Brokaw honored with LaDonna Zall Compassionate Witness Award

Posted 8/1/19

As he researched what would become his 1998 bestseller, “The Greatest Generation,” legendary news anchor Tom Brokaw came across the story of Norm Mineta, a former California congressman …

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Brokaw honored with LaDonna Zall Compassionate Witness Award

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As he researched what would become his 1998 bestseller, “The Greatest Generation,” legendary news anchor Tom Brokaw came across the story of Norm Mineta, a former California congressman who served in the cabinets of presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Brokaw was surprised to learn that Mineta, along with his family, had been interned for several years during World War II at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center outside Powell. The story of Mineta’s incarceration, as well as the former incarceree’s lifelong friendship with former U.S. Sen. Al Simpson, would serve as the impetus of Brokaw’s involvement with Japanese-American injustices during the last great war.

After writing about Mineta, “I had kind of a connection to him,” Brokaw said during a break at last weekend’s annual Heart Mountain Pilgrimage. “I started to pay attention to what happened to Japanese-Americans.”

As Brokaw’s interest turned to activism, he began using his media platform to bring awareness to Japanese-American issues. He was invited to speak at the grand opening ceremonies of the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center in 2011, and has returned several times since then, always with a camera crew in tow and a microphone at the ready.

“I think this is important, because I think the current generation doesn’t have a full appreciation of what went on here,” Brokaw said. “The astonishing thing — these good, American citizens were rounded up, put on trains, had to abandon their businesses, abandon their families, abandon their homes, come here to this remote area in very, very tough conditions and spend the war here.”

Brokaw was honored for his efforts at this year’s Pilgrimage with the LaDonna Zall Compassionate Witness Award. It’s given in recognition of someone who wasn’t a victim of what happened at Heart Mountain, but helped someone who was. The award was created in 2017 and given to Powell resident LaDonna Zall herself for her efforts in the development of Heart Mountain into a National Historic Landmark and the creation of the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center.

“Being a compassionate witness was really embodied in the work of Tom Brokaw,” said Shirley Ann Higuchi, chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation Board of Directors. “Eight years ago when we opened the interpretive center, he made the trek out here. He warmed our hearts, and he made a commitment to us that he was always available to come and help us if we needed it. ... With his work, he gave us the type of exposure this association really needs.”

Though touched by the honor, Brokaw was quick to deflect praise, wanting to keep the focus on the event, and, more importantly, the former incarcerees.

“It meant a lot to me, but most of all, I see my role here as to let the rest of the world know what happened here. It’s not about me,” he said. “I’m grateful for the acknowledgement, but the work of journalism is to do just what I’ve been doing, frankly. Not enough people know about this. This was a concentration camp, let’s be honest about this. They weren’t tortured, but at the same time, all of their freedoms were lifted away.”

Attending the yearly Pilgrimage has become a multigenerational event — not just for the families of former incarcerees, but for families in and around Park County. Brokaw said he’s encouraged by the local interest, as well as interest generated by the county’s bustling tourism industry.

“They didn’t build this place to be just a one-off,” Brokaw said. “They opened it and dedicated it, and they built the museum that they have in there, and it’s been very effective. And you’re in the middle of a tourist area, so I hope that people will continue to come.”

Asked what he hopes first-time visitors take away from an afternoon spent at the interpretative center, Brokaw said an understanding of what transpired is important above all else.

“I think the genius of America, which we don’t pay enough attention to, is that we’re at our best from the ground up, not from the top down,” Brokaw said. “The great movements of my lifetime — the Civil Rights movement, for example — that was ground up. That was hugely effective. People saw that on television, and about how brave they were, and how committed they were to their cause.”

Brokaw cautions against starting a political dialogue with an “open wound,” saying Americans need to consider “how are people reacting to what I’m saying?”

However, he said one of the best parts of the American political system is that everyone gets a voice.

“What troubles me about what’s going on now, is that if you look cross-eyed at someone, they fall to the ground wounded. It’s a tough business,” Brokaw said. “And if you think it’s tough now, you can only imagine what it was like for, say, African-Americans during reconstruction, or even in the 50s, when I was growing up and working in the South. We’ve made great progress, but what we can’t do is kind of regress by exaggerating every slight that comes along.”

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