WASHINGTON – National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis this week announced 10 grants totaling more than $1.4 million to help preserve and interpret the World War II confinement sites of Japanese Americans.
More than 120,000 Japanese Americans were detained, two-thirds of whom were American citizens, following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
“The confinement of Japanese Americans during World War II is a dark chapter in our nation’s history,” said Jarvis. “These grants ensure that their stories will never be forgotten.”
Projects selected include a plan to rehabilitate two historic buildings at the former Department of Justice Fort Lincoln internment camp in North Dakota; the creation of a free online training course to assist teachers in integrating the subject of the incarceration into their classrooms; and a traveling exhibit to tell the history of the Tule Lake Segregation Center in California.
The award amounts range from $29,060 for Colorado Preservation Inc., to design and fabricate new signage and podcasting tools for a driving tour of the Granada Relocation Center (Amache) in southeastern Colorado, to $300,378 for the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville to create an online three-dimensional visualization of the Rohwer Relocation Center during World War II.
The Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) Grant Program, now in its fifth year, will support projects in seven states. The latest grants total $1,402,305 and bring to more than $11 million the amount awarded since Congress established the grant program in 2006. A total of $38 million in grant funds was authorized for the life of the program.
Grants from the program may go to the 10 War Relocation Authority camps established in 1942 or to more than 40 other sites, including assembly, relocation, and isolation centers. The goal of the program is to teach present and future generations about the injustice of the World War II confinement history and inspire a commitment to equal justice under the law. Successful proposals are chosen through a competitive process that requires applicants to match the grant award with $1 in non-federal funds or “in-kind” contributions for every $2 they receive in federal money.
A list of the winning projects follows. An asterisk indicates that the grantee is from one state and includes a project site in another. For more details about these projects, visit www.nps.gov/hps/hpg/JACS/.
For further information, contact Kara Miyagishima, program manager for the JACS Grant Program, at (303) 969-2885 or kara_miyagishima@nps.gov.
• University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Ark.: $300,378
“Rohwer Reconstructed: Interpreting Place through Experience”
Rohwer Relocation Center, Desha County, Ark.
• Tule Lake Committee, Sacramento: $192,467
“Restoring the Tule Lake Segregation Center NHL Jail, Phase II”
Tule Lake Segregation Center, Modoc County, Calif.
• The California Museum, Sacramento: $103,602
“Time of Remembrance”
Multiple sites
• National Japanese American Historical Society, San Francisco: $73,675
“Tule Lake Teacher Education Project”
Tule Lake Segregation Center, Modoc County, Calif.
• Colorado Preservation Inc., Denver: $29,060
“Amache Site Interpretation”
Granada Relocation Center (Amache), Prowers County, Colo.
• The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, Missoula, Mont.: $39,730
“Fort Missoula Alien Detention Camp Interpretive Projects”
Department of Justice Fort Missoula Internment Camp, Missoula County, Mont.
• United Tribes Technical College, Bismark, N.D.: $45,100
“Fort Lincoln Preservation and Rehabilitation”
Fort Lincoln Internment Camp, Burleigh County, N.D.
• ORE-CAL Resource Conservation and Development Area Council, Klamath Falls, Ore.: $123,890
“The Art of Survival: Tule Lake 1942-1946”
Tule Lake Segregation Center, Modoc County, Calif.
• Densho, Seattle: $194,403
“Teach the Teachers – Online”
Multiple sites
• Densho, Seattle: $300,000
“Online Repository – Japanese American Collections”
Multiple sites
Total: $1,402,305