WASHINGTON — National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis announced in a U.S. Department of the Interior statement issued July 11 more than $1.3 million in grants to help preserve and interpret the sites where some 120,000 persons of Japanese descent — two-thirds of them U.S. citizens — were imprisoned during World War II.

“Our national parks tell the stories not only of American success, but of our failures such as the dark history of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II,” Jarvis said in the statement. “We make these grants so that present and future generations are reminded what happened and how the people survived these camps. And we make these grants to demonstrate our nation’s commitment to the concept of ‘equal justice under law’ that grew out of these and other civil rights experiences.”

The Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program supports projects in seven states. The grants bring funding totals to $12 million of the $38 million Congress authorized when it established the program in 2006.

Grants from the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant 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 and inspire a commitment to equal justice under the law. These are competitive grants with required matches — a dollar of non-federal funds or $2 in-kind contributions for every grant dollar.

A full list of the funded projects follows.

Alaska
Grantee: City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska
Project Title: “Empty Chair Project”
Project Site: Minidoka concentration camp, Jerome County, Idaho and Camp Lordsburg, Hidalgo County, N.M.
Amount: $80,000

Arizona
Grantee: City of Chandler, Chandler, Ariz.
Project Title: “Nozomi Park History Kiosk”
Project Site: Gila River concentration camp, Pinal County, Ariz.
Amount: $9,380

California
Grantee: The Regents of the University of California (UC Berkeley, History Department), Berkeley, Calif.
Project Title: “Japanese American Confinement in the Records of the Federal Reserve Bank”
Project Site: Multiple
Amount: $18,488

Grantee: Contra Costa Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, Contra Costa, Calif.
Project Title: “They Wore Their Best: Photographic Exhibit of the Works of Dorothea Lange and Paul Kitagaki”
Project Site: Tanforan Assembly Center, San Mateo County, Calif. and 10 War Relocation Authority sites
Amount: $67,537

Grantee: UCLA Asian American Studies Center, Los Angeles
Project Title: “Aiko and Jack Herzig Archival Collection Project”
Project Site: Multiple
Amount: $154,960

Grantee: Japanese American Citizens League, San Francisco    
Project Title: “JACL Teacher Training: Incarceration and Confinement Sites”
Project Site: Multiple
Amount: $62,845

Grantee: National Japanese American Historical Society, San Francisco
Project Title: “Camp Collection: A Digital Library”
Project Site: Multiple
Amount: $33,467

Grantee: Go For Broke National Education Center, Torrance, Calif.
Project Title: “Divergent Paths to a Convergent America: A 360 Degree Perspective of the Japanese American Response to WWII Incarceration”
Project Site: Multiple
Amount: $369,765

Hawai‘i
Grantee: Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i, Honolulu    
Project Title: “Exploring Honouliuli: A Multimedia and Virtual Tour”
Project Site: Honouliuli Internment Camp, Honolulu County, Hawai‘i
Amount: $111,557

Oregon
Grantee: Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission, Portland, Ore.
Project Title: “Farm Security Administration Documentation of Agricultural Labor Internment Camps in the Pacific Northwest”
Project Site: Nyssa, Malheur County, Ore.; Rupert, Minidoka County, Idaho; Shelley, Bingham County, Idaho; Twin Falls, Twin Falls County, Idaho
Amount: $92,386

Washington
Grantee: Nikkei Heritage Association of Washington (Japanese Cultural Center of Washington), Seattle
Project Title: “Unsettled-Resettled: Seattle’s ‘Hunt Hotel’”
Project Site: Minidoka concentration camp, Jerome County, Idaho
Amount: $102,810

Grantee: Wing Luke Memorial Foundation (Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience), Seattle, Wash.
Project Title: “Inspiring Future Generations: Journeying from Confinement Sites to Battlefields with Japanese American Soldiers”
Project Site: Multiple
Amount: $111,600

Wyoming
Grantee: Heart Mountain, Wyoming Foundation, Powell, Wyo.    
Project Title: “Heart Mountain Archives Project”
Project Site: Heart Mountain concentration camp, Park County, Wyo.
Amount: $97,279

Grantee: Heart Mountain, Wyoming Foundation, Powell, Wyo.
Project Title: “Heart Mountain Root Cellar Planning and Preservation Project”
Project Site: Heart Mountain concentration camp, Park County, Wyo.
Amount: $33,621

    Total Amount: $1,345,695

For further information: Kara Miyagishima, program manager for the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program, (303) 969-2885 or kara_miyagishima@nps.gov.