exploring american history. next, a look at our recent visit to salt lake city, utah. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. ♪ ♪ >> today, we are at the reading room of the special collections department at the university of utah. today, we will be talking about

memorial archives. this consists of still images, moving images, world history, documents, diaries, etc. that are all related to the history of japanese americans in the intermountain west. the chinese were the first asians to emigrate to the u.s. and they were working on the transcontinental railroad. there was huge dissemination against them. you can see that in this famous picture come a you see no chinese railroad workers in that picture. when the japanese came, they were recruited by a labor agent. he set up an office in what is now japan town. he was the one that made

arrangements for the japanese immigrants to get jobs working on the railroad and also to work on farms and also to work in the mines. salt lake had a thriving japan town right in the heart of downtown. because of that, many families came, they started their own businesses, stores, dry goods stores, restaurants, cleaners, and whatnot. this picture here was taken probably in the 1950's or so of the fish market. fish andy got fresh sold it to not only the local japanese but there were members of the salt lake community that would also shop there. this photo was taken earlier. newspaper.the

it was the first japanese language newspaper in the intermountain area. this was published from 1914 until 1991. these are examples of actual issues. a originally started as japanese friend which only newspaper. then, they added an english section. in the is the headline "san francisco chronicle" the day after pearl harbor. december the eighth, 1941. >> after the attack on pearl harbor, life changed for the japanese-americans who had lived or 50or, some of them 40 years. all of a sudden, they were the enemy. 19, 1942, executive

signed ordering all japanese people of japanese ancestry. we are talking down to 1/16. if you are a tiny bit japanese, you had to relocate to a camp. these were the instructions that they saw on the telephone poles. they were given a little bit over a week to get rid of all of their possessions. first of all, they had to report and they would be arrested. then they had a week to get rid of anything. we are talking about quitting their jobs, selling their homes, getting rid of their businesses. my grandparents owned a dry goods store and they had to get rid of their inventory. had to get rid of pets, their cars. and then decide what they were going to take. told themattractions you had to take dishes, bedding.

you're thinking what you are caring, they had to leave the lot behind. my father's family lived in the bay area. the folks in berkeley where relocated first of all to a racetrack. the camps were not ready yet. so, they were living in horse stalls for about three months. then, in september, they moved them. it was not finished yet. in fact, it wasn't finished until october. aridis is the dusty and desert of topaz, utah. 156 miles south of salt lake city. internees families were process, they were fingerprinted and basically given mugshots and they had to carry certificates and their belongings were searched.

certificate for -- his family was relocated. their son, he was a filmmaker. he was able to smuggle in his camera with the help of a friend and he took footage of the wind blowing, he took pictures of the different events. >> on top of the roof to take a shot of this. picture, yout this what a waste it was for the government to spend tree hundred million dollars building 10 camps like this. cameen the government through to build the camps they completely cleared the land. so, it was totally barren.

they have the barracks and then each one had a mess hall and a washroom. everybody, no matter who they .ere or relocated so, we are talking professionals. we had doctors, lawyers, teachers. everyone was relocated. important to have the newspaper. keep in mind, there were no telephones, there were no radios. no way of communicating. these were a series of cartoons that were published in the newspaper. you could see that they were actually published. these are original pencil drawings. they're very very telling of what life was like, everyday life. this is a proud new papa doing the diapers.

because the barracks did not have running water, they had to hold the water from the latrine area. water andlowing the the superman carrying the teapots. thinse the walls were so and people that stayed up late theight, this was called midnight magpie. they are gossiping and talking. he is definitely wanting some sleep. i think with the cartoons, you could get away with saying something without writing it out. they would've been censored. >> now that this has been reopened, january the 15th of 1945. this is the leavetaking of the

evacuees going back to their home. homesly, those that had to go back to were those that were able to leave topaz. andfter the war ended people were allowed to start leaving the camps, it was a big worry for the people who had no place to go. they lost their homes and everything they owned, basically. many of them just went up to salt lake's japan town. they got a one-way ticket and i think it was $25. many of them got jobs there or stayed with family members and friends there and some of them ended up staying because maybe they fell in love with somebody and ended up making their home there but others did go back to california and try to start life over. in the late 1960's, when they

built the palace, they completely demolished all of the buildings that were on the two the salt palace now stands on. the only thing remaining of the heart of japan town as far as the japanese church of christ. town waspan devastating to these families because it wasn't only their homes, it was her livelihood. they had spent their lives and raising their children there in the area. many of them were too old to start new businesses. only a few of them were able to relocate, so there was never a concentrated japan town anymore. here in the special collections department, this is so important it will document and

preserve the stories of these immigrants who came from japan, sacrificing their lives, leaving their family behind. some never ever seen their parents again. working the farms, working the railroads, working the mines, starting businesses and then losing them again during the war and then building back up. the price is paid for their freedom and the conference. >> the idea behind 250/250 is instead of trying to tell the entire history of st. louis, era by era, we would absolutely miss the vitally important things.

instead of trying to do that, we decided what if we just gave snapshots of st. louis history that would give people a glimpse of all of the diverse things that have happened and they can use their imaginations to fill in the rest. we chose 50 people, 50 moments, 50 images, and 50 objects to try to choose the most diverse selection we could. we are standing in the 50 objects section right now and this is what most people would real history. this is where the object is right in front of you. brewing is such a big part of st. louis possis tree. it is an amazing story with lots of different breweries. the most famous became anheuser-busch. era of anheuser-busch talking about millions of barrels produced each year. they are producing so much beer, this is when things were

simpler. it is fun to show people this object and kind of gauge their response. in the days before they had cans or bottle caps, they put corks in the top of bottles and somebody had to sit on those things and do it by hand. you can see it has foot pedals on the bottom. that is where the operator would push down with his feet to give the court enough force to go into the bottom. three holes fort for three different sized bottles. >> next weekend, the history and literary life of st. louis, the gateway to the west on c-span- 'ss book tv and c-span-3 american history tv. >> when you see what is happening at the v.a., i think that the same kind of culture exists in other government agencies. not the national transportation safety board, not at nih, but in

a number of other agencies, there is a lack of accountability, there is an indifference at best to taxpayers. i think they don't care about waste, efficiency. the set in, when you read the various reports, agency after agency after agency with the same problems, year after year after year and nothing gets fixed. total experience in dealing with government. it is not just the quality of our politicians, but the quality of government employees and the bureaucracy. that we have incompetent government, and have stupid government, i'm sure we have some great federal employees. but, that is not the norm. myers is leaving washington, d.c. behind.

find out why tonight at 8:00. >> now, a visit to the cia museum in langley, virginia where museum director ncaa curator present -- cia curator presents easy and >> we are standing in the memorial lobby of the original headquarters building. this lobby has a number of significant memorials in it. every visitor to the agency comes through this entrance. every new agency officer takes their oath of office here in this lobby, in front of 107 of our fallen officers. they walked across the agency field to take their place in the lobby. and the father of central intelligence is watching over their shoulders as they begin a career for our central intelligence agency in our nation.