WASHINGTON – National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis announced May 12 $2.8 million in Japanese American Confinement Sites grants to fund 15 “educational programs, preservation projects, memorials, and exhibits,” a Department of Interior statement said.

The projects, which are based in five U.S. states, aim to tell the stories of the some 120,000 persons of Japanese descent, more than two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, who were imprisoned by the U.S. government following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Jarvis announced the grants at a reception for the All Camps Consortium that the Embassy of Japan hosted in Washington, D.C.

“The inclusion of sites like Honouliuli, Manzanar, Minidoka, and Tule Lake in the National Park System and the support for the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program reflect our nation’s commitment to remember and learn from this shameful episode in our past,” Jarvis said in the statement.

Congress established the grant program in 2006, authorizing $38 million in funding for the program. The May 12 announcement brings the current award total to more than $21 million.

“The grants will be used for projects that include a memorial to honor the 8,000 Japanese Americans who were imprisoned at the Tanforan Assembly Center, built on a former horse racing track in California; exhibitions about the Rohwer and Jerome camps in Arkansas; and the development of high school curriculum to teach students about the lesser-known Department of Justice camps, such as Fort Lincoln in North Dakota and Fort Stanton in New Mexico.”

The “grants may be awarded to projects associated with the 10 War Relocation Authority centers established in 1942 and the more than 40 additional confinement sites.” The program aims to teach “future generations about the injustice of the World War II” incarceration of Japanese Americans and to “inspire commitment to equal justice under the law,” the statement said.

Applicants must “match the grant award with $1 in non-federal funds or “in-kind” contributions for every $2 they receive in federal money.”

The NPS is also “preparing a theme study to inspire Americans to discover the story of America’s Asian and Pacific Island heritage and to help those seeking National Historic Landmark or National Register of Historic Places designation for historic places linked to the Asian American and Pacific Islanders experience in the United States. The theme study’s introductory chapter will be published soon,” the statement said.

For more information, visit:  www.nps.gov/JACS.

 

FY 2016 Grant Awards

ARKANSAS
Central Arkansas Library System (Little Rock, Ark.) “Exhibitions and Educational Outreach on the Confinement Camps at Rohwer and Jerome, Arkansas” — $153,699. Jerome Relocation Center, Chicot and Drew Counties, Ark.; Rohwer Relocation Center, Desha County, Ark.

CALIFORNIA
Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (San Francisco) “Developing Permanent Exhibits about Japanese Internment on Angel Island for its Pacific Coast Immigration Center” — $22,800. Angel Island, North Garrison of Fort McDowell (INS and U.S. Army), Marin County, Calif.

Go For Broke National Education Center (Los Angeles) “Communities of Compassion and Courage” — $378,937. Multiple sites.

Japanese American Citizens League, Pacific Southwest District (Los Angeles) “Bridging Communities Fellowship Program” Manzanar Relocation Center — $41,340. Inyo County, Calif.; Tuna Canyon Detention Station (INS), Los Angeles County.

Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles) “The Eaton Collection Project, Phase I” — $41,485. Multiple sites.

Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles) “Meet the Yamashitas: An Interactive Website” — $74,275. Multiple sites, including Rohwer Relocation Center, Desha County, Ark.; Fort Missoula Internment Camp (INS), Missoula County, Mont.; Santa Fe Internment Camp (INS), Santa Fe County, N.M.; and Camp Livingston (U.S. Army), Rapides Parish and Grand Parish, La.

National Japanese American Historical Society (San Francisco) “The Untold Stories: The Department of Justice Internment Teacher Education Project” — $139,605. Multiple sites, including Crystal City Internment Camp (INS), Zavala County, Texas; Fort Lincoln Internment Camp (INS), Burleigh County, N.D.; Kooskia Internment Camp (INS), Idaho County, Idaho; and Santa Fe Internment Camp (INS), Santa Fe County, N.M.

Tanforan Assembly Center Memorial Committee (Richmond, Calif.) “Tanforan Assembly Center Memorial” — $363,839. Tanforan WCCA Assembly Center, San Mateo County, Calif.

Midpeninsula Community Media Center, Inc. (Palo Alto, Calif.) “50 Objects/50 Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration” — $143,482. Multiple sites.

Valley Public Television, Inc. dba Valley PBS (Fresno, Calif.) “Silent Sacrifice: The Story of Japanese American Incarceration and Beyond in California’s San Joaquin Valley” — $373,716. Merced WCCA Assembly Center, Merced County, Calif.; Fresno WCCA Assembly Center, Fresno County, Calif.; Pinedale WCCA Assembly Center, Fresno County, Calif.; and Tulare WCCA Assembly Center, Tulare County, Calif.

IDAHO
Friends of Minidoka (Twin Falls, Idaho)
“Minidoka Legacy Memorial Interpretive Exhibit Project” — $78,000. Minidoka Relocation Center, Jerome County, Idaho.

WASHINGTON
Densho (Seattle) “Names Registry and Thesaurus of the Japanese American Experience” — $421,941. Multiple sites.
Densho (Seattle) “Saving and Preserving Confinement Sites Materials from Personal Collections” — $344,204. Multiple sites.

Wing Luke Memorial Foundation dba Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience (Seattle) “Inspiring Future Generations: Challenging the Forced Incarceration through Acts of Resistance” — $151,639. Multiple sites.

WYOMING
Heart Mountain, Wyoming Foundation  (Powell, Wyo.) “The History of the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee and Resister Movement Project” — $116,038. Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Park County, Wyo.