Lava Ridge wind project faces criticism

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TWIN FALLS – A proposed wind turbine project faces some opposition due to its proximity to Minidoka National Historic Site. Now, advocates are speaking out to highlight why preserving space is important to so many people.

Magic Valley Energy proposed the “Lava Ridge Wind Project”, which would bring 400 wind turbines to the Jerome area and cover approximately 73,000 acres of land owned by the Bureau of Land Management.

Although the wind farm does not sit directly on national park property, it would encroach on the historic footprint of the Minidoka War Resettlement Center, which hosted more than 13,000 Japanese-American citizens during the Second World War.

“You never want to be in a position to oppose renewables, and that’s something we absolutely need,” said David Inoue, executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL). “Not only does our country need it, the world needs it, but we believe there are better ways to do it.

If approved, the wind turbines would be approximately one to two miles from the visitor center at Minidoka National Historic Site.

For many Americans of Japanese descent, especially those sent there, the site is very sacred ground. David Sakura’s incarceration in Minidoka began in 1942, less than a year after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He hadn’t even finished kindergarten when, at the age of six, he and his family were removed from their small forest community in Eatonville, Washington. They were first taken to a detention camp in Seattle in May 1942, then transported to Minidoka in September by train for a 35-hour journey.

Although he is only six years old, Sakura also remembers when his father went to fight in the war and told him that he was the head of the family and that he had to take care of his mother and of his two younger brothers.

For Sakura, the proposed project strikes a very personal chord. “It was a land where we left part of our spirit, and this land is sacred to the spirit we left behind,” Sakura said.

The memories of this experience are still so vivid that he can even remember his address while there, block 15, building 8, room E.

“Even now, I’m approaching 86, I still remember, 15, 8, E,” Sakura said. “It’s as if I had been tattooed by the federal government, in my memory, so that I would never forget this address.”

For those who have gone to revisit the site, it is still a very poignant memory in the face of what they have lived.

“It’s a reminder of what happened,” said Inoue. “It’s a painful reminder, but in the same way, it’s also part of the healing that has happened for many people.”

Upon arriving in Minidoka, Sakura noted how the landscape of Idaho is different from that of Washington. Previously surrounded by forests and snow-capped mountains, it now found itself in the midst of a desolate environment.

This feeling of being completely isolated from the outside world is something that everyone who has been incarcerated has felt. Sakura remembers that Cole Porter’s song “Don’t Fence Me In” was a popular song among other locals at the time because it gave them a sense of hope.

Sakura believes the wind turbine project would ruin the immersion of what it was like in Minidoka over 70 years ago and that feeling of being alone and isolated.

Mainly because of the height of these wind turbines.

“It would degrade and destroy that feeling of isolation and desolation,” Sakura said. “What I really wanted my children and grandchildren to enjoy, that we were living in difficult conditions.”

Sakura went on to explain how this Lava Ridge wind project looks like a broken government promise to Japanese Americans and debases the memory and hardships experienced by so many in Minidoka.

“I know the financiers are well-meaning, but if they thought about the impact of their wind farm if they were located next to the Gettysburg National Monument or the Shanksville Airline crash site, it would degrade by Memory.”

As this proposed project is still in the planning phase, JACL is seeking further support in its efforts to stop this project.

You really need allies in a fight, because part of the reason the incarceration happened during WWII is that we didn’t have anyone to defend us, with us, ”said Inoue. “If so, you’re just going to get run over.”

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