A unique Montana-based program is helping build bridges between people of diverse ethnicities, cultures, and backgrounds through deep discussions and a commitment to understanding each other.
Alice (right) points to her cousin’s photograph at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center.
The Cross-Community Reconciliation (CCR) program was first launched in 2020 by the Global Peace Foundation (GPF) and continues to build each year with the support of Billings city officials, Native American tribal leaders, and stakeholders from all sectors of the community. CCR has been transforming perspectives for four years, giving participants the opportunity to explore each other’s unique cultures and listen to deep personal experiences that have shaped people into who they are. The program is a combination of presentations by guest speakers from one of the city’s many diverse cultural backgrounds, educational meetings and field trips to historic sites, and working meetings to discuss the challenges and needs of the community.
Most recently, the CCR 2024 group traveled together to Heart Mountain in Wyoming, where a museum spotlights the experience of Japanese Americans who were confined there during World War II. They were joined by a special guest, Alice, who was interned at the camp as a child. Her grandson also came and had the opportunity to see some of what his grandmother experienced for the first time.
Unique experiences like this are not meant to highlight historic injustices but rather focus on the elements of reconciliation that inspired future communities. Heart Mountain became an unwilling home to more than 14,000 people of Japanese descent. The families were stripped of their former houses, businesses, and belongings and sent away to Wyoming, forced to make a new life on 46,000 acres of dusty land.
“Our trip to Heart Mountain really echoed the reality of our CCR Team being One Family Under God,” said Mike Yakawich, a regional director for GPF. “We found the resilience and heart of the Japanese people. Even with so much hardship, they could find reconciliation and forgiveness knowing that this country is theirs as well.”
Some of the CCR Montana participants at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center.
The words, art, and photographs left behind by Japanese Americans after they were finally set free after the war are a testament to the beauty of the Japanese spirit. The incarcerated people stated in their testimonies that it was important for them to create as wonderful of a life as they could for their children. So, they danced, played sports and games, worked very hard at the jobs they were permitted to have, provided children with an education, and even created Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts within the camp.
More than 800 young men from Heart Mountain served in the U.S. military despite the immense persecution they and their families endured. The patriotic crew became members of the famous 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit in U.S. military history for its size and length of service. Fifteen men were killed in action and two received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award.
The Japanese people’s heart to serve and make the most of a very unjust situation was admirable. A CCR participant of Ukrainian descent, Yulia Levkovskaya, stated, “I am glad that people continue visiting and learning because forgotten historical episodes have a tendency to repeat. I think we were introduced to a unique opportunity during this trip, and it expands our understanding of real reconciliation.”
Participants in CCR seek to understand the unique challenges facing different ethnic communities. It is important not to bury injustices done to racial groups, but to learn from the painful and even embarrassing parts of our nation’s history and find a way forward that promotes healing and reconciliation.
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