Thousands of Japanese Americans were sent to Wyoming during the second world war. They overcame displacement and achieved athletic excellence
Tamotsu “Babe” Nomura, the quarterback of the Heart Mountain High School Eagles football team, took the snap on a warm October day in Wyoming nearly 80 years ago. Once poised for athletic success in Los Angeles, Nomura was now at Heart Mountain because the US government had established it as one of multiple internment camps for the 120,000 Japanese Americans it suspected of disloyalty during the second world war.
A barbed-wire fence surrounded Heart Mountain and its drafty wooden barracks, all placed under constant guard. Yet on 1 October 1943, the Eagles scored a victory for human dignity. In the team’s first-ever game, Nomura threw a last-minute touchdown pass and kicked the extra point for a 7-0 win. They would go on to an undefeated season. This remarkable team is the subject of The Eagles of Heart Mountain, a new book by Bradford Pearson.
Related: George Takei: We Japanese Americans must not forget our wartime internment
Related: California formally apologizes to Japanese Americans for internment camps
