Last week I traveled the back roads of Western Arizona, through what remains of the town of Poston. It was named for “the Father of Arizona,” Charles Debrille Poston, whose efforts contributed to the creation of the Arizona Territory.
Poston laid out the Colorado River Reservation and the irrigation system that distributed water from the river to serve the indigenous Mohave and Chemehuevi inhabitants of the reservation (some Navajo and Hopi were relocated there in 1945). My late good friend (and USAAF veteran of the CBI Theater) Charles H. Poston was a distant relative of Charles D. Poston, so the namesake town on the map caught my eye many years ago.
Poston, Arizona now consists of a convenience store, a few homes, a collection of unoccupied buildings, and a vast array of cotton and hay fields. Even the US Postal Service closed up shop a few years ago, with the area apparently now receiving postal service from Parker, Arizona to the north. Poston is among the poorest towns in Arizona, with a per capita income of only $6,938 for its population of 183 (as of 2020).
A casual traveler would never know that Poston was once the third most populous town in Arizona, thanks to a forced influx nearly eight decades after it was founded in 1865. But an attentive passer-by might notice a prominent monument at the southern approach to the intersection of Mohave Road and Poston Road: the Poston War Relocation Center Memorial.
The spire rises from a raised pad, surrounded by engraved memorial bricks and palm trees. Its base displays images from the time when more than 17,000 Japanese-Americans–many of them US-born citizens– were interned here after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
It also displays information about 1200 among the interned who remarkably volunteered for service with the US Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team in the European Theater, along with 300 from other mainland internment camps, and 2600 Japanese-Americans from Hawaii.
The 442nd earned a reputation for fierce fighting, and the distinction of being the most decorated US Army unit in history. In less than two years of combat, its members were awarded more than 4,000 Purple Hearts (another source says 9486 Purple Hearts) and 4,000 Bronze Star Medals, and 21 Medals of Honor. They liberated a Dachau sub-camp, and even captured a German midget submarine… the only submarine capture by a US Army unit of which I’m aware.
General Mark W. Clark, commander of the US 5th Army, head planner of the Operation Torch invasion of French North Africa, and the youngest US 4-star in WWII, said of the 442nd, “these are some the best… fighters in the U.S. Army. If you have more, send them over.”
The Poston Pilgrimage is an annual gathering of descendants, historians, and tribal community members. I just missed this year’s edition by a few days. But I paused at the monument for a few moments of solo reflection on the service of the veterans of the 442nd RCT, and the sacrifices imposed upon their interned families.
Japanese American Internment Remembrance Day is celebrated on February 22.
Much more from KJZZ: https://www.kjzz.org/japanese-internment-on-tribal-land