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Inside this issue

2011: A YEAR IN REVIEW – PRESERVING AND INTERPRETING WORLD WAR II JAPANESE

 AMERICAN CONFINEMENT SITES 

•	 Background

•	 Eligible Sites and Projects

•	 Overview of the 2011 Grant Program Process

Status of Funding for the Fiscal Year 2012 Japanese American

 Confinement Sites Grant Cycle

FISCAL YEAR 2011 GRANT AWARDS

 FY2011 Project Descriptions by State

•	 Arizona

•	 Arkansas

•	 California

•	 Colorado

•	 Hawaii

•	 Idaho

•	 Illinois

•	 Minnesota

•	 New Mexico

•	 Utah

•	 Washington

•	 Wyoming

MAP OF GRANT FUNDING BY STATE

GRANT FUNDING BY CONFINEMENT SITE

PROJECTS COMPLETED DURING FISCAL YEAR 2011

•	 Bainbridge Island’s “Story Wall” Conveys Message of Nidoto Nai Yoni 

•	 “Enemy Aliens” Courtroom at Fort Missoula Restored

•	 Heart Mountain Dedicates Interpretive Learning Center

•	 Fishing Club Documentary Captures Love of Freedom at Manzanar

•	 Minidoka Civil Liberties Symposium Aims to Teach, Heal, Preserve

•	 Friends of Minidoka Reconstruct Minidoka Honor Roll

•	 Buildings at Fort Lincoln Identified as Site for Visitors’ Center

FISCAL YEAR 2012 GRANT CYCLE—APPLICATIONS NOW AVAILABLE! 

CONTACT INFORMATION
1

The National Park Service (NPS) is pleased to report on 

the progress of the Japanese American Confinement Sites 

Grant Program. The Japanese American Confinement 

Sites Grant Program was established to provide federal 

funding to preserve and interpret sites where Japanese 

Americans were confined during World War II, in order to 

teach present and future generations about the injustice 

of the confinement and inspire a commitment to equal 

justice under the law. 

Background

On December 21, 2006, President George W. Bush signed 

Public Law 109-441 (16 USC 461) – Preservation of 

Japanese American Confinement Sites – which authorized 

the NPS to create a grant program to encourage and 

support the preservation and interpretation of historic 

confinement sites where Japanese Americans were 

detained. The law authorized up to $38 million for the life 

of the grant program. 

Over the past three years, Congress has appropriated 

$7 million for the grant program – $1 million in 2009, 

$3 million in 2010, and another $3 million in 2011. Less 

than 4 percent of this appropriation is used by NPS to 

administer the program. To date, the Japanese American 

Confinement Sites Grant Program has awarded 66 

grants to private nonprofit organizations; educational 

institutions; state, local, and tribal governments; and 

other public entities. In 2009, the first year of the program, 

NPS awarded 19 grants totaling $970,000. In 2010, NPS 

awarded 23 grants totaling $2.9 million. In 2011, NPS 

awarded 24 grants totaling $2.9 million. 

The grants are made as part of a competitive process 

in which $2 of federal money matches every $1 in nonfederal funds and “in-kind” contributions. As such, these 

projects have already leveraged at least $3.4 million in 

non-federal funds. 

“The internment of Japanese Americans during World 

War II is an unfortunate part of the story of our nation’s 

journey, but it is a part that needs to be told,” said 

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar in announcing 

the 24 grants awards for 2011. “As Winston Churchill 

noted, ‘Those that fail to learn from history are doomed 

to repeat it.’ If we are to live up to the ideals expressed 

in the Constitution, we must learn not only from the 

glorious moments of our nation’s history but also from the 

inglorious moments.” 

“These places, where more than 120,000 Japanese 

Americans were unjustly held, testify to the alarming 

fragility of our constitutional rights in the face of 

prejudice and fear,” said NPS Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. 

“The National Park Service is honored to help preserve 

these sites and tell their stories, and thus prevent our 

nation from forgetting a shameful episode in its past.” 

2011: A YEAR IN REVIEW — PRESERVING AND INTERPRETING WORLD WAR II 

JAPANESE AMERICAN CONFINEMENT SITES

A visitor sits in the reflection room at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center.

Photo courtesy: Kevin J. Miyazaki

Fall 2011

National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Japanese American

Confinement Sites

Grant Program
National Park Service

2

As defined by Public Law 109-441, eligible confinement 

sites include the ten War Relocation Authority camps: 

Gila River (AZ), Granada (CO), Heart Mountain (WY), 

Jerome (AR), Manzanar (CA), Minidoka (ID), Poston (AZ), 

Rohwer (AR), Topaz (UT), and Tule Lake (CA), as well as 

other sites – including assembly, relocation, and isolation 

centers – identified in the NPS report Confinement and 

Ethnicity and as determined by the Secretary of the 

Interior, where Japanese Americans were detained during 

World War II.

Seven major categories of activities are eligible for 

Japanese American Confinement Sites grants: capital 

projects (such as construction of new interpretive centers); 

documentation (such as archeological surveys); oral 

history interviews; interpretation and education related 

to historic confinement sites (such as wayside exhibits 

or educational curricula); preservation of confinement 

sites and related historic resources (such as restoration of 

historic buildings or collections conservation); planning 

projects (such as resource management plans); and nonfederal real property acquisition (allowed only at Heart 

Mountain (WY), Honouliuli (HI), Jerome (AR), Rohwer 

(AR), and Topaz (UT), per stipulations of Public Laws 109-

441 and 111-88).

Overview of the 2011 Grant 

Program Process

For the 2011 grant program, 

postcards announcing the availability 

of grant applications and guidelines 

were mailed in early December 2010 

to a mailing list of more than 10,000 

individuals and organizations. In 

early January, the grant cycle also 

was announced through the grant 

program website, press releases, 

and other correspondence. In 

January and February, NPS held 

informational meetings in Denver, 

Honolulu, Little Rock, Los Angeles, 

San Francisco, and Seattle to meet 

with interested grant applicants and 

address questions about the grant 

program and application process.

By the application deadline of March 1, 2011, the 

NPS received 43 applications, requesting nearly $7.2 

million in federal funds. During the week of March 14, 

2011, the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant 

Program selection panel convened to evaluate the grant 

proposals. The panel was composed of NPS staff from 

the Intermountain, Midwest, and Pacific West Regions. 

Appointed by NPS Regional Directors, the six panel 

members represented a variety of backgrounds and 

disciplines, including expertise in architecture, history, 

curation, and interpretation. As was the case for the 

previous review panels, the 2011 selection panel also 

included one panelist whose family members had been 

interned in one of the War Relocation Authority camps. 

The panel members met at the NPS Intermountain 

Regional Office in Lakewood, Colorado, to review all 

eligible applications. The panel evaluated and ranked 

each proposal using criteria and guidelines that were 

established based on public input. 

The panel recommended 24 proposals to receive funding. 

These recommendations were forwarded to the Secretary 

of the Interior, who announced the awards on June 23, 

2011. 

Eligible Sites and Projects

Exhibit at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center.

Photo courtesy: Kevin J. Miyazaki
Public Law 109-441 - Preservation of Japanese American World War II Confinement Sites

3

Status of Funding for the

Fiscal Year 2012 Japanese

American Confinement Sites

Grant Cycle

As a Federal agency, the NPS fiscal year begins 

on October 1 and ends on September 30 each 

year. At the time of this publication, Congress 

has not yet passed the government’s formal 

operating budget, known as an appropriations 

bill, for Fiscal Year 2012. 

In order to ensure that NPS has the 

administrative ability to successfully award 

Japanese American Confinement Sites grants 

in 2012, the grant program will operate on the 

following schedule: grant applications will be 

available on September 1, 2011; applications will 

be due on November 1, 2011; and grants will 

be awarded when funds are appropriated by 

Congress. As we receive updated information 

about funds available for the 2012 cycle, we will 

post it on the Japanese American Confinement 

Sites Grant Program website: http://www.nps.

gov/history/hps/hpg/JACS/index.html

In 2012, the grant program will 

operate on the following schedule:

• Grant applications will be 

available on September 1, 2011; 

• applications will be due on 

November 1, 2011; 

• and grants will be awarded 

when funds are appropriated 

by Congress.

Fumiko Hayashida,

holds her 13-monthold daughter Natalie

Kayo, as they wait

to be taken off

Bainbridge Island

by armed military

escorts on March 30,

1942. Photo was

taken by a Seattle 

Post–Intelligencer

photographer.

Photo courtesy:

Post-Intelligencer

Collection, Museum

of History & Industry

Fumiko Hayashida

(100 years old), left,

and her daughter

Natalie Ong, at

the dedication

ceremony for the

Bainbridge Island

Japanese American

Exclusion Memorial

on August 6, 2011.

Photo courtesy:

Larry Steagall,

Kitsap Sun, 

Bremerton, Wash.

Used by permission.
In 2011 – the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program’s third year – 24 awards provided $2.9 million 

to projects that involved 12 states. A list of the winning projects follows. When a project is marked with an 

asterisk (*), the applicant is from one state and the confinement site associated with the project is in another.

FY2011 Project Descriptions by State

ARIZONA

Recipient: Arizona State University

Project Title: Japanese American Internment in Arizona Oral History Website Project

Grant Award: $18,635

Site(s): Gila River Relocation Center, Pinal County, AZ

 Colorado River Relocation Center (Poston), La Paz County, AZ

Description: Arizona State University has conducted more than 100 oral history interviews with Japanese Americans 

interned at the Gila River and Poston camps and the surrounding communities. However, parts of 

only 23 interviews currently are online to supplement a K-12 curriculum developed by local teachers. 

Through this project, the Asian Pacific American Studies Program at Arizona State will process, edit, 

transcribe and post the remaining 85 interviews online, as well as incorporate the existing website into a 

new platform. 

*Under California, see the Poston Community 

Alliance project, “Poston’s Mothers and Babies: A 

Film on Domestic Life in Camp.” 

ARKANSAS

Recipient: Central Arkansas Library System

Project Title: Rosalie Gould Rohwer Collection: 

 Preservation

Grant Award: $67,821

Site(s): Rohwer Relocation Center, 

 Desha County, AR

Description: In 2010, the Central Arkansas Library 

System obtained the Gould-Vogel 

collection, comprising 22 boxes of 

documents depicting everyday life at 

Rohwer Relocation Camp, as well as 

306 pieces of art produced by internees 

who attended the camp high school, where they studied with art teacher Mabel “Jamie” Jamison Vogel. 

In her will, Vogel left the collection to Rosalie Gould of the nearby town of McGehee, who became a 

champion for preserving Rohwer and its story. Project funding will be used to clean, mend, and frame 

the artwork, which will be featured in an exhibit and on a website of the Central Arkansas Library. 

Recipient: University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Project Title: The Rohwer Relocation Camp Cemetery Preservation Project

Grant Award: $250,000

National Park Service

4

FISCAL YEAR 2011 GRANT AWARDS

Hand carved and painted bird by internee at the

Rohwer Relocation Center; artist unknown.

Photo courtesy: Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Little Rock
Site(s): Rohwer Relocation Center, Desha County, AR

Description: The Rohwer Relocation Camp Cemetery 

includes markers and monuments constructed 

by the Japanese American internees. The 

cemetery is in poor condition from weathering, 

neglect, and vandalism. Through this project, 

the University of Arkansas at Little Rock 

will stabilize and restore the headstones, 

flower holders and monuments, including the 

Monument to the Rohwer Dead. Overgrowth 

and untrimmed trees will be addressed. The 

project also will result in a Historic American 

Landscapes Survey and report to guide 

landscape restoration. 

Recipient: Arkansas State University

Project Title: Rohwer Relocation Center Interpretive 

 Project, PHASE II

Grant Award: $93,155

Site(s): Rohwer Relocation Center, Desha County, AR

Description: Through this project, the Arkansas Heritage Sites Program at Arkansas State University will build 

on work begun in 2010 to develop a plan and install interpretive elements at Rohwer. A brochure, 

educational kiosk and interpretive panels funded in the first phase will be augmented in phase two by 

additional kiosks, panels and directional signage. An audio tour also will be recorded to guide visitors 

to key components of the camp, including the cemetery and brick smokestack. 

CALIFORNIA

Recipient: KEET-TV

Project Title: J.A. Jive 

Grant Award: $96,465

Site(s): Multiple

Description: Nisei organized jazz bands at 13 assembly centers and relocation camps, which offered escape and 

therapy during the internment. Through this project, public television station KEET will produce an 

hour-long documentary to tell the story of the bands and the people who played and sang in them. 

KEET-TV will broadcast the documentary and offer it to other PBS stations nationwide, and make 

DVDs available to schools, libraries and the public.

Recipient: Japanese American Museum of San Jose (JAMsj)

Project Title: WWII Internment: Lessons from the Past for the Future

Grant Award: $132,900

Site(s): Multiple

Description: The Japanese American Museum of San Jose has the region’s largest collection of artifacts and 

documentation on the internment of Japanese Americans. Through this project, the museum will 

redesign exhibits using state-of-the-art technology and interactive materials that will appeal to its large 

clientele of students. The project will begin with focus groups and surveys, which will help determine 

the best ways to present the material, which will highlight 11 confinement sites. 

Public Law 109-441 - Preservation of Japanese American World War II Confinement Sites

5

Headstones at the Rohwer Relocation Center

cemetery. Photo courtesy: The Bancroft Library,

University of California, Berkeley.
Recipient: LTSC Community Development Corporation

Project Title: Stone Ishimaru’s War Relocation Authority Camp Images Archive

Grant Award: $179,156

Site(s): Multiple

Description: Stone Ishimaru, a former internee 

and camp photographer, has a 

collection of approximately 5,000 

black-and-white negatives from all 

10 relocation centers. He is donating 

his collection for one year to the 

Little Tokyo Service Center so that, 

through this project, the negatives 

can be preserved, converted to digital 

images, archived, and entered into a 

database. A website will be created to 

provide public access to the digitized 

library. 

Recipient: Poston Community Alliance

Project Title: Poston’s Mothers and Babies: 

 A Film on Domestic Life in Camp

Grant Award: $61,880

Site(s): Colorado River Relocation Center 

(Poston), La Paz County, AZ

Description: The story of how mothers were able to raise their children in internment camps is a little-told story. 

Through this project, the Poston Community Alliance will produce a 20- to 30-minute documentary 

film. For material, the Alliance will examine archival documents, including hospital records and 

historic footage. The film will highlight interviews with women who were mothers in camp, as well as 

people born there. 

Recipient: National Japanese American Historical Society

Project Title: Historic Inquiry and Place-based Learning in Japanese American Confinement Sites

Grant Award: $85,200

Site(s): Tule Lake Relocation Center, Modoc County, CA

Manzanar Relocation Center, Inyo County, CA

Bainbridge Island/Eagledale Ferry Dock, Kitsap County, WA

Topaz Relocation Center, Millard County, UT

Tanforan Assembly Center, San Mateo County, CA

Sacramento Assembly Center, Sacramento County, CA 

Description: Through this project, the National Japanese American Historical Society will help secondary school 

teachers develop classroom programs about the internment. A curriculum will be designed and 

teachers will attend a four-day in-service institute, and participate in on-site, place-based learning 

activities at internment sites. Teachers also will attend follow-up workshops and host training 

workshops at their home schools. 

National Park Service

6

Sgt. Kazuo Komoto shows his Purple Heart medal to his younger brother,

while visiting his family at the Gila River Relocation Center in Arizona.

Photo courtesy: The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Recipient: CyArk

Project Title: Digital Documentation and Virtual Tour of Japanese American Confinement Sites 

Grant Award: $240,611

Site(s): Topaz Relocation Center, Millard County, UT

Tule Lake Relocation Center, Siskiyou County, CA

Manzanar National Historic Site, Inyo County, CA

Description: Using the latest digital and 3D 

technology, CyArk will document 

three relocation centers: Topaz, Tule 

Lake and Manzanar. CyArk will 

employ laser scanning and highdefinition photography to reconstruct 

the sites and present them in 3D on a 

web portal. Oral histories and historic 

images will be geo-located, resulting 

in photos, videos, and visualizations 

placed on a base map and made 

available on a website. Other 

products include an interactive kiosk 

and mobile applications. 

Recipient: The Regents of the University 

 of California c/o UC Berkeley 

 Sponsored Projects

Project Title: The Japanese American 

 Internment/World War II American 

 Homefront Oral History Project

Grant Award: $50,000

Site(s): Multiple

Description: Through this project, the Bancroft Library at the University of California-Berkeley will conduct 40 

hours of video interviews with about 20 former Japanese American internees. Themes to be explored 

include the actual internment experience, and how Japanese Americans viewed the racial strife in cities 

such as Oakland and Richmond following their return. All interviews will be transcribed and made 

available on the university’s website. 

Recipient: The Regents of the University of California c/o UC Berkeley Sponsored 

 Projects

Project Title: The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement: A Digital Archive

Grant Award: $220,493

Site(s): Multiple

Description: The Bancroft Library at the University of California-Berkeley has extensive manuscript and archival 

collections of the internment. Through this project, the library will complete the first phase of a six-year 

project to create a digital archive of its holdings. It will scan 99,000 images in its Japanese American 

Evacuation and Resettlement Study Records, and tie the images to a finding aid. A website will allow 

textual searches, GIS mapping, and interactive map searches. 

Public Law 109-441 - Preservation of Japanese American World War II Confinement Sites

7

A grandfather holds his grandson at the Manzanar Relocation Center

in California. Photo courtesy: The Bancroft Library, University of

California, Berkeley
Recipient: Manzanar Committee Inc.

Project Title: “We Said, No-No”

Grant Award: $113,000

Site(s): Tule Lake Segregation Center, Siskiyou County, CA

Description: Through this project, the Manzanar Committee will create a documentary film, produced and directed 

by Brian Tadashi Maeda. Entitled We Said, “No-No,” the film will incorporate more than two dozen 

oral histories with Tule Lake internees, as well as the work of an ACLU lawyer and Nisei lawyer who 

fought to restore the citizenship of some 5,000 Japanese Americans. The oral histories will be digitally 

archived, and the film delivered on DVDs to numerous organizations. 

COLORADO

Recipient: Colorado Preservation, Inc. 

Project Title: Amache Water Tank Restoration, Water Tower 

Restoration, and Guard Tower Reconstruction

Grant Award: $291,025

Site(s): Granada Relocation Center (Amache), Prowers County, 

CO

 Description: Through this project, Colorado Preservation, Inc., will 

hire an architect, engineer, contractor, and archeologist 

to restore a historic water tower and reconstruct a guard 

tower at Amache. The water tower, once moved off site, 

will be restored at its original location. Funding also 

will be used to fabricate and install interpretive panels. 

An archeological survey will be conducted prior to the 

restoration and reconstruction phases of the project.

HAWAII

Recipient: Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii

Project Title: Honouliuli Confinement Site 

Educational Tours Program

Grant Award: $38,565

Site(s): Honouliuli Internment Camp, Honolulu County, HI

Description: The Honouliuli Relocation Center is on land now owned 

by the Monsanto Company and access to the site is 

restricted. Through this project, and with Monsanto’s 

cooperation, the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai’i will inaugurate a pilot program to conduct six 

tours of 100 people each, including a pre-tour orientation. The project includes tour guide training and 

the development of a tour brochure.

National Park Service

8

Historic photo of the Amache water tower.

Photo courtesy: Hideo Takeuchi Collection
IDAHO

Recipient: University of Idaho

Project Title: Kooskia Internment Camp Archaeological Project (KICAP)

Grant Award: $6,176

Site(s): Kooskia Internment Camp, Idaho County, ID

Description: The University of Idaho will use the project funding to complete the cataloging and interpretation of 

artifacts recovered at Kooskia during the 2010 archeological field project. The artifacts, such as gaming 

pieces made of locally quarried pebbles and stone, will be displayed during special events, and the 

findings made available on the university’s website. 

Recipient: Friends of Minidoka

Project Title: Civil Liberties Symposium: Patriotism, Honor, and Sacrifice

Grant Award: $20,000

Site(s): Minidoka National Historic Site, Jerome County, ID

Description: This project, which was completed in July, helped fund the 6th annual Minidoka Civil Liberties 

Symposium: “Patriotism, Honor, and Sacrifice.” See: “Completed Projects” section of this newsletter for 

more information. 

ILLINOIS

Recipient: Chicago Japanese American Historical Society

Project Title: Conservation of the Chicago Japanese American Historical Society Archival Materials

Grant Award: $5,000

Site(s): Multiple

Description: The historical society’s collection 

includes items from Japanese Americans 

in Chicago in the 1930s, from the 

internment camps of World War II, and 

during resettlement in the Chicago area 

after the war. This project will fund the 

purchase of archival-safe material to 

help preserve that collection. To help 

complete the work, the society will hire 

two interns. 

MINNESOTA

Recipient: Asian Media Access, Inc.

Project Title: The Registry (A documentary film 

about the Military Intelligence 

Service Language School in Minnesota)

Grant Award: $75,000

Site(s): Multiple 

Description: Many Japanese Americans who were held in the camps also served in the nation’s Military Intelligence 

Service as interrogators, interpreters, and linguists. This project will result in an hour-long 

Public Law 109-441 - Preservation of Japanese American World War II Confinement Sites

9

Fumi Onodera points to the names of her family members serving in

the U.S. Army from the Minidoka Relocation Center, October 1943.

Photo: The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
documentary film for public television, titled The Registry, which will feature some of the men who 

attended the Military Intelligence Service school in Minnesota. The producer/director is Bill Kubota; 

the co-producer/photographer is Steven Ozone. Materials collected for the film will be given to the 

Minnesota Historical Society. 

NEW MEXICO

Recipient: Japanese American Citizens League, New Mexico Chapter 

Project Title: New Mexico Japanese American Internment Sites History, Interpretation, and Education Project

Grant Award: $54,077

Site(s): Camp Lordsburg, NM

Fort Stanton, NM

Santa Fe, NM

Description: The Japanese American 

Citizens League is 

beginning a multifaceted project to 

enhance understanding 

of internment camps 

in New Mexico. This 

project will result in 

a travelling exhibit, a 

website on the history of 

the New Mexico camps, 

interpretive markers for 

the Camp Lordsburg 

and Fort Stanton sites, 

and a public outreach 

brochure. In this phase, 

the project team will 

conduct research, hold interviews, develop content, and determine locations and scheduling. 

UTAH

*Under California, see the CyArk project, “Digital Documentation and Virtual Tour of Japanese American Confinement 

Sites,” which includes Topaz Relocation Center.

WASHINGTON

Recipient: Densho

Project Title: Digital Archive System for Community Organizations

Grant Award: $262,980

Site(s): Multiple

Description: Densho is designing and creating an Internet-accessible digital repository for organizations to post 

their collections related to all 10 Japanese American relocation centers. Through this project, and in 

partnership with four organizations adding new material, the Densho repository will grow to more than 

50,000 objects. The partnering groups are: Japanese American Museum of San Jose, Heart Mountain 

Wyoming Foundation, Oregon Nikkei Endowment and the Japanese Cultural and Community Center 

of Hawaii.

National Park Service

10

Santa Fe Internment Camp

Photo courtesy: ManyMountains.org
Recipient: Densho

Project Title: Teach the Teachers

Grant Award: $281,733

Site(s): Multiple

Description: Through this project, Densho will create a curriculum on the incarceration of Japanese Americans. The 

curriculum, designed for upper elementary through high school, will be placed on disc in a “Teacher 

Resource Package” that will be distributed to thousands of teachers. Densho will test the materials 

and conduct workshops for 600 teachers in states where relocation centers were situated. In addition, 

Densho will create an online learning community where a specialist will be available to help teachers 

use resources and connect current events to the curriculum. 

Recipient: Washington State University

Project Title: Digitizing and Preserving the George and Frank Hirahara Photograph Collection

Grant Award: $49,217

Site(s): Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Park County, WY

Description: In 2010, Patti Hirahara donated to Washington State University a collection of artifacts, film, prints, and 

950 photographs taken at Heart Mountain Relocation Center by her father and grandfather. Through 

this project, the university will process the collection and create a finding aid. Negatives will be 

cleaned and stored, and an online exhibit will include the broader context of confinement history. The 

university also will design five new undergraduate courses based on the Hirahara collection. 

WYOMING

Recipient: Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources, State 

Historic Preservation Office

Project Title: Restoration of the Heart Mountain Boiler House 

Chimney

Grant Award: $215,911

Site(s): Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Park County, WY

Description: The 75-foot-high chimney of the Heart Mountain boiler 

house is a landmark feature of the relocation center but, 

due to deterioration, is more than 18 inches out of plumb. 

This project will result in the restoration of the chimney. 

The project team will assess the damage to the masonry, 

test the brick and footings, and complete a geotechnical 

investigation. Based on those results, the team will then 

stabilize and restore the chimney. An interpretive panel and 

brochure also will be developed. 

*Under Washington, see the Washington State University project, 

“Digitizing and Preserving the George and Frank Hirahara Photograph 

Collection,” which involves Heart Mountain Relocation Center.

Public Law 109-441 - Preservation of Japanese American World War II Confinement Sites

11

Heart Mountain boiler house chimney.

Photo courtesy: NPS
National Park Service

GRANT FUNDING BY STATE

This map shows total (2009-2011) Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program funding by the states where the grantees are located. Also shown (with red symbols) are the Japanese American confinement sites that are the specific focus of those grant funds. In some cases, the grantee is in a different state than that of the confinement site. For example, Poston Community Alliance, which 

is in California, received funding for a film about domestic life at the Colorado River Relocation Center (Poston) in Arizona. In addition, some projects generally benefit all confinement sites and/or interpret the overall Japanese American internment experience. While this map shows the location of those grantees, it does not show every confinement site that benefits from those general projects.

12
Public Law 109-441 - Preservation of Japanese American World War II Confinement Sites

13

This graph shows total (2009-2011) Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program funding by confinement site. Listed is each site that is the focus of a grant project. The last bar in the graph shows 

funding for general projects that benefit multiple sites – four or more – and/or interpret the overall Japanese American internment experience. 

GRANT FUNDING BY SITE
During the last year, seven projects that received 

Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant funding 

were completed. (Four projects were completed in 2010.) 

Following is an overview of the seven Fiscal Year 2011 

project success stories, all of which reflect the dedicated 

commitment and hard work of numerous groups to 

preserve, interpret and memorialize the history of the 

Japanese American internment during World War II. 

Bainbridge Island’s “Story Wall” Conveys 

Message of Nidoto Nai Yoni

On the eve of World War II, Bainbridge Island counted 

only 3,500 people and 65 square miles, with the mainland 

reached only by ferry. Geography helped create the strong 

sense of community on the island, where many families 

worked the berry farms and sent their kids to the island’s 

one high school. 

“The school kids were especially close,” recalled Frank 

Kitamoto of the time when, on March 30, 1942, soldiers 

came in trucks and took the island’s Japanese American 

families down to the Eagledale Ferry Dock. In that group 

were high school students Sada Omoto, who was senior 

class president, basketball stars Jerry Nakata and Mitsu 

Katayama, and Harry Koba of the football team. When 

Earl Hanson, the son of Norwegian immigrants, tried to 

get down to the pier to say goodbye to his classmates, he 

was pushed back by soldiers. 

“You’re taking away some of our best friends,” Hanson 

cried out, his feelings reflected later by 13 chairs left empty 

on graduation day at Bainbridge Island High School. 

That community sentiment still echoes on Bainbridge 

Island, which has embraced efforts to memorialize the 

banishment of the island’s Japanese American residents by 

conveying a simple message: Nidoto Nai Yoni – Let it not 

happen again. 

“The message so resonates with the community,” 

said Sallie Maron, president of the Bainbridge Island 

Japanese American Exclusion Memorial. The memorial’s 

gently curving “Story Wall,” completed in 2009, now 

displays interpretive panels and five terra cotta friezes 

financed with the help of a $182,000 Japanese American 

Confinement Sites grant. The friezes, created by Seattle 

artist Steve Gardner, include a “Pioneer Panel” that 

depicts a Japanese American 

farmer with rows of crops in the 

background, and an “American 

Life” panel that shows a baseball 

player with Bainbridge written 

across his uniform. 

The memorial project received 

support from a host of local, 

state, and federal agencies, 

as well as from hundreds of 

individuals who have donated 

time and/or money. “Across 

the board,” Maron said, the 

community has embraced the 

memorial and the “remarkable 

story” not only of camp 

survivors, but of the people who 

welcomed them home after the 

war.

PROJECTS COMPLETED DURING FISCAL YEAR 2011

Visitors observe one of the terra cotta panels designed by artist Steve Gardner for the Japanese

American Exclusion Memorial. Photo courtesy: Meegan M. Reid, Kitsap Sun, Bremerton, Wash.

Used by permission

National Park Service

14
Public Law 109-441 - Preservation of Japanese American World War II Confinement Sites

15

A $50,000 Japanese American Confinement Sites 

grant has helped restore the courtroom at Fort 

Missoula, Montana, that was the site of “Enemy 

Alien” hearings during World War II. The 

courtroom, now restored to its 1942 appearance 

by the Historical Museum of Fort Missoula, was 

dedicated on September 24 during the Montana 

History Conference – entitled “No Ordinary Time: 

War, Resistance and the Montana Experience” – 

which was co-sponsored by the Museum and the 

Montana Historical Society.

Over 1,000 Japanese men – all of whom were U.S. 

residents prevented by law from becoming American 

citizens – were detained at Fort Missoula and subjected to 

loyalty hearings. These men, most of whom were at least 

60 years old at the time, included some of America’s most 

successful Japanese residents. In an interview posted on 

the Museum website, Carol Van Valkenburg, author of 

An Alien Place: The Fort Missoula, Montana, Detention 

Camp 1941-44, observes that it was their success that made 

these men the target of investigation. These men were 

“particularly accomplished in all sorts of areas of their 

lives,” she says. “The government believed that because 

they were so influential that, should there be any kind of 

sabotage, these men would be able to influence the rest 

of the Japanese community to commit acts of sabotage.” 

Although Japanese nationals were investigated at Fort 

Missoula and other camps during World War II, none was 

ever charged with any act of disloyalty. 

The courtroom restoration is part of a $350,000 project to 

restore the entire T-1 Post Headquarters. Museum 

development director Diane Sands reports that her 

organization has raised nearly a quarter million 

dollars for the project. Besides the NPS grant, 

the Museum received funding from the National 

Trust for Historic Preservation, the Friends of the 

Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, and $150,000 

from the State of Montana. 

Approximately 1,200 non-military Italian men, 23 

German resident aliens, 1,000 Japanese American 

resident aliens, and 123 Japanese Latin and South 

Americans were detained at Fort Missoula. Many of 

the buildings associated with the internment are still 

standing, says Bob Brown, the Museum’s executive 

director. An exhibit on the internment is housed in a 

restored barrack. “The interpretation of this period 

in American history is vital,’ says Brown. “It’s a story 

that needs to be told, we need to remember it, and we 

need to learn from it.”

Restored courtroom. Photo courtesy: Historical Museum of Fort Missoula

T-1 Post Headquarters of the former Department of Justice Fort

Missoula Internment Camp. Photo courtesy: Tom Bauer,

The Missoulian, Missoula, Montana. Used by permission

“Enemy Aliens” Courtroom at Fort Missoula Restored
National Park Service

16

After years of planning and fundraising, 

the Heart Mountain Wyoming 

Foundation dedicated its new 

Interpretive Learning Center during 

a three-day celebration in August. 

Festivities included tours of the museum, 

prominent speakers, and a hike up 8,000-

foot Heart Mountain, which overlooks 

the sagebrush basin where Japanese 

Americans were interned during World 

War II.

The 11,000-square-foot interpretive 

center was completed with the help of 

nearly $1.2 million from the Japanese 

American Confinement Sites Grant 

Program. In 2009, in what was the 

largest grant conferred that year, 

the program awarded $292,253 

to the Heart Mountain Wyoming 

Foundation to build the exterior 

shell of the center, which replicates the barracks that once 

housed internees. In 2010, in what again was the largest 

grant conferred, the program awarded $832,879 to the 

Foundation to complete the project, including interior 

construction and the remaining exterior infrastructure. 

The Interpretive Learning Center is the culmination 

of a 15-year effort to preserve and interpret the historic 

site. Founded in 1996, the Heart Mountain Wyoming 

Foundation has raised nearly $5 million through private 

donations, largely contributed by former Heart Mountain 

internees. “The Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning 

Center and surrounding site will stand as a powerful 

reminder of the need to balance concern for national 

security with respect for civil rights,” said Shirley Ann 

Higuchi, chair of the Foundation. “The new Interpretive 

Learning Center has essential lessons for us all – young 

and old alike – and is of immeasurable importance to the 

neighboring communities of Powell and Cody, the state 

of Wyoming and the nation,” added Pete Simpson, 

Foundation board member.

Exhibits in the new center were designed by 

Minnesota-based Split Rock Studios, together with 

the Foundation’s program committee. The exhibit 

carries visitors from the pre-war lives of Japanese 

Americans through their forced confinement at 

Heart Mountain and into the challenges of post-war 

readjustment. Among exhibit highlights: a theater for 

showing Steven Okazaki’s film All We Could Carry; a 

model of the Heart Mountain camp with interactive 

touch screens; two recreated barrack rooms – one 

sparse, the other made more homey by internees; and 

a Reflection Room as the last stop. “We anticipate that 

the visit will engage both the minds and the hearts of 

our visitors,” Higuchi said. 

Overview of the Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center and

reconstructed guard tower. Photo courtesy: Heart Mountain, Wyoming

Foundation

Exhibits at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center.

Photo courtesy: Kevin J. Miyazaki

Heart Mountain Dedicates Interpretive Learning Center
Public Law 109-441 - Preservation of Japanese American World War II Confinement Sites

17

There’s more to making a 

documentary film than “lights, 

camera, action.” For the Manzanar 

Committee, a $49,400 grant from the 

Japanese American Confinement 

Sites Grant Program was the boost 

necessary to complete a project that 

started in 2004. With the added 

help of donated services and funds, 

T-shirt sales, a dinner/dance, and a 

$22,000 grant from the California 

Civil Liberties Public Education 

Program, Cory Shiozaki’s film, The 

Manzanar Fishing Club (From Barbed 

Wire To Barbed Hooks), has become a 

reality. 

The full-length documentary tells 

a story of freedom that played 

out during the confinement of Japanese Americans at 

Manzanar War Relocation Center in the Owens Valley of 

California. Using archival photographs and video-taped 

oral interviews, as well as short re-enactments and onsite 

shooting in the Eastern Sierras, Shiozaki unveils the story 

of internees who used the cover of night to crawl under 

Manzanar’s barbed wire fence with one goal in mind: to 

go trout fishing in the valley’s tree-lined streams or high in 

the Sierra’s alpine lakes. 

“Security was high during the first 18 months, so they 

would time their escape as the search lights were panning 

right to left,” Shiozaki told the Los Angeles Times in April 

2009. Shiozaki, a resident of Gardena, California, and an 

avid fisherman, is a third-generation Japanese American 

whose parents were among the 120,000 Japanese 

Americans interned in relocation camps during World 

War II. “My mother and father always were reluctant 

to discuss such a painful chapter in their lives, and I 

vowed that someday I would make a film about the 

internment as a reminder that something like this must 

never happen again,” Shiozaki said. 

“This story, as unique as it was to Manzanar, is 

symbolic of the struggle of all of the former prisoners 

to find some semblance of dignity and freedom under 

horribly adverse conditions,” Manzanar Committee 

Co-Chair Bruce Embrey told committee blogger 

Gann Matsuda. Because fishing is such a universal 

theme – a slice of life long enjoyed by free people – the 

film has the ability to connect on an emotional level 

with all Americans and thus further understanding 

of the internees’ longing to be free. As one fisherman 

at Manzanar put it: “The air just tasted better” on the 

other side of the fence. 

The Manzanar Fishing Club screens segments of their upcoming

film at the Long Beach Convention Center at the Fred Hall

Fishing Show. Photo courtesy: Manzanar Fishing Club

Fishing Club Documentary Captures Love of Freedom at Manzanar

Manzanar

internee

Tadao Kobata

fishing at the

Williamson

Basin behind

Mt. Williamson,

part of the

Sierra Nevada

mountain range

in Inyo County,

California.

Photo by Amos

Hashimoto,

courtesy

of Danny

Hashimoto
National Park Service

18

Ask Hanako Wakatsuki why the 

annual Minidoka Civil Liberties 

Symposium – sponsored by 

Friends of Minidoka, the College 

of Southern Idaho, and Minidoka 

National Historic Site – is important 

and she’ll tell you about the day a 

professor asked her about Minidoka 

and she didn’t know what he was 

talking about. “I had to go and 

Google it,” she says of the World 

War II relocation center in southcentral Idaho. “I didn’t learn about 

it,” she recalls, even though she grew 

up in Idaho and attended Idaho 

public schools. 

As chair of the non-profit Friends 

of Minidoka, Wakatsuki now helps 

plan the symposium. For the past six 

years, the symposium has been held in 

conjunction with the annual Minidoka 

Pilgrimage. This year’s pilgrimage began on June 30 in 

Seattle and Portland and ended on July 3 at Minidoka. 

The 2011 symposium, financed with the help of a $20,000 

Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant, was titled 

“Civil Liberties and War: Patriotism, Honor & Sacrifice.” 

Nearly 300 people attended the symposium held June 

30-July 1 at the College of Southern Idaho. “Hanako’s 

experience soon will be a thing of the past,” Robert Sims, 

emeritus professor of history at Boise State University, 

said of the lack of teaching materials on the internment 

when Wakatsuki was a schoolgirl. “There’s been a lot 

of progress.” Sims opened the 2011 symposium with a 

presentation on the military contributions of Japanese 

Americans in World War II. Another guest speaker was 

David Adler of Idaho State University, who specializes in 

constitutional law. Also presenting was Larry Matsuda, 

who was born in Minidoka and who read from his poetry 

collection, A Cold Wind in Idaho. J. Todd Moye of the 

University of North Texas compared the experience of 

Minidoka’s World War II veterans with the Tuskegee 

Airmen. Attendees also examined two films and a play, 

The Betrayed, presented by the Grateful Crane Ensemble. 

Following the symposium, a caravan of buses and cars 

traveled the remaining 20 miles of the pilgrimage to 

Minidoka – or the Hunt Camp, as locals call it – where 

nearly 9,500 Japanese Americans were interned from 

August 1942 to October 1945. 

“It’s important history and very emotional,” said Russ 

Tremayne, associate professor of history at the College 

of Southern Idaho. Tremayne, who has been involved in 

planning the symposium since its beginning, emphasized 

its role in “trying to remedy what was left out of the 

history books.” 

After the Grateful Crane Ensemble’s performance of their play The Betrayed, performers

addressed questions from the audience. Left to right, Soji Kashiwagi, Mary Gruenewald,

and Hiroshi Kashiwagi. Photo courtesy: Minidoka Pilgrimage Committee

Minidoka Civil Liberties Symposium Aims to Teach, Heal, Preserve

Frank Abe showed his documentary, Conscience and the Constitution,

at the 2011 Civil Liberties Symposium. Photo courtesy: Minidoka

Pilgrimage Committee
Public Law 109-441 - Preservation of Japanese American World War II Confinement Sites

19

On March 13, 1943, the four 

Sakura brothers graced page one of 

Minidoka’s camp newspaper, The 

Irrigator. The brothers – Ken, Chet, 

Ted and Howard – had volunteered, 

all within days of one another, for 

service in the army. A few weeks 

before, the three Onodera brothers 

did the same and, by the end of 

March, more than 300 men signed up. 

Minidoka families, proud of their 

soldier sons (and a few military 

daughters), built an honor roll with 

the names of the soldiers listed in handpainted rows. At the top was an eagle, its 

wings spread. In a photograph published in 

The Irrigator in October 1943, Fumi Onodera, the 20-yearold sister of the three Onodera boys, stood in front of the 

honor roll, pointing to the names of her brothers Ko, Kaun 

and Satoru, who became part of the highly decorated, 

all-Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team, 

which fought in France and Italy, where Satoru Onodera 

lost his life in 1944 (see photo, page 9). 

Now, the honor roll has been reconstructed by the Friends 

of Minidoka, with the help of a $17,295 grant from the 

Japanese American Confinement 

Sites Grant Program. The honor roll 

was dedicated on July 3, during the 

annual Minidoka Pilgrimage.

But first came a bit of detective work, 

among them determining the exact 

dimensions of the original honor 

roll. Bill Vaughn of the Friends of 

Minidoka, who donated his time to 

the project, sized historic building 

materials, while park volunteer 

Tim Clark researched the height of 

young Japanese women in the 1940s, 

finding the average female was about 

5-foot-1. By applying that data to 

the photograph of Fumi Onodera 

standing in front of the honor roll, 

the scale came into focus. “We sat 

back and grinned,” Vaughn said of 

the day he compared his notes to 

Clark’s. Using different methods, the 

two had figured the honor roll’s dimensions “within half 

an inch” of each another. 

The honor roll’s location at the entrance to the former 

internment camp creates a powerful interpretive feature. 

“Literally, the first thing in your face was this honor roll,” 

said Anna Tamura, NPS landscape architect. “It was 

a profound statement. Yes, we are patriotic. We have a 

thousand men in the military. We have an eagle. Despite 

being incarcerated and our rights being taken away, we are 

still patriotic to the United States.” 

Friends of Minidoka Reconstruct Minidoka Honor Roll

Reconstructed honor roll near the entrance of the Minidoka National Historic Site.

Photo courtesy: Friends of Minidoka

Participants at the celebration gather around the newly reconstructed Honor Roll.

Photo courtesy: Friends of Minidoka
20

National Park Service

North Dakota may 

be better known for 

its harsh winters and 

American Indian 

heritage than for 

the internment of 

“Enemy Aliens” 

during World War 

II. Yet a portion 

of Fort Lincoln in 

Bismarck was used 

to incarcerate an 

estimated 1,800 

Japanese Americans 

and 1,500 Germans 

under the U.S. Justice 

Department’s Alien 

Enemy Control 

Program. The “Snow 

Country Prison,” as 

one internee called it, 

was on the grounds 

of the historic fort, 

established in 1895 

across the Missouri River from the original Fort Abraham 

Lincoln, from which Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer 

departed for the Little Bighorn.

After the military abandoned Fort Lincoln, five American 

Indian nations opened an employment training center 

on the grounds – today’s United Tribes Technical College 

(UTTC). Thus did the history of an Indian college and the 

confinement of Japanese Americans become entwined. 

“The college has always been welcoming of former 

internees and families and scholars and researchers,” 

said Dennis Neumann, the school’s public information 

director. With the help of an $18,919 Japanese American 

Confinement Sites Grant, a planning conference held at 

UTTC in 2010 has furthered plans to memorialize that 

history. Two buildings have been identified as a potential 

visitors’ center: the former army hospital and the former 

home of the hospital steward. Partnering with the tribes 

on the conference were the National Japanese American 

Historical Society, the Japanese Peruvian Oral History 

Project, Hesono O Productions, the German American 

Internee Coalition, and the North Dakota Art Museum.

The first group of Issei arrived at Fort Lincoln on 

February 9, 1942. On February 14, 1945, 650 men from 

Tule Lake arrived. This group included “recalcitrants” 

such as Junichi Yamamoto and Arthur Ogami who 

renounced their U.S. citizenship and were deported to 

Japan. Neither man had returned to Bismarck – until 2010, 

when they attended the conference. “I don’t brag about 

being here,” Yamamoto told journalist Martha Nakagawa 

during the conference, “but I never felt ashamed about 

being here. I thought I did the right thing...” Ogami, who 

renounced his citizenship “to keep the family intact,” 

became tearful upon seeing the campus, saying it felt “like 

coming back home.” To welcome those participating in 

the conference, the tribes conducted a Lakota ceremony, 

“Wiping of Tears,” which tribal people use, Neumann 

explained, “to heal psychological and emotional wounds 

in their communities.” 

Buildings at Fort Lincoln Identified as Site for Visitors’ Center 

2010 planning conference participants gather at the United Tribes Technical College campus

Photo courtesy: United Tribes Technical College
21

FISCAL YEAR 2012 GRANT CYCLE –

APPLICATIONS NOW AVAILABLE! 

Applications for fiscal year 2012 are now available to 

assist private non-profit organizations, educational 

institutions, state, local and tribal governments, 

and other public entities in their efforts to preserve 

confinement sites where Japanese Americans were 

detained during World War II, and to educate and 

inspire present and future generations about the 

importance of these historic places and their stories.

All application materials, including program guidelines, 

are available on the grant program website:

http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/hpg/JACS/index.html

Applications must be received by: Tuesday, November 1, 

2011 (this is not a postmark date).

Please note, informational meetings for the Fiscal Year 

2012 grant cycle will not be held this year. If you have 

any questions about the application process, please 

contact one of the NPS regional representatives. 

CONTACT INFORMATION

Please contact one of the NPS regional representatives 

if you have any questions about the Japanese American 

Confinement Sites Grant Program.

INTERMOUNTAIN REGION

AZ, CO, MT, NM, OK, TX, UT, WY

Contact: Kara Miyagishima, Program Manager

Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program 

Phone: 303-969-2885

Email: Kara_Miyagishima@nps.gov

Contact: Alex Hernandez, Historian

Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program

Phone: 303-969-2846

Email: Alexandra_Hernandez@nps.gov

MIDWEST REGION

AR, IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, NE,

ND, OH, SD, WI

Contact: Rachel Franklin-Weekley, Historian

Midwest Regional Office, Division of Cultural Resources

Phone: 402-661-1928

Email: Rachel_Franklin-weekley@nps.gov

PACIFIC WEST REGION

CA, ID, NV, OR, WA, and other states not listed

Contact: Tom Leatherman, Superintendent

Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front 

 National Historical Park

Phone: 925-838-0249 ext. 6301

Email: Tom_Leatherman@nps.gov

Hawaii

Contact: Suzanne Bott, Planner

Pacific West Regional Office

Phone: 808-541-2693 ext. 737

Email: Suzanne_Bott@nps.gov

All correspondence and comments may be sent 

to the address listed below: 

National Park Service

Intermountain Region

Japanese American Confinement Sites 

 Grant Program

ATTN: Kara Miyagishima

12795 W. Alameda Parkway

Lakewood, CO 80228

Thank you for your interest in the Japanese 

American Confinement Sites Grant 

Program. For more information, please visit

http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/hpg/JACS/

index.html.
 

The National Park Service cares for special places saved by the

American people so that all may experience our heritage.

Layout/design by the Office of Communications & Legislation - Intermountain Region 

Fall 2011

The Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program 

newsletter is published annually. To read online, visit the grant 

program website at: 

http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/hpg/JACS/index.html . 

If you have any questions about the newsletter, please contact:

Kara Miyagishima 

National Park Service

12795 W. Alameda Pkwy. 

Lakewood, CO 80228 

Phone: (303) 969-2885

Email: Kara_Miyagishima@nps.gov