the Chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, Shirley Ann Higuchi, JD, whose parents were both incarcerated as a result of President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, signed on February 19, 1942. This resulted in the incarceration of nearly 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, and the date of the order's signing is now known as “Day of Remembrance” in the Japanese American community.
Shirley Ann Higuchi, JD, Chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation (HMWF), is the daughter of former incarcerees, Dr. William I. Higuchi and the late Setsuko Saito Higuchi. Her American born parents were children when they were incarcerated at Heart Mountain during World War II. Shirley’s pursuit of law stemmed from her feelings of discomfort toward how the US judicial system treated her parents. It was not until her mother was on her deathbed in 2005 that Shirley would inspire to take on her mother’s dream of “having something built there.” She was elected Chair of the Board in 2009, and her proudest moment was unveiling the Foundation’s world-class Interpretive Center in August of 2011 alongside journalist Tom Brokaw, the late Senator Daniel K. Inouye, Secretary Norman Mineta, and Senator Alan K. Simpson.
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