[Memoranda Containing Instructions for Final Reports on the Minidoka Internment Camp Following Its Closure]

Hunt, ID: November 1, 1945. 4pp., mimeographed text on tall folio sheets, stapled at top left. Old folds, light wear, two holes punched in top margin. Very good. An informative document written by W.E. Rawlings, the Project Director at the Minidoka Internment Camp in Idaho, providing guidelines, instructions, pointers, and so forth to staff members preparing final statistical, functional, and personal narrative reports. The camp closed a few days before this memo was written, and final reports were prepared to provide "outside groups, both public and private" about "the unique work of the WRA." Rawlings' advice here includes suggestions to refer back to monthly reports, consult the "evacuee newspaper 'The Minidoka Irrigator,'" confer with longtime employees at the camp, and much more. He also suggests methods for addressing questions such as "If You Aren't Sure Washington Will Understand About Mistakes," "If You Are Unsure How Far to Go on Opinion in Personal Narratives," "If You Wonder How 'Personal' Your Personal Narrative Should Be," and so forth. Rawlings advises staff that reports need not be illustrated with photographs, or they should be kept to a minimum, given that the Denver Photo Unit was overworked at the present moment. In the end, Rawlings stipulates that reports should be "clear, reasonably complete, and factually correct." A fairly sterile document considering the nature of the experiences on which the staff was reporting.