Editor’s note: Rep. John Winter apologized Thursday for using the slur. To read that story, click here.
On Tuesday, a group of legislators visited Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, which exists to remember anti-Asian discrimination and the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Before the tour, Joint Agricultural Committee Chairman Rep. John Winter used an anti-Japanese racial slur while discussing the historic site.
Closing out a morning of testimony and lawmaker discussion on agricultural and public land issues, Winter, who is from Thermopolis and represents a district that includes a portion of Park County, took a minute to remind his fellow lawmakers of the upcoming visit to Heart Mountain.
“If you’re gonna go to the,” Winter said, before pausing, “Jap camp, that’s what I call it, we need to leave here by about 12:30,” he said with a chuckle.
WyoFile reviewed a livestream video of the meeting.
The slur stretches back to the war but has been largely abandoned as offensive and dehumanizing toward Japanese people. The word is labeled disparaging and offensive by every major dictionary, an online search reveals, and has been dropped from popular use long ago. An association of major newspapers in New York, for example, urged dropping the term in the early 1950s after a campaign by Japanese American activists.
“The excuse that the term ‘Jap’ is usually used without any derogatory intention is pointless,” activist Shosuke Sasaki wrote in a letter to the association, according to the Japanese American history organization Densho. “It frequently has been and is being used with the connotation of contempt.”
“It’s unfortunate that now, in 2025, we still hear language like this,” Heart Mountain Interpretive Center Board Chair Shirley Ann Higuchi told WyoFile in a phone interview Tuesday. Her parents were among the more than 14,000 Japanese Americans interned against their will and under guard at Heart Mountain during the war.
“I feel that Rep. Winter should become better educated,” Higuchi said. “If someone made that comment to me anywhere I would have to speak to them about the appropriateness of that description.”
Winter, a Republican who’s been serving in the House since 2019, did not respond to two voicemails and a text message from WyoFile seeking comment Tuesday afternoon.
It was appropriate for the agricultural committee to visit Heart Mountain, Higuchi said, because the people interned there – many of them farmers uprooted from California – contributed to the history of the industry in that part of Wyoming. “It’s an agricultural committee, you’d think they would respect what we did there historically, and it’s unfortunate this remark put a sour taste in everybody’s mouth.”
In the video, three of Winter’s fellow lawmakers are visible when he makes the response. Two smiled and a third dropped his head down in a rueful manner.
The committee’s lone Democrat, Rep. Karlee Provenza of Laramie, said the current presidential administration’s focus on deporting mass numbers of immigrants, and widespread concerns that federal agents are depriving people of their civil rights while doing so, makes Heart Mountain’s historic lessons more important than ever.
The internment of Japanese Americans was “a horrific display of what happens when we strip people of their constitutional liberties and their civil rights,” Provenza said. “I guess I’m just grateful we were able to take a tour of Heart Mountain after that committee meeting so that my colleagues were able to see just how awful the government’s treatment of Japanese Americans was, so that we never do anything like this again.”
Winter’s comment came just three months after the death of renowned U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, who grew up in Cody and made remembering Heart Mountain, and condemning that dark chapter of the nation’s history, a focus of his public persona and political advocacy. Simpson is famous for his lifelong friendship with Norman Mineta, after the two met as boys while Mineta was interned at the camp.
Mineta went on to serve as a U.S. congressman from California, and the two men, though of opposite political parties, worked together to pass the 1988 Civil Liberties Act, which included an apology and $20,000 to those internees still alive at the time.
The Heart Mountain Interpretive Center is preparing to honor Simpson this summer, Higuchi said.
Winter also grew up in northwestern Wyoming. In the committee meeting he noted that growing up, he had lived in refurbished barracks from the internment center. “They can be made pretty nice,” he said.
Tim French, the committee’s Senate chairman, told WyoFile he and Winter lived just a few miles from each other in their youth. French’s family came to the area after the war as homesteaders. Families of veterans, like his, received portions of the acreage used for the Heart Mountain internment center, according to a National Park Service history. They purchased barracks buildings from the federal government at extremely low prices and moved the structures to their ranches. They were very cold domiciles in the winter if not refurbished, French said.
The state senator, a Republican from Powell, said he was “a little shocked when co-chairman Winter said that.” But it was also a memory of his childhood, French said, when children of the area referred to Heart Mountain by that term, which they had picked up from their parents. French, who is in his early 70s, said the two area lawmakers are only a few years apart in age.
Their parents were mostly veterans of the war, he said, and “that was the term. They were still angry. I grew up with that term. I didn’t know any better. It wasn’t a vicious term growing up, it’s just that’s what it was.” But with time, he said, and after getting to know a Japanese-American family who moved in nearby him, he learned to drop the slur from his lexicon.
“I decided ‘gosh, I grew up with that, but I’m not going to use it any more,’” he said. “You mature and you grow up.”
Area history aside, Winter, French said, “shouldn’t have said it.”
I was going on r when my Uncle walked out to oour place from town (Shoshoni) and told my parents that America had been attaced with by Japan and he had signed up for the Navy and would soon be shipping out on the train out of Bonnieville. Thec brother just younger graduated early the following year so he too should go fight for our country. Sneer at them and their descendents all you want, the fact is we live a very different life that if we had just surrendered to Japan, we would be l;iving a very different life today.
Are you folks all suggesting that the Americans need to honor and admire those who attached the USA? Those American men who went to war went tp protect our country during W2, especially the attack on America that started it? One of my Uncles signed up when the news hit and the other the day he graduated high school. We would probably live a very different life to day if they and thousnad of men like them had not done that. Please remember America was bombed BEFORE the war and caused America to fight back.
My family was interned at Heart Mountain. I wonder what the story is about the Caucasian boy and girl in the Students picture?
Important news. It’s unfortunate that we have to be re-educated about our history. But learning is a life-long endeavor.
You, Sir, are an embarrassment to yourself, your family, your elected position, and the State of Wyoming. At the very least, offer a SINCERE apology to all of the above. You are no doubt, a better man than this.
OK – I held off long enough….. No disrespect to anyone… No one is using the words that have been around forever. So can we call the WY Legislature – the Cracker, or the Honky, or the Redneck, or the Gringo, or the Hillbilly, or the White Trash Legislature. To use the word that was used for the camp – let’s use the right words for the Legislature. They don’t seem to understand insults to a race or a creed.
I find it disappointing that the press and public still insist on using euphemisms when discussing this issue. Have you ever heard anyone refer to the Wyoming State Interment Center in Rawlins? If you are taken against your will, locked in, and denied the freedom to leave at your will, you are imprisoned. These were not “internment centers” or “relocation camps”, they were prisons, and good American citizens were unjustly imprisoned in them. It’s time we quit trying to sugar coat this dark chapter in American history and call them what they were.
Agree.
The actions taken against American citizens of Japanese descent was criminal. 11000 plus German Americans, 3000 Italian Americans were also imprisoned.
I would like to know why many of those in power and responsible are still held in high regard today????
It was a democrat president and democrat administration that put them in internment camps. Even after J Edgar Hoover told the president he had nothing to
worry about from the Japanese Americans.
oh yea and this little tidbit of information has absolutely nothing to do with the recent jap camp slur by a homegrown UnFreedom Cabal republican
But………Hillary
Don’t forget all. The man has the right to say what he wishes. That doesn’t make the comment right or wrong. But he still has the right to speak as he wishes. Just as you have the right to condemn him.
He absolutely has that right. There is no law against simply being mean. It seems the point of this article is to highlight that everyone has the opportunity to be decent and kind, but some folks choose otherwise. It’s certainly worth shining a light upon such individuals, especially those with influence.
The moral compass of a “religious” stagnant white man shines again. We can’t fix stupid, but we could vote them out.
Patricia. Lot of people say that but never or seldom happens.
Wyoming elected representative making ignorant disgusting racist comments? Happens almost every day. Certainly no surprise.
We all know that doing the right thing can be hard. It often means going against the grain and risking alienating your peer groups and it can expose you to criticism and scorn. If it involves an apology, it can make you seem weak in owning up to your own fallibility. Yet, the reward of doing the right thing for oneself and for others usually far outweighs any personal real or imagined punishment.
In 1944, my Great Uncle, Glenn Livingston, wrestled with this question and he did the right thing. He was the Cody Boy Scout leader who braved local bigotry and scorn to arrange the Scout Jamboree at the Heart Mountain Internment Camp that led to the lifelong friendship between then twelve-year-old tent-mates Norm Mineta and Al Simpson. And what followed were the “good deed” efforts toward federal reparations and compensation to the Japanese American community on the part of Secretary Mineta and Senator Simpson that Mr. Olsen derides.
And, contrary to Mr. Olsen’s implication, doing the right thing is an option at any age and, as has been pointed out, Mr. Winter has an opportunity to do the right thing and apologize for his, however inadvertent, use of this slur in a public setting and in his capacity as a public official.
The Unjust and unconstitutional incarceration of Japanese American citizens at Heart Mountain and elsewhere out of fear and racism is a widely acknowledged stain on America’s otherwise heroic and righteous conduct in World War II. One that subsequent leaders, like my Uncle Al Simpson, worked hard to use their status as public officials to correct, to their enduring credit.
He was a good man. Norm Mineta was a good man. My Great Uncle Glenn was a good man.
I know you’re a good man Mr. Winter.
Please, do the right thing.
As the estranged granddaughter of Rep. John Winter, I feel compelled to speak out following his recent use of a racial slur in reference to Japanese Americans and the Heart Mountain internment site.
The term he used is not harmless or outdated, it is a reflection of the same racism and bigotry that contributed to the unjust incarceration of over 14,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. That language dishonors their memory and the painful history preserved at Heart Mountain.
His words do not represent the values I was raised with or those I strive to live by. My parents raised me to reject bigotry in all its forms, to be a free thinker, and to lead with love and compassion. I was taught that words matter, and that empathy, understanding, and respect for all people are not optional—they are foundational.
My grandfather does not know me. He has never been a part of my life or the lives of my siblings. That distance is not accidental. It reflects choices made to protect the emotional and moral integrity of our family, and to live in alignment with the values we believe in.
I hope he will reflect seriously on the harm his words have caused and the power they have, offer a sincere apology, and commit to learning more about the history and weight of the moment he so carelessly dismissed. Public service demands more than a title—it requires responsibility, growth, and integrity.
Thank you for your honest and compelling words, Lilyan.
In watching the 2nd day of session live on Youtube, I find it quite odd that Mr. Winter, though present, was not starting the session. Senator French was running committee, isn’t Winter the Chairman? Regardless, Mr. French had an opportunity to apologize to the voters note only in behalf of the Committee and Senator Winter, but for the entire Legislature. But, no, vintage Madam Chairman French failed to do so and all apologies to the many, many women capable of true leadership. While the Wyofile reporter mentions that a Committee member (Mr. French) ‘ruefully’ dropped their head after the slur by Winter, many of us have another take, it looks like Madam Chairman French was trying to hide a smile or smirk. Watch the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJDlg3RcKDI @ the 3:35:30 mark and judge for yourself. It looks like Ide and Banks got a good chuckle out of this comment, too. Today Senator Winter had an opportunity to make things right, instead he took a wide detour
Ha, you thought Madam French had some leadership skills but he’s mostly known for whining and cashing US Ag subsidy checks from that evil federal government that he so despises. It was a lost opportunity today for Winter or at least French to in the least try and make amends but nope. Also, ya, watched that video and Madam French appears to either hide a smile or keep himself from laughing out loud from Winter’s outrageous comment,. At least Ide and Bank had the guts to laugh. Buffoonery
In fairness the House and the Senate co-chair the interim committee. It is common practice for the House chair to preside one day and the Senate chair to preside the other. I’m definitely not standing up for either but there are very real and serious issues to criticize them on (like neither one of them apologizing), the rotation of the presiding officer isn’t one of them.
Mr. Winter doesn’t scare me as much as the people who elected him do.
It is time to get some term limits and age limits in state and federal government. The dinosaurs have proceded to destroy what was a strong, respected, engaged nation to demonstrate their hate and prejudice for everyone that isn’t white. How quickly they forget, or perhaps never knew because of a lack of educaction that the diversity of this country is what made us that strong respected engaged nation at one time. Fascism has taken hold and he won’t apologize. Why should he, the entire party are trumpians and he never apologizes either.
It is time for intelligent new blood to be elected and these wet rags to be removed. Unfreedumb and freedumb are both a non starter.
when you view the video on youtube (wyofile, why didn’t you post the link?) Mr. Winter uttered the words Jap Camp with much fervor. On the day two (today) session, which is live on youtube, Senator Winter has neither acknowledged his statement nor apologized. It’ll be interesting to see what the bigoted and racsist NonFreedom Caucus does to back him. Will they issue some hollow, phony excuse or apology or will they continue the brownshirt goosestepping to rid Wyoming of all that is not pasty white?
How ignorant, disgusting and disrespectful. As a descendant of a parent born in the US and interned, I am angry with his use of a slur.
Anyone proud of our representation in the state of Wyoming? If so, I’d be interested to know why. What a shameful display of ignorance and bigotry. Never forget that Americans died fighting fascism. Renew the fight. Get out and participate in a “No Kings” protest this Saturday. We need to stop this madness!
I appreciate the response given by Chair Higuchi– firm and measured, but not caustic. Ball’s in your court Rep. Winter. As Senator French pointed out, just because you both grew up with that term, as did I, that doesn’t mean that it should be used, and it certainly isn’t funny. A sincere apology won’t cost you a thing.
The new internment camps will be exported… like to El Salvador. Out of sight– out of mind. Genocide waits drooling, as we sleep.
Mr. Spence. True criminals went to El Salvador. Don’t compare Heart Mountain with the sending of criminals to El Salvador. They are not the same. Right now we have riots in LA over govt officials arresting child molesting criminals and drug dealers from our ranks. They were allowed the cross the border by inept government officials. Time to remove them. But again don’t confuse the times or the people involved.
You’re right Larry, the comparison is insulting.
Maybe tom would like to do some outreach with those innocent MS13 victims.
your kool-aid is too strong larry. arresting day laborers in front of home depot is a far cry from “child molesting criminals”. you are gullible and every post you make proves it further.
No Chuck. They did arrest Criminals in that bunch at LA. In fact if they don’t have a green card here LEGAL they are all criminals!! But ask your selfs this. Why does the immigration system remain broken to this day? All these people working with false SS number will never draw out. Do you know where that Paid in SS money Goes? Here how it works. The money they pay and the employers money is flagged. It can’t be posted due to false SSN. So that money goes to the TREASURY to be put back into system. So for 50 plus years the government has been stealing that money. Think of the 100’s of millions of $$$$ stolen over the years. Think about that. That why neither party wants to fix the busted system. I know few of you can’t handle truth. $37 TRILLION in debt shows that as well.
Don’t confuse the fact that Democrats and Republicans have let people in the U.S. so the wealthy can get wealthier. If this was not true, the people that hired them would be in jail.
Wow, Rep. John Winter! Your racism is showing thru your political facade!
Can’t help but think the cruelty is the point
John Winter, if I am correct is in his late 70s.
Is an elderly boomer, that grew up in a culturally isolated region of the country, making a racially insensitive comment really “newsworthy”?
What makes the story less palatable is the Simpson Mineta glorification. 2 US Senators with enough questionable baggage to outweigh their “good deeds”.
And yet another senator of approximately the same age and from the same area was able to listen to Japanese people, learn, and drop the word.
Allowing people, especially those that know better, to use slurs without calling them out just allows the problems to perpetuate. “I grew up with Grandpa saying it and it wasn’t a big deal, so I’m just going to keep using it”.
It’s insulting to claim that they are too old to stop using slurs. If his cognitive function is that bad, he’s probably not fit to be a senator. Especially when they are on the way to an interpretive center where a lot of work has been done to show what happens when we dehumanize other people.
Unfortunately the much easier explaination is he knows it is a slur and doesn’t care, because he means it.
because he’s a bigoted boomer, it’s not news?
or is it not news to you because you relate to his bigotry?
why do you feel the need to justify and make excuses for stupid behavior?
It’s simply manufacturing and spreading outrage. My guess is 99.9% of Wyomingites (and no one outside wyoming) would have never heard about this, now we have people thinking everyone in Wyoming still talks like this.
Most 79 year olds lose their vocabulary filter or care, of what people think about what they say.
The people of Thermopolis and Meeteetsee can remove him next election if they feel so inclined.
Dragging Simpson and Mineta into this story wasnt necessary, and certainly worthy of criticism.
Mineta was the poster boy of turning political influence into cash cow when leaving office. Lockheed Martin VP, scandal plagued Hill & Knowlton Vice Chair, and to top it off at the end of his career, Vice Chair at L&L Energy (in the business of producing, processing, and selling coal in the People’s Republic of China.)
Old boomer lets a word from his childhood slip, versus genuine political improprieties at best, corruption at worst.
Except stuff like this does get out; it doesn’t stay hidden. The benefit of sources like WyoFile publishing about it is that people outside of Wyoming can see there are people within Wyoming speaking out about it and not just sitting around ignoring it and hoping someone else does something about it (by not re-electing him).
Silence is tacit approval
The problem is less that old folks sometimes say racist things but that old racist folks need removed from positions of power because they are addled and antiquated. Let Grandpa Befuddlepants stay at home and say hateful things about his family who want nothing to do with him.
Jeff, that is not what we were told through 4 long years of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.
In fact anyone pointing things that you rightfully point out was called ageist or worse. Let’s stay consistent.
Do you personally know that Winter is an old racist?
And there it is. No more than two-thirds into the comments the Biden
“whataboutism” gets played. Well done sir, well done.
It’s not “whataboutism” at all. I literally said he was right(other than the racist accusation).
I’m just saying people shouldn’t be hypocritical.
One by one these non-freedom caucus kooks show us who they really are
This should surprise no one.
Never surprised by both the immaturity and nasty behavior the republicans gleefully show off. Look at the words and actions their boss displays everyday.
Disgraceful and disheartening.
It should surprise no one that Winter, an UnFreedom Caucus member, would blurt out such a slur. The UnFreedom believers have shown time and time again that they are nothing but a collaboration of paranoid racists and bigots. On top of that, the low level of decency and common sense along with the ability to keep your mouth shut sense escapes Winter. We’ll happily accept your resignation, Mr. Senator
Back in my days in state government–all of twelve years ago–I reviewed a draft agency press release with “Jap” in the proposed headline. When I asked that the word be changed, the old-school fellow who wrote it seemed to sigh, roll his eyes, and then suggested I was being nothing more than politically correct. It was a sad commentary then, and the use of that term remains sad to this day.
Wow, watched the video. I’ll tell ya, these FreeDumb Caucus people, such as Sen. Winter are only in it for the freedom of their tight little ilk. “Jap Camp”…..it takes a real bonehead to say such a thing in public and when you have fellow FreeDumb gang member, the one and only Madam Chairman Tim French hang his head in embarrassment during Winter’s remarks, well, that’s pretty bad. I’m sure that the distinguished State Senator from Thermopolis would like this all to be swept under the rug but Mr. Winter better hang on – the road ahead for this bonehead is going to get bumpy.
Such is the state of Wyoming. We’re being brought down and humiliated by rightwing fake christian goofballs.
If you’ve ever wondered what ‘white privilege’ sounds like, this is it. Willfully ignorant of the sufferings of others, past and present, while chuckling at his own puerile adolescence. Wyoming has no reason to be proud of its ‘freedom caucus’, which hectors anyone who dares acknowledge the modern reality we live in, while actively trying to return to a more bigoted time in our country’s history. We need to grow up and reflect a little more on what we do…yes, collectively.
Maybe a good practice for some of our esteemed politicians should be to engage the brain before opening the mouth. Oh sure, some will say that it was an unfortunate slip, but in reality it’s still how he thinks.
He owes an apology!
Mr. Winters should know better. Shame on you, sir.