12 JUNE 2023 P oston is a small, unincorporated community in western Arizona’s La Paz County on the Colorado Indian Reservation. Less than 300 people live on those desert flatlands, three miles east of the Colorado River and 15 miles north of Parker. So there’s not much to do or see there. But the Poston Memorial Monument makes it worth a visit because it is such a stark reminder of a great injustice. The monument marks the site of the Poston Internment Camp, the largest (in the area) of the American concentration camps operated by the War Relocation Authority during World War II. At the outbreak of the war, more than 120,000 people of Japanese descent living on the West Coast and in western Arizona were removed from their homes under the provision of Executive Order 9066, authorized by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They were relocated to ten internment camps in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. The Poston site, more commonly known as the Colorado River Relocation Center, became a temporary home to 17,867 men, women and children who were interned in three camps from May 5, 1942, to November 28, 1945. The camp was composed of three separate units arranged in a chain three miles from each other. Those interned there named the camps Roastin’, Toastin’ and Dustin’ due to their desert locations. They were built over the objections of the Colorado River Tribal Council, which adamantly opposed using their land because they did not want to be involved in the same type of injustice inflicted upon them when federal and state governments forced them off their homelands and onto reservations. The council was soon overridden, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the War Relocation Authority jointly took control of 71,000 acres of tribal land and began construction of the camp in early 1942. The Del E. Webb Construction Company (which would later develop Sun City near Phoenix) completed the first segment in less than three weeks; the other two were done in about 120 days. When finished, the camp consisted of hundreds of residential barracks, a hospital, an administrative center, and guard and staff housing. A single fence surrounded the camps because the site was so remote that authorities felt there was no need for guard towers. The facility was named after Charles D. Poston, a government engineer who established the Colorado River Reservation in 1865. Some internees were released from the camp after joining the U.S. Army; all the others stayed until the camp was closed in 1945. Most of them lost their own homes and lands during their confinement. About 50 years later, in 1992, Colorado Tribes (Mohave, Chemehuevi, Navajo and Hopi) joined the Japanese community to build and dedicate the monument. The single concrete column, symbolizing the unity of spirit, stands 30 feet tall. The inscription reads: “This memorial is dedicated to all those men, women and children who suffered countless hardships and indignities at the hands of a nation misguided by wartime hysteria, racial prejudice and fear. May it serve as a constant reminder of our past so that Americans in the future will never again be denied their constitutional rights, and may remembrance of that experience serve to advance the evolution of the human spirit.” A reminder of injustice in this small Arizona town The Lowe Road A former Valley newspaperman who now writes about his travels across Arizona, the U.S. and the globe. BY SAM LOWE The Poston Memorial Monument is a 30-foot concrete pillar that symbolizes “Unity of Spirit.” Twelve smaller pillars surrounding the monument make it a functional sundial. Christ Lutheran School Preschool - Grade 8 • www.clsphx.org LC-MS 3901 E. Indian School Rd., Phoenix | www.cclphoenix.org www.cclphoenix.org www.cclphoenix.org | (602) 955-4830 LOVE GROW SERVE IN-PERSON WORSHIP Traditional Worship Traditional Worship 8:00am/10:45am Contemporary Worship Contemporary Worship 8:30am/10:30am Teaching Service Teaching Service 9:30am ONLINE WORSHIP Sunday @ 8:am/10:30am Sunday @ 8:am/10:30am Sunday @ 8:am/10:30am FB Live or CHRISTCHURCHPHX.ONLINE.CHURCH CHRISTCHURCHPHX.ONLINE.CHURCH CHRISTCHURCHPHX.ONLINE.CHURCH

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