National Park Service Awards $3 Million For 2010 Japanese American Confinement Sites Grants

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The following is a press release from the National Park Service.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Park Service (NPS) has awarded 23 grants totaling: $2.9 million to help preserve and interpret historic locations where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II.

In the program’s second year, the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grants will help fund projects in a dozen states, including the restoration of a historic railroad depot in Arkansas that will house an exhibit about that state’s two confinement sites, and an educational outreach program to engage youth in preserving confinement sites through art, conversation, and community service.

“The Japanese American internment experience is an important chapter in American History,” said NPS Director Jon Jarvis. “The National Park Service is honored to be part of this shared effort to preserve these sites, which are a tragic reminder of a shameful episode in our past, and a compelling lesson on the fragility of our constitutional rights.”

The NPS grants range from: $17,295 to re-establish the historic Honor Roll at the Minidoka National Historic Site in Jerome County, ID (which commemorates Japanese American servicemen from that camp) to: $832,879 to build the interior of the Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center in Park County, WY. Also receiving grants are a project to develop plans to rebuild a guard tower at the Granada Relocation Center (Amache) in southeastern Colorado, the relocation and rehabilitation of a historic barrack from the Colorado River Relocation Center (Poston) in Arizona, and several oral history projects. Although the matching funds support preservation and interpretation work in 12 states, some of the projects are national in scope. These include a plan to create a reference and resource website that will hold research materials and curricula on the history of the camps.

Congress established the Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program in 2006 to preserve and interpret the places where Japanese Americans were sequestered after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The law authorizes up to: $38 million in grants for the life of the program to identify, research, evaluate, interpret, protect, restore, repair, and acquire historic confinement sites. The program aims to teach and inspire present and future generations about the injustice of the World War II confinement and demonstrate the nation’s commitment since then to equal justice under the law.

Congress appropriated: $3 million for grants in the current fiscal year. They were awarded in a competitive process, matching: $2 in federal money for every: $1 in non-federal funds and in-kind contributions raised by groups working to preserve the sites and their histories. Congress appropriated: $1 million for fiscal year 2009, the first year of the grants.

Locations eligible for the grants include the 10 War Relocation Authority camps that were set up in 1942 in seven states: Gila River and Poston, AZ; Amache, CO; Heart Mountain, WY; Jerome and Rohwer, AR; Manzanar and Tule Lake, CA; Minidoka, ID, and Topaz, UT. Also eligible are more than 40 other locations in 16 states, including civilian and military-run assembly, relocation and isolation centers.

Following are brief descriptions of the funded projects. Those marked with an asterisk (*) indicate that the applicant is from one state and the project relates to a confinement site in another.

Arizona

*Under California, see Japanese American Citizens League, Pacific Southwest District project, Passing the Legacy Down: Youth Interpretations of Confinement Sites in the Western United States.

*Also under California, see Poston Community Alliance project, Poston Preservation Project—Barrack Relocation and Rehabilitation.

Arkansas

Arkansas State University – Jonesboro, AR
Rohwer Relocation Camp Interpretive Project Rohwer Relocation Center, Desha County, AR::$100,502

McGehee Industrial Foundation – McGehee, AR
Jerome-Rohwer Visitor & Interpretation Facility Rohwer Relocation Center, Desha County, AR Jerome Relocation Center, Chicot and Drew Counties, AR: $419,967

*Under Hawaii, see the University of Hawaii, Center for Oral History project, Unspoken Memories: Oral Histories of Hawaii Internees at Jerome, Arkansas.

California

Friends of Manzanar – Independence, CA
Oral History and Research for Enhanced Interpretation and Education at Manzanar Demonstration Block 14 Manzanar Relocation Center, Inyo County, CA: $58,833

Japanese American Citizens League, Pacific Southwest District – Los Angeles, CA
Passing the Legacy Down: Youth Interpretations of Confinement Sites in the Western United States Manzanar Relocation Center, Inyo County, CA Tule Lake Relocation Center (Tule Lake Segregation Center), Modoc County, CA Colorado River Relocation Center (Poston), La Paz County, AZ Minidoka Relocation Center, Jerome County, ID: $151,790

Japanese American National Museum – Los Angeles, CA
Nisei Oral History Project Multiple sites, counties and states: $42,573

Japanese American National Museum – Los Angeles, CA
Toward Justice for All: Exhibit Planning Multiple sites, counties and states: $75,713

Poston Community Alliance – Lafayette, CA
Poston Preservation Project—Barrack Relocation and Rehabilitation Colorado River Relocation Center (Poston), La Paz, County, AZ: $31,000

*Under Oregon, see Klamath County Friends of the Library project, Breaking the Silence: The Power of Remembering, Oral Histories of Tule Lake Internees

Colorado

Colorado Preservation, Inc. – Denver, CO
Building Stock Research and Inventory Related to the Granada Relocation Center (Amache) Granada Relocation Center (Amache), Prowers County, CO: $20,093

Colorado Preservation, Inc. – Denver, CO
Water Tower Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Plan at Granada Relocation Center (Amache) Granada Relocation Center (Amache), Prowers County, CO: $37,327

National Trust for Historic Preservation – Denver, CO
Granada Relocation Center (Amache) Guard Tower Reconstruction Plan Granada Relocation Center (Amache), Prowers County, CO: $34,980

District of Colombia

National Japanese American Memorial Foundation – Washington, DC
Recruitment and Training of Volunteer Docents for National Japanese American Memorial Foundation Multiple sites, counties and states: $38,909

Hawaii

Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii – Honolulu, HI
Hawai’i Confinement Sites Educational Documentary Honouliuli Internment Camp, Honolulu County, HI Sand Island Detention Camp, Honolulu County, HI Kilauea Military Camp, Hawai’i County, HI Kalaheo Stockade, Kauai County, HI Haiku Camp, Maui County, HI: $117,626

University of Hawaii, Center for Oral History – Honolulu, HI
Unspoken Memories: Oral Histories of Hawaii Internees at Jerome, Arkansas Jerome Relocation Center, Chicot and Drew Counties, AR: $29,080

University of Hawaii, West O’ahu – Honolulu, HI
Multidisciplinary Research and Education at Honouliuli Internment Camp, Phase 2 Honouliuli Internment Camp, Honolulu County, HI: $ 98,544

Idaho

Friends of Minidoka – Twin Falls, ID
Minidoka Honor Roll Minidoka Relocation Center, Jerome County, ID: $17,295

*Under California, see Japanese American Citizens League, Pacific Southwest District project, Passing the Legacy Down: Youth Interpretations of Confinement Sites in the Western United States.

*Under Washington, see Wing Luke Memorial Foundation/Wing Luke Asian Museum project, First Person Stories Revealed: Historic Materials from Minidoka Preserved through the Higo Ten Cent Store.

Massachusetts

University of Massachusetts, Boston – Boston, MA
From Confinement to College: Video Oral Histories of Japanese American Students in World War II Multiple sites, counties and states: $68,852

Oregon

Klamath County Friends of the Library – Klamath Falls, OR
Breaking the Silence: The Power of Remembering, Oral Histories of Tule Lake Internees Tule Lake Relocation Center (Tule Lake Segregation Center), Modoc County, CA: $55,000

Texas

Friends of the Texas Historical Commission, Inc. – Austin, TX
Japanese Confinement Sites in Texas: An Untold Cultural Legacy of World War II Kenedy Internment Camp, Karnes County, TX Seagoville Internment Camp, Dallas County, TX Fort Sam Houston Internment Camp, Bexar County, TX Fort Bliss Internment Camp, El Paso County, TX: $20,167

Washington

Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial -Bainbridge Island, WA
Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial Bainbridge Island/Eagledale Ferry Dock, Kitsap County, WA: $182,725

Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project – Seattle, WA
Japanese American Confinement: Reference and Resource Website Multiple sites, counties and states: $166,145

Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project – Seattle, WA
Stories Less Told Part II: Video Oral Histories of the Japanese American Incarceration Multiple sites, counties and states: $210,000

Wing Luke Memorial Foundation/Wing Luke Asian Museum – Seattle, WA
First Person Stories Revealed: Historic Materials from Minidoka Preserved through the Higo Ten Cent Store Minidoka Relocation Center, Jerome County, ID: $100,000

Wyoming

Heart Mountain, Wyoming Foundation - Powell, WY
Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center (Interior Build-Out) Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Park County, WY: $832,879

- NPS -

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