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PERMIT NO. G-83
INSIDE THIS ISSUE

ANNUAL REPORT: 2013—A YEAR IN REVIEW—PRESERVING AND INTERPRETING WORLD WAR 

II JAPANESE AMERICAN CONFINEMENT SITES

• Introduction

• Overview of the Fiscal Year 2013 Grant Program Process

STATUS OF FUNDING FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2014 JAPANESE AMERICAN CONFINEMENT SITES 

GRANT CYCLE

FISCAL YEAR 2013 GRANT AWARDS

 FISCAL YEAR 2013 PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS BY STATE

• Alaska

• Arizona

• Arkansas

• California

• Colorado

• Hawai‘i

• Montana

• North Dakota

• Oregon

• Washington

• Wyoming

MAP OF GRANT FUNDING BY STATE, 2009-2013

GRAPH OF GRANT FUNDING BY SITE, 2009-2013

PROJECTS COMPLETED DURING FISCAL YEAR 2013

• Friends of Manzanar Enhance the Block 14 Experience with Oral Histories and Documentary Research

• Japanese American Identities in New Mexico Camps Examined by the Japanese American Citizens League, New 

Mexico Chapter

• Friends of the Texas Historical Commission Interpret Previously Untold Stories at Five Texas Sites

• The University of Hawai‘i-West O‘ahu Brings Together Multiple Disciplines for Research and Education at Honouliuli 

Internment and POW Camp

• Poston Community Alliance Completes Two JACS-Funded Projects: Preserving Oral Histories of Former Poston 

Detainees, and Relocating a Historic Barrack Back to Poston Camp I

• Densho Expands its Website with More ‘Stories Less Told’ and an Online Encyclopedia on the Japanese American 

Incarceration

• Heart Mountain Boiler House Chimney Restored by Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources, State Historic 

Preservation Office

• From Confinement to College: Oral Histories Recorded by the University of Massachusetts Boston

• Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i Produces First Full-Length Documentary on Japanese American Internment in 

Hawai‘i

• Minidoka Stories from Seattle’s Higo Ten Cent Store are Shared with the Public through Wing Luke Museum 

Exhibits and Book

• Three Grants Help the McGehee Industrial Foundation and Arkansas State University Bring the Story of Japanese 

American Internment Back to Arkansas through a New Museum, Signage, and Audio Tours

• University of Hawai‘i Center for Oral History Saves the Stories of Hawai‘i Residents Captive on the Mainland during 

the War Years
1

 Winter 2013

National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Japanese American

Confinement Sites

Grant Program

ANNUAL REPORT: 2013—A YEAR IN REVIEW—PRESERVING AND INTERPRETING 

WORLD WAR II JAPANESE AMERICAN CONFINEMENT SITES

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

progress of the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant 

Program. 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. 

Congress first appropriated funding for the program in 2009. 

Japanese American Confinement Sites grants are awarded 

through a competitive process in which $2 of Federal money 

matches every $1 in non-Federal funds and “in-kind” contributions.

Over the past five years, the program has awarded 107 grant 

awards totaling nearly $12.4 million to private nonprofit 

organizations, educational institutions, state, local, and 

tribal governments, and other public entities. The projects 

involve 18 states and the District of Columbia, and include 

oral histories, preservation of camp artifacts and buildings, 

documentaries and educational curricula, and exhibits and 

memorials that protect the confinement sites and provide 

creative ways to engage present and future generations with 

the compelling stories associated with these significant 

places. 

The Fiscal Year 2013 grant awards, featured in this report, 

include the construction of a memorial honoring the Japanese Americans forcibly removed from Alaska and sent to 

Minidoka Relocation Center in Idaho and Camp Lordsburg 

Internment Camp in New Mexico, the development of five 

teacher-training workshops to increase the understanding 

of Japanese American World War II confinement at middle 

school and high school levels, and the creation of a photographic exhibit on the internment of Japanese Americans 

from California’s Bay Area, featuring the works of Dorothea 

Lange and Paul Kitagaki.

The 24 grants awarded in 2013 range from $9,380 for the 

City of Chandler, Arizona, to design and install a kiosk at 

Nozomi Park (a multi-use recreational park) to tell the story 

continued on page 2 

The World War II Japanese American Internment Museum, said George Takei in his keynote address at the dedication ceremony on April 16, 2013, 

“transports us in time and space to another time for America. It has resonances that are profoundly important.” The museum project was funded in 

part by a Japanese American Confinement Sites grant, featured on pages 26-27. Photo courtesy: Arkansas Online/David Harten
2

National Park Service

of the internment in Arizona, with a focus on daily life and 

the importance of baseball at the Gila River Internment 

Camp, to $369,765 for the Go For Broke National Education Center to help produce an exhibit on “Divergent Paths 

to a Convergent America: A 360 Degree Perspective of the 

Japanese American Response to WWII” in Los Angeles. 

As several new projects begin, many of the previously funded projects have been completed. The completed projects 

highlighted in this annual report include video oral histories 

of Japanese American students who left confinement to 

attend college, a research document that lays the groundwork for future public outreach and preservation projects 

on internment and segregation camps in New Mexico, and 

a full-length educational documentary about the sites in 

Hawai‘i where Japanese American community leaders were 

incarcerated. The NPS is fortunate to have the opportunity 

to work with Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant 

Program recipients to continue the legacy of those who persevered and to educate younger generations by connecting 

them to these places, inspiring them to carry forward these 

stories and lessons on social justice. 

“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,” said 

NPS Director Jonathan B. Jarvis, when announcing the 2013 

grant awards. “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.” 

2013: A YEAR IN REVIEW

continued from page 1

A group of men gather inside the Santa Fe Internment Camp canteen store. The man at left wears the camp’s Aloha baseball team jersey. Photo 

courtesy: manymountains.org. Photo by T. Harmon Parkhurst
3

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

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 the 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 non-Federal 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 2013 Grant Program Process

For the 2013 grant program, the NPS mailed postcards 

announcing the availability of grant applications and 

guidelines in early August 2012 to approximately 7,500 

individuals and organizations. On August 31, 2012, the NPS 

also announced the availability of application materials 

through a national press release, the grant program website, 

and other correspondence. 

By the application deadline of November 1, 2012, the NPS 

received 38 applications, requesting more than $5.5 million 

in Federal funds. During the week of December 2, 2012, 

the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program 

selection panel convened at the NPS Intermountain 

Regional Office in Lakewood, Colorado, 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 historic preservation, 

landscape architecture, interpretation, audiovisual 

production, and partnerships. 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. 

The Continuing Resolution for Fiscal Year 2013 (Public Law 

112-175), provided funding authority for the period from 

October 1, 2012, through March 27, 2013, or 48.77% of the 

fiscal year’s budget. Thus, on April 2, 2013, NPS Director 

Jonathan B. Jarvis announced 10 grants totaling over 

$1.4 million in funding. On July 11, 2013, Director Jarvis 

announced the award of the remaining 14 grants totaling 

more than $1.3 million, with funding provided through the 

second Continuing Resolution, or the Consolidated and 

Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 (Public Law 

113-6).

Eligible Sites and Projects 

Artwork from the Santa Fe Internment Camp is among the aspects of 

“identity” in confinement explored in a new study by JACL, featured 

on page 17. This painting includes a haiku by Kyohaku: “In blooming 

chrysanthemum is seen one’s true intention.” 

Photo courtesy: manymountains.org
4

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 2014. 

In order to ensure that 

the NPS can successfully 

award Japanese American 

Confinement Sites grants 

in 2014, the grant program 

will proceed with the 2014 

grant cycle. Awards will 

be dependent on funds 

appropriated by Congress.

As we receive updated 

information about funds 

available for the 2014 

cycle, we will post it on 

the Japanese American 

Confinement Sites grant 

program website: http://

www.nps.gov/history/hps/

hpg/JACS/index.html

STATUS OF FUNDING FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2014 JAPANESE AMERICAN 

CONFINEMENT SITES GRANT CYCLE

Sisters Aya and Masa Murakami in their Higo Variety Store, which was the focus of a recently completed 

project by the Wing Luke Museum, featured on page 25. Photo courtesy: Dean Wong

The traveling exhibit, Meet Me 

at Higo: An Enduring Story of 

a Japanese American Family, 

on display at the Seattle Cherry 

Blossom Festival. Photo courtesy: 

Wing Luke Museum

National Park Service
5

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

FISCAL YEAR 2013 GRANT AWARDS

In 2013 – the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program’s fifth 

year of funding – 24 awards provided more than $2.7 million to projects in 

11 states. A list of the winning projects follows. 

Fiscal Year 2013 Project Descriptions by State 

ALASKA

Recipient: City and Borough of Juneau

Project Title: Empty Chair Project

Grant Award: $80,000

Site(s): Minidoka Relocation Center, Jerome 

County, ID, and Camp Lordsburg 

Internment Camp, Hidalgo County, NM

Description: The City and Borough of Juneau, AK 

will create a memorial to honor Japanese 

Americans forcibly removed from Juneau 

and sent to Camp Lordsburg (NM), which 

was administered by the U.S. Army, and 

later to the Minidoka Relocation Center 

(ID). Interviews with survivors and 

community members will be conducted, 

and educational materials will be produced 

relating to the evacuee experience.

ARIZONA

Recipient: City of Chandler 

Project Title: Nozomi Park History Kiosk

Grant Award: $9,380

Site(s): Gila River Relocation Center, Pinal 

County, AZ

Description: The City of Chandler will create and 

install a kiosk at Nozomi Park, a multiuse recreational park with baseball fields. 

Originally known as West Chandler, the 

park was renamed Nozomi – Japanese 

for “hope” – in 2011 to honor Japanese 

Americans who were detained in Arizona. 

The kiosk will provide an overview of the 

internment in Arizona, with a focus on 

daily life and the importance of baseball 

at the Gila River Internment Camp.

This drawing, titled “Relocation,” was drawn by a Nisei man at 

Minidoka. Photo courtesy: Densho (denshopd-p166-00015), 

Mayeno Family Collection

Ball games between the Gila River Japanese American team and local teams 

transcended the many barriers of internment, and penned a new chapter for 

America’s pastime. Photo courtesy: Nisei Baseball Research Project
6

National Park Service

ARKANSAS

Recipient: University of Arkansas at Fayetteville 

Project Title: Rohwer Reconstructed: Interpreting Place 

through Experience

Grant Award: $300,378

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

Description: The University of Arkansas will create an online 

3D visualization of Rohwer Relocation Center 

during World War II. Documents, oral histories, 

photographs and material objects currently 

housed in multiple collections throughout 

Arkansas will be digitized and integrated into the 

interactive virtual environment, allowing online 

visitors to experience a sense of Rohwer during its 

occupation.

CALIFORNIA

Recipient: Contra Costa Chapter of the Japanese 

American Citizens League 

Project Title: They Wore Their Best: Photographic Exhibit of 

the Works of Dorothea Lange and Paul Kitagaki 

Grant Award: $67,537

Site(s): Tanforan Assembly Center, San Mateo County, CA and 10 WRA Sites

Description: The Contra Costa Chapter of the 

Japanese American Citizens League 

will create exhibits focused on 

the forced relocation of Japanese 

Americans in California’s Bay 

Area. The exhibits will feature 

photographs by Dorothea Lange 

and Paul Kitagaki. A permanent 

exhibit will be installed at the San 

Bruno Bay Area Rapid Transit 

(BART) station, and a traveling 

exhibit will be shown at other 

venues. 

Recipient: Go For Broke National Education 

Center 

Project Title: Divergent Paths to a Convergent 

America: A 360-Degree 

Perspective of the Japanese 

American Response to WWII 

Incarceration

Grant Award: $369,765

Site(s): Multiple Sites

Friends and neighbors congregate to bid farewell, though not for long, to their 

friends who are enroute to the Tanforan Assembly Center. They, themselves, 

will be evacuated within three days, 1942. Photo courtesy: The Bancroft Library, 

University of California, Berkeley - photo by Dorothea Lange

A mother and child at Rohwer concentration camp, c. 1943. 

Photo courtesy: Densho (denshopd-p167-00006), 

Kuroishi Family Collection
7

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

Description: The Go For Broke National Education Center will plan for a 

permanent exhibit and accompanying website at the Japanese 

American National Museum that will explore the divergent 

choices made by incarcerated Japanese Americans. These 

choices included service in the military, resistance, and 

renunciation of U.S. citizenship. Following the planning 

project, the final design and installation of the exhibit will be 

completed through a separate funding source.

Recipient: Japanese American Citizens League 

Project Title: JACL Teacher Training: Incarceration and 

Confinement Sites 

Grant Award: $62,845

Site(s): Multiple Sites

Description: The Japanese American Citizens League 

will hold five teacher-training workshops 

to increase understanding of the Japanese 

American World War II confinement site 

experience among a broad range of educators. 

The workshops will be developed for social 

studies and history teachers working at the 

middle school and high school levels.

Recipient: National Japanese American Historical 

Society 

Project Title: Camp Collection: A Digital Library 

Grant Award: $33,467

Site(s): Multiple Sites

Description: The National Japanese American Historical 

Society will document and digitize 200 

objects recently added to its collection. The 

historical society will then make its collection 

publicly accessible by posting it to the 

University of San Francisco Gleeson Library 

Digital Collections website.

Recipient: National Japanese American Historical 

Society

 Project Title: Tule Lake Teacher Education Project

Grant Award: $73,675

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

Description: The National Japanese American Historical Society 

will work closely with partner organizations to 

develop a curriculum focusing on the Tule Lake Segregation 

Center for grades 4-12. Through the project, a core group 

of teachers will develop curriculum guides that will be 

accessible online.

Images of artifacts from Tule Lake, like these hand-made 

pins created by internees, help educators bring confinement 

experiences to life. Photo courtesy: National Japanese 

American Historical Society
8

National Park Service

Recipient: The California Museum 

Project Title: Time of Remembrance

Grant Award: $103,602

Site(s): Multiple Sites 

Description: The California Museum will complete several projects 

to enhance its ongoing exhibit, “Uprooted! Japanese 

Americans During World War II.” The museum will edit 

previously recorded oral histories, develop software for 

museum kiosks that play the oral histories, 

install an interactive map showing the 

location of all assembly centers and 

confinement sites, and produce DVD copies 

of the oral histories.

Recipient: The Regents of the University of 

California (UC-Berkeley, History 

Department) 

Project Title: Japanese American Confinement in the 

Records of the Federal Reserve Bank

Grant Award: $28,488

Site(s): Multiple Sites 

Description: The Regents of the University of California 

will create a prototype process to capture 

hand-written information on microfilm 

images at the Federal Reserve Bank in San 

Francisco, and convert it to a format that 

can be stored in a searchable database. 

During the war, the Federal Reserve Bank 

of San Francisco served as a fiscal agent for 

the U.S. government, assisting Japanese 

Americans who wanted help in protecting 

their property while they were held in 

confinement sites. 

Recipient: Tule Lake Committee

Project Title: Restoring the Tule Lake Segregation 

Center Jail, Phase II

Grant Award: $192,467

Site(s): Tule Lake Segregation Center, Modoc 

County, CA

Description: The Tule Lake Committee will complete 

planning and compliance activities 

necessary to stabilize and restore the Tule 

Lake Segregation Center jail. Project activities 

include an environmental assessment, historic 

preservation compliance, development of design 

documents and cost estimates, and preparation of 

a construction bid.

A business man of Japanese ancestry confers with a representative of 

the Federal Reserve Bank prior to evacuation. Photo courtesy: Densho 

(denshopd-i151-00098), National Archives Collection - photo by 

Dorothea Lange

Hoshidan members exit the Tule Lake Segregation Center for the 

Department of Justice’s Santa Fe Internment Camp. Photo courtesy: 

Densho (denshopd-i37-00197), National Archives and Records 

Administration Collection
9

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

Recipient: UCLA Asian American Studies Center 

Project Title: Aiko and Jack Herzig Archival Collection Project 

Grant Award: $154,960

Site(s): Multiple Sites

Description: The UCLA Asian American 

Studies Center will catalog, 

preserve and make accessible the 

Jack and Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga 

papers, which will be held at 

the Charles E. Young Library 

Special Collections Department 

at UCLA for permanent storage. 

Community workshops and 

outreach programs will be held 

to disseminate information about 

the collection and how it may be 

accessed.

COLORADO

Recipient: Colorado Preservation, Inc. 

Project Title: Amache Site Interpretation

Grant Award: $29,060

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

CO 

Description: Colorado Preservation, Inc. will complete a visitor 

interpretation package for the Granada Relocation 

Center (Amache). The package will include new 

wayfinding signs and podcasting tools for a driving tour, 

updated informational brochures, and iPods that will 

be made available to visitors at the Amache Museum in 

Granada to accompany the on-site driving tour.

HAWAI‘I

Recipient: Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i 

Project Title: Exploring Honouliuli: A Multimedia and Virtual 

Tour 

Grant Award: $111,557

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

Description: The Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i will develop 

an iPod-based multimedia tour application to be used 

by Honouliuli on-site visitors, and a web-based virtual 

tour of Honouliuli that will be accessible online. These 

tours will incorporate oral histories of former internees, 

historical photos of the site, and commentary by 

Overview of the Honouliuli Internment Camp. Photo 

courtesy: Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i/Japanese 

American Relocation and Internment: The Hawai‘i 

Experience Archival Collection - photo by R.H. Lodge

Summer carnival at the Granada (Amache) concentration camp. 

Photo courtesy: Densho (denshopd-p159-00273), courtesy of the George Ochikubo 

Collection - photo by George Ochikubo
10

National Park Service

historical experts. The U.S. Army administered the 

Honouliuli internment camp, which was one of at least 

five sites in Hawai‘i.

MONTANA

Recipient: The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula 

Project Title: Fort Missoula Alien Detention Camp 

Interpretive Projects

Grant Award: $39,730

Site(s): Department of Justice Fort Missoula 

Internment Camp, Missoula County, MT

Description: The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula 

will upgrade existing exhibits and create 

interpretive signs and a broadcast-quality 

video to tell the history of the former 

Department of Justice Fort Missoula 

internment camp. During the war, 1,200 

Italians, 23 Germans, 1,000 Japanese resident 

aliens, and 123 Japanese Latin and South 

Americans were detained at Fort Missoula. 

NORTH DAKOTA

Recipient: United Tribes Technical College 

Project Title: Fort Lincoln Preservation and Rehabilitation 

Grant Award: $45,100

Site(s): Fort Lincoln Internment Camp, Burleigh 

County, ND 

Description: United Tribes Technical College will 

complete a condition and feasibility 

assessment of two historic buildings at the 

former Department of Justice Fort Lincoln 

internment camp for use as an educational 

interpretive center. The assessment will 

determine what is needed to bring the 

buildings up to current code regulations and 

estimate the cost of rehabilitation.

OREGON

Recipient: ORE-CAL Resources Conservation and 

Development Area Council 

Project Title: The Art of Survival: Tule Lake 1942-1946

Grant Award: $123,890

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

Description: ORE-CAL Resources Conservation and Development 

Council will create an art-based traveling exhibit 

A U.S. Censorship stamp marks this letter, written by an Issei man 

at Fort Missoula Internment Camp, as “examined.” Photo courtesy: 

Densho (denshopd-p164-00130), Taki Family Collection

A hospital building at the former Fort Lincoln Internment 

Camp. Photo courtesy: United Tribes Technical College
11

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

focusing on the Tule Lake Segregation Center. The 

exhibit will include fine art photographs of Tule 

Lake artifacts, interpretive panels on the camp, and 

DVDs with oral histories from individuals formerly 

incarcerated at Tule Lake. A website will also be 

developed detailing the travels of the 

exhibit.

Recipient: Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission

Project Title: Farm Security Administration 

Documentation of Agricultural Labor 

Internment Camps in the Pacific 

Northwest

Grant Award: $92,386

Site(s): Multiple Sites: Nyssa, Malheur County, 

OR; Rupert, Minidoka County, ID; Shelley, 

Bingham County, ID; Twin Falls, Twin 

Falls County, ID

Description: The Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission 

will produce a traveling exhibit focused on 

photographs by Russell Lee of Department 

of Agriculture farm labor camps in Oregon 

and Idaho. Hundreds of laborers were 

recruited from the Portland Assembly Center 

and Minidoka Relocation Center to work in 

these camps. The exhibit will include prints 

of Lee’s work, a set of text panels providing 

context, and a collection of video oral 

histories.

WASHINGTON

Recipient: Densho 

Project Title: Online Repository-Japanese American 

Collections

Grant Award: $300,000

Site(s): Multiple Sites

Description: Densho will develop a free online archive 

that digitally preserves and makes 

accessible historic photographs, documents 

and videos that document the World 

War II Japanese American incarceration 

experience. Densho will also create a 

database containing the names and records 

of individuals listed in the Final Accountability 

Rosters from the ten War Relocation Authority 

centers.

A Japanese American farm worker toils at a Farm Security 

Administration camp near Rupert, Idaho. 

Photo courtesy: Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-130353) - 

photo by Russell Lee, Farm Security Administration

A family inside the barracks at Puyallup Assembly Center. Photo 

courtesy: University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, 

UW526
12

National Park Service

Recipient: Densho 

Project Title: Teach the Teachers-Online

Grant Award: $194,403

Site(s): Multiple Sites 

Description: Densho will create a free, online teacher-training 

course focused on integrating primary source 

materials about the World War II incarceration of 

Japanese Americans in the classroom. The project 

will include website development, marketing of the 

online course, and the creation of teacher resource 

kits.

Recipient: Nikkei Heritage Association of Washington, 

DBA Japanese Cultural & Community Center of 

Washington

Project Title: Unsettled – Resettled: Seattle’s “Hunt Hotel”

Grant Award: $102,810

Site(s): Minidoka Relocation Center, Jerome County, ID

Description: The Nikkei Heritage Association of Washington 

will research the experiences of Japanese Americans 

who, upon returning to Seattle from Minidoka, lived 

at the “Hunt Hotel.” The “hotel”, so named because 

Hunt Camp was a nickname for Minidoka, is the 

former Seattle Japanese Language School and now 

home to the Japanese Cultural & Community Center 

of Washington. The project will result in a memorial 

marker, book, online catalog and traveling exhibit.

Recipient: Wing Luke Memorial Foundation, DBA 

Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific 

American Experience 

Project Title: Inspiring Future Generations: 

Journeying from Confinement Sites to 

Battlefields with Japanese American 

Soldiers

Grant Award: $111,600

Site(s): Minidoka Relocation Center, Jerome 

County, ID

Description: The Wing Luke Memorial Foundation 

will create a graphic novel with six 

chapters, each telling the story of a World 

War II Japanese American soldier. The 

Foundation also will create a stand-alone 

publication from one of the chapters in the 

novel, with an accompanying curriculum 

guide. A website will provide access to 

the novel and the chapter and curriculum 

publication.

Pvt. Harry Koka of Ewa, O’ahu, is awarded the Purple Heart by Col. 

Ernst T. Barco at Sand Island, Honolulu, June 6, 1945. Koka was wounded 

while fighting with the famed 100th Infantry Division in the Italian 

Campaign. Photo courtesy: Densho (denshopd-i114-00155), courtesy of 

the Seattle Nisei Veterans Committee and the U.S. Army

Children pose on the steps of Seattle’s “Hunt Hotel” 

(Japanese Language School) just after the end of the war. 

Photo courtesy: Densho (denshopd-p30-00003), 

Ohashi Family Collection
13

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

WYOMING

Recipient: Heart Mountain Wyoming 

Foundation

Project Title: Heart Mountain Archives Project 

Grant Award: $97,279

Site(s): Heart Mountain Relocation Center, 

Park County, WY

Description: The Heart Mountain Wyoming 

Foundation will establish an archives 

center that will arrange, describe 

and make its collections accessible 

for research, including the recently 

acquired Frank Emi papers. The 

Foundation will hire an archivist, 

process the archives, and produce a 

guide that will provide an overview 

of the scope, content and research 

significance of the collections.

Recipient: Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation

Project Title: Heart Mountain Root Cellar Planning 

and Preservation Project 

Grant Award: $33,621

Site(s): Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Park 

County, WY

Description: The Heart Mountain Wyoming 

Foundation will plan for the 

acquisition, conservation, 

preservation, interim stabilization, 

and future use of a root cellar that 

was used by internees to store 

produce grown at the camp. The 

abandoned root cellar is one of the 

few remaining original structures at 

Heart Mountain, and a reminder of 

the ingenuity of Japanese American 

farmers who produced 45 different 

crops at the camp. 

Frank Emi (right), leader of the Heart Mountain Fair Play 

Committee, stands with a supporter in a photo taken at the 

height of the draft resistance movement. Emi’s papers have 

been donated to the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. 

Photo courtesy: Densho (denshopd-p122-00003), courtesy of 

Frank Abe and Frank Emi

The underground root cellar at Heart Mountain extends more than 

130 feet. Photo courtesy: Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation
14

National Park Service

GRANT FUNDING BY STATE

This map shows total 2013 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 sites. For example, the Wing Luke Memorial Foundation, which is in 

Washington, received funding to preserve a historic collection related to the Minidoka Relocation Center in Idaho. 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.
15

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

GRANT FUNDING BY SITE

This graph shows total (2009-2013) 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. 
16

National Park Service

During the last year, 18 projects that received Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program funding were 

completed. Following is an overview of these project success stories, all of which reflect the dedicated 

commitment and hard work of numerous groups to preserve, interpret and disseminate the history of the Japanese 

American internment during World War II. 

EIGHTEEN PROJECTS COMPLETED DURING FISCAL YEAR 2013

As a young man at Manzanar Relocation Center, Akira 

Kageyama often slipped past the fence at night to go fishing. “I 

got caught once, and I think I spent about three days in jail, and 

everybody in the camp heard about it,” he recounts playfully. 

“They’d come to the window and laugh at me.” As Akira’s story 

illustrates, many Japanese Americans tried to live life as normally 

as possible while incarcerated, but the reality of their situation 

infused everyday life. A recent project by Friends of Manzanar 

captured stories like Kageyama’s and that of Arnold Maeda, who 

remembers that his barrack bordered U.S Highway 395. When 

he opened the door in the morning and looked across the fence 

at the highway, he was immediately reminded of where he was, 

and thought, “Why can’t I be in one of those cars going north or 

south?” 

Internees’ stories, 

ranging from humor 

and romance, to anger 

and fear, capture a 

wide spectrum of the 

human experience 

shared by Japanese 

Americans during 

World War II. With 

help from a 2010 

Japanese American 

Confinement Sites 

grant of $58,833, 

Friends of Manzanar 

logged more than 

1,500 hours of 

archival research, 

and recorded 16 oral 

histories to enhance 

the interpretation at 

Manzanar Block 14, 

now part of Manzanar 

National Historic 

Site. Friends of 

Manzanar collaborated 

with Densho, a 

Former internee Akira Kageyama shares his experiences for the 

Friends of Manzanar project. Photo courtesy: Densho

Friends of Manzanar Enhance the Block 14 Experience with Oral Histories 

and Documentary Research

long-standing partner, to preserve online the oral 

histories, including those of Kageyama and Maeda. 

The interviews, under the Friends of Manzanar Visual 

History Collection, can be found at www.archive.

densho.org. 

Grant monies also allowed researchers to comb through 

state, federal, museum, and university collections, which 

enhanced Manzanar National Historic Site’s reference 

files and expanded the information and media used to 

accurately interpret the site. Along with documenting 

relevant materials – such as images, official documents, 

newspaper articles, and letters – this work also assists 

researchers because it identifies what repositories do 

or do not contain Japanese American confinement sites 

information.

As research reveals the intricacies of day-to-day 

activities, as well as the overarching structure of 

confinement, it helps Friends of Manzanar to work 

with the National Park Service to provide a more direct 

connection to life within Manzanar National Historic 

Site’s Block 14, a “demonstration block” used to 

interpret life of the 11,070 Japanese Americans interned 

at the site.

The Friends of Manazar researched 

repositories to identify documents, such as this 

booklet created in camp. Photo courtesy: Inyo 

County Free Library 
17

Was the physical evidence of Japanese 

American internment in New Mexico 

“erased” by design, or by accident? How 

did internees identify themselves, and 

did their identities shift while in camp? 

These and many other questions emerged 

from the first phase of a research and 

public engagement project on World 

War II Japanese American internment 

in New Mexico. A 2011 Japanese 

American Confinement Sites grant of 

$54,077 was awarded to the Japanese 

American Citizens League (JACL), 

New Mexico Chapter for the one-year 

planning project. In partnership with 

Albuquerque-based Van Citters, Historic 

Preservation, LLC., JACL produced a 

planning report that established project 

goals to inspire curiosity, thought, and 

discourse concerning Japanese American 

internment sites, with “identity” as the 

central theme.

In New Mexico, Japanese Americans from around the country, 

including Japanese community leaders whom the Department of 

Justice and the FBI deemed “troublemakers,” were interned at Camp 

Lordsburg Internment and Prisoner of War Camp, Fort Stanton 

Segregation Camp, and Santa Fe Internment Camp. A fourth site, 

Old Raton (Baca) Ranch Camp, detained 32 Japanese Americans 

from Clovis, New Mexico. Among them was Dr. Roy Ebihara, then a 

child, who said parents and children had very different experiences 

at the isolated Baca Ranch. “Us kids were always discovering 

nature...I guess it was very depressing for [adults]...This was just too 

overwhelming for them I’m sure.” Revisiting the site, Dr. Ebihara 

identified chimney remains and a concrete slab as “the only reminder 

that we were here.”

To capture the numerous, and perhaps conflicting, faces of internment, 

the project team stretched the meaning of “identity” to include 

ascribed, self, and legal identities, among others. Through this lens, 

the team outlined a permanent website, created designs for interpretive 

historical markers, and conceptualized a multi-media, interactive 

traveling exhibit, with a proposed schedule and publicity plan. JACL 

also developed brochure specifications, completed an archeological 

report of Camp Lordsburg, synthesized existing materials, recorded 

all new documented primary materials, captured three new oral 

histories, and outlined a work plan for public engagement. All of 

these efforts are combined in one document, titled Confinement in the 

Land of Enchantment, providing an exceptional resource for anyone 

researching Japanese American confinement in New Mexico.

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

Internees formed new identities behind barbed wire as artists, poets, and performers, 

among others. Here, a poetry group at Santa Fe poses for a group photo. Photo courtesy: 

manymountains.org - photo by T. Harmon Parkhurst

Japanese American Identities in New Mexico Camps Examined by the Japanese 

American Citizens League, New Mexico Chapter

A 1944 watercolor by Tameichi Wada, titled “Lonesome 

Moon”, depicts the Santa Fe Internment Camp. Photo 

courtesy: manymountains.org - illustration: Tameichi Wada
18

National Park Service

From 1942 to 1948, the Immigration and Naturalization 

Service administered Crystal City Family Interment 

Camp, which encompassed hundreds of acres southwest 

of San Antonio. Here the Department of Justice (DOJ) 

incarcerated “enemy aliens”—Japanese, German, and 

Italian citizens in the U.S. and Latin America, whom the 

government considered potentially dangerous. Frequently 

interned with them, often voluntarily, were their spouses 

and American-born children. Seiji Aizawa’s father was 

interned there. And when Seiji and his brother left the 

Tanforan Assembly Center near San Francisco to attend 

college, he watched painfully as his mother and sister joined 

his father at Crystal City. “The family split up twice,” Seiji 

said. “Once when my father was taken away and the second 

time when the government asked my mother and sister to 

join him.” Among DOJ camps, Crystal City was unusual 

because it was the only one established specifically for 

families.

With a 2009 Japanese American Confinement Sites grant 

of $34,400, Friends of the Texas Historical Commission 

installed eight interpretive panels at various sites around 

the camp’s large footprint. The panels were dedicated in 

November 2011 with more than 100 community residents 

and former internees in attendance. The panels outline 

the site’s history, life and work at Crystal City, schools at 

the camp, and the repatriation process. To supplement the 

signage and promote heritage tourism, grant monies also 

were used to create and publish 25,000 copies of a fullcolor, eight-page travel brochure on the Crystal City Family 

Internment Camp. These efforts, led by project manager 

William McWhorter of the Texas Historical Commission, 

corrected what had been a lack of accurate historical 

interpretation at the site. The project, which was the focus 

of an Associated Press article, also brought international 

attention to the history of the Japanese American and 

Enemy Alien World War II internment in Texas. 

Phase two of the project, funded by a 2010 Japanese 

American Confinement Sites grant of $20,167, allowed 

Friends of the Texas Historical Commission to extend 

research, interpretation, and public outreach efforts to 

four additional World War II confinement sites in Texas 

– Kenedy Enemy Alien Detention Station, Seagoville 

Enemy Alien Detention Station, Dodd Field Enemy Alien 

Detention Center at Fort Sam Houston, and Fort Bliss 

Enemy Alien Detention Station. The four camps now 

have historical markers that tell their stories. While these 

markers ensure long-term local awareness, a 12-page 

color brochure, support from the Texas Heritage Trails 

program, and the Texas Historical Commission website 

extend outreach to the region and nation. The website 

features a research-based history of all five camps at http://

www.thc.state.tx.us/preserve/projects-and-programs/

military-history/texas-world-war-ii/japanese-germanand-italian.

Installation of an interpretive panel at the Crystal City Family Internment 

Camp. Photo courtesy: Texas Historical Commission/Friends of the 

Texas Historical Commission

Friends of the Texas Historical Commission Interpret Previously Untold 

Stories at Five Texas Sites

William McWhorter (right) and former Crystal City German American 

internee Werner R. Ulrich at the dedication. 

Photo courtesy: Texas Historical Commission/Friends of the 

Texas Historical Commission
19

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

For more than 50 years following the end of World War 

II, an overgrown gulch hid the remains of the Honouliuli 

Internment Camp, nicknamed Jigoku Dani—“Hell 

Valley”—by Japanese Americans confined there during 

the war. Located west of Pearl Harbor, the Honouliuli 

Internment and Prisoner of War (POW) Camp, which was 

Hawai‘i’s largest and longest-used confinement site, was the 

recent focus of a multidisciplinary research and education 

project funded by two Japanese American Confinement 

Sites grants awarded to the University of Hawai‘i (UH)-

West O‘ahu. Dr. Suzanne Falgout, anthropologist at 

the University and principal investigator for the project, 

explains that Honouliuli “provides an excellent opportunity 

to demonstrate the integration of archival information, 

oral history, archeology, and architectural assessment.” 

To jump-start the project, a 2009 Japanese American 

Confinement Sites grant of $26,148 funded archival research 

on the Honouliuli Internment and POW Camp and a 2010 

archeological field school. Also, UH-West O‘ahu professors 

from six disciplines—anthropology, economics, education, 

English, history, and sociology—completed five oral 

histories and transcriptions, exploring interviewees’ layered 

incarceration stories. 

A second award, a 2010 grant of $98,544, helped fund 

the next phase of the project. Several UH-West O‘ahu 

researchers, again representing six different disciplines, 

combed archives in Hawai‘i and on the mainland. The 

scholars shared their findings through journal articles, and 

the creation of two college courses —“Hawai‘i During 

World War II” and “Japanese American Internment 

Literature.” The team conducted additional oral histories 

with 34 individuals, which students transcribed and 

archived at UH-West O‘ahu. In 2012, grant funds also 

brought to campus Distinguished Visiting Scholar Dr. 

Gary Okihiro from Colombia University, who spoke to 

students and groups throughout the islands about Hawai‘i 

incarceration.

The story of the Honouliuli Camp, which was listed on the 

National Register of Historic Places in 2012, was largely 

unknown and untold until recently. Working together, 

UH-West O‘ahu’s multidisciplinary team contributed to a 

deeper understanding of Hawai‘i’s distinctive patterns and 

rationales for internment, including information about the 

wide variety of people interned at Honouliuli. The Camp 

held more than 4,000 POWs from both Atlantic and Pacific 

theaters—Japanese, Okinawans, Koreans, Italians, and 

Filipinos. The interned population included 200-

300 locally prominent Japanese and Okinawans, 

plus a smaller number of Europeans categorized as 

“Germans” and “Italians.” A few Japanese families 

with young children were sent to Honouliuli from 

wartime locations in Micronesia. Grant funds 

also supported archeological field schools in 2011 

and 2012. In total, the three field schools attracted 

students from Hawai‘i, the U.S. mainland, and 

even Australia. Often working in sweltering heat 

not unlike conditions that inspired the camp’s 

nickname, UH-West O‘ahu faculty and preservation 

professionals helped students unearth resources 

and clear the site for safe access. “It’s a big deal,” 

expressed field school student Julie Baxter. “You’re 

actually helping to uncover history.”

The University of Hawai‘i – West O‘ahu Brings Together Multiple Disciplines for 

Research and Education at Honouliuli Internment and POW Camp

Dr. Falgout (center) of the University of Hawai‘i-O’ahu leads a 

multidisciplinary team at the Honouliuli site. Photo by Valentino 

Valdez, courtesy University of Hawai‘i West O’ahu 

Distinguished 

Visiting Scholar 

Dr. Gary Okihiro 

(right) visits 

with Dr. Richard 

Kosaki, Chancellor 

Emeritus, University 

of Hawai‘i Manoa. 

Photo by Valentino 

Valdez, courtesy 

University of 

Hawai‘i West O’ahu 
20

The War Relocation Authority detained 

Japanese Americans in three camps—Poston I, 

II, and III—at the Colorado River Relocation 

Center, situated on the Colorado River Indian 

Reservation near Parker, Arizona. Now, 

with funding from the Japanese American 

Confinement Sites Grant Program, the Poston 

Community Alliance, in cooperation with 

the Colorado River Indian Tribes, is helping 

protect this “reservation within a reservation,” 

and interpret the experiences of both Japanese 

Americans and American Indians on the 

reservation. The Alliance’s long-term goal 

envisions Poston Camp I restored on a 40-acre 

plat within the Colorado River Indian Tribes 

Reservation, with a multi-cultural museum and 

archive. 

As part of this initiative, and with help from 

a 2009 Japanese American Confinement 

Sites grant of $25,994, the Alliance recorded, 

digitized, and transcribed more than 60 oral 

histories of former Poston detainees, adding to 

its present collection of 40 oral histories. 

Working towards its vision for a living museum 

and archive, the Alliance is planning to 

develop interpretive themes from the oral histories, as well as safeguard 

photographs, memorabilia, artwork, and other documents collected 

during the process. 

A second Japanese American Confinement Sites grant, a 2010 award 

of $31,000, helped the Poston Community Alliance relocate a Poston 

barrack that had been moved 15 miles away to a plant nursery in the 

town of Parker. The Alliance opened bids for relocation and restoration, 

surveyed possible locations for the relocated barrack and, in partnership 

with Scheuber and Darden Architects, LLC, brought the intact barrack 

home to Poston—a giant stride towards the Alliance’s master plan for 

the site. Another important step in the Tribes’ and Alliance’s efforts to 

protect Poston was realized when the Secretary of the Interior designated 

the Poston Elementary School, Unit 1—which is the only extant 

elementary school within a former relocation center—as a National 

Historic Landmark in 2012. 

The Poston barrack relocation project team included the Poston Community Alliance, Colorado 

River Indian Tribes, and Scheuber + Darden Architects; from left: Johnny Hill, Marlene 

Shigekawa, Barbara Darden, and Guthrie Dick. Photo courtesy: Poston Community Alliance - 

Photo by Vernon Taniguchi

Poston Community Alliance Completes Two JACS-Funded Projects: Preserving Oral 

Histories of Former Poston Detainees, and Relocating a Historic Barrack Back to 

Poston Camp I

Before its move, the fragile barrack was stabilized with cross-bracing and tie rods, and then 

lifted onto steel beams. With a police escort, the barrack made a slow haul through the town 

of Parker. After months of coordination, the project team brought the original barrack back 

to the Poston site on July 19, 2012. Photo courtesy: Scheuber + Darden Architects

National Park Service
21

One person’s life illustrates a unique sequence of events, 

and by documenting the lives of hundreds of Japanese 

Americans incarcerated during World War II, Densho 

has crafted a more complete story. With a 2010 Japanese 

American Confinement Sites grant of $210,000, Densho 

completed Stories Less Told Part II. Building upon Part I, 

which was accomplished with a previous Japanese American 

Confinement Sites grant, this second installment added to 

the Densho website 140 video oral histories – 80 new and 60 

donated, which Densho digitally processed and transcribed. 

Densho’s current database now includes more than 750 

fully transcribed, searchable interviews, all free of charge to 

the public at archive.densho.org. 

Stories Less Told Part II filled gaps in Densho’s database by 

pursuing stories of Kibei (Japanese Americans educated in 

Japan), women’s experiences, and non-Japanese Americans 

who administered camps or witnessed Japanese American 

removal. For a truly national collection of oral histories, 

an additional effort was made to broaden the geographic 

representation of interviewees, with birthplaces ranging 

from Peru to Hawai‘i. Interviewee Atsumi Ozawa’s life 

addresses several of these themes. Among other things, 

Ozawa witnessed her mother deal with a miscarriage as 

her family traveled from their hometown in Peru to Crystal 

City Family Internment Camp in Texas. All these different 

experiences, Ozawa believes, “made us...strong.”

The new oral histories satisfy Densho’s goal of offering 

broad and diverse perspectives on the mass incarceration. 

With a 2010 Japanese American Confinement Sites grant 

of $166,145, Densho further enhanced its website with the 

creation of an online encyclopedia. Densho collaborated 

with more than 70 scholars of Japanese American history 

and developed a reference and resource website that 

includes 310 annotated scholarly articles cross-linked 

to primary sources and recommended resources on 

Japanese American history. Catering to young students 

and in-depth researchers alike, the user-friendly website, 

online at http://encyclopedia.densho.org, also includes 

biographies, testimonies, terminology, interactive maps, 

and a timeline. Additional links to social media sites such 

as Facebook anticipate the 

ways people access online 

information. Also, a custom 

software platform, workflow 

processes, and authoring style 

guidelines were developed to 

efficiently update the online 

encyclopedia. Through this 

website, Densho illuminates 

the stories behind mass 

removal, encouraging honest 

and open discussion about 

loyalty, cultural conflicts, and 

national security.

Atsumi Ozawa’s experiences, recorded through an oral history by Densho, 

contribute to the story of Japanese incarceration. Photo courtesy: Densho

This screenshot of the Densho Encyclopedia website homepage illustrates how online visitors are connected to 

ever-expanding resources on the Japanese American internment.

Densho Expands its Website with More ‘Stories Less Told’ and an Online Encyclopedia 

on the Japanese American Wartime Incarceration

Public Law 109-441 - Preservation of Japanese American World War II Confinement Sites
22

National Park Service

Heart Mountain Boiler House Chimney Restored by Wyoming State Parks and Cultural 

Resources, State Historic Preservation Office

Midway between the towns of Cody and Powell, a boiler 

house chimney pierces the Wyoming skyline, marking the 

location of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, where 

more than 10,000 Japanese Americans were interned during 

World War II – making it the third largest town in Wyoming 

at the time. Built in 1942 as part of the heating system for 

the camp hospital, the red brick tower rises 75 feet above 

the broad plains. The smokestack appeared in internees’ 

artwork, and distinguished the camp to nearby towns. 

In 2006, the chimney contributed to Heart Mountain’s 

designation as a National Historic Landmark; its hospital 

complex is the most intact of the ten Japanese American 

Relocation Centers constructed during World War II. 

However, 70 years of wind, rain, snow, and freeze/thaw 

had dampened the chimney’s mortar, causing it to bow 

approximately 16 inches off plumb. To prevent the chimney 

from toppling, the Wyoming State Parks and Cultural 

Resources, State Historic Preservation Office used a 2011 

Japanese American Confinement Sites grant of $215,911 to 

document, stabilize, and interpret the preservation of this 

Heart Mountain icon through a three-phase plan.

To accomplish the restoration, the State Historic 

Preservation Office formed a Chimney Work Group 

that involved representatives from the Heart Mountain 

Wyoming Foundation, the National Park Service, and 

the Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the boiler house 

chimney property. Beginning in the spring of 2011, Phase 

I documented the chimney’s existing conditions and 

developed a plan for its stabilization. The project team 

also created a brochure and installed an interpretive sign to 

educate visitors to the nearby Heart Mountain Interpretive 

Learning Center about the preservation efforts. Ready for 

Phase II by September 2011, the Chimney Work Group 

contracted with architecture and engineering firms, Tobin 

and Associates, P.C., and Wiss, Janney, and Elstner, Inc. The 

team mapped cracks, analyzed the brick and mortar, tested 

for wall moisture, and inspected the chimney’s foundation, 

concluding that moisture in the mortar caused the lean, 

rather than strong eastern winds as initially presumed. 

Based on these findings, Phase III restored and stabilized 

the chimney, under contract with Enola Contracting 

Services, Inc., by inserting a structural lining, and replacing 

the deteriorated mortar with new mortar that maintained its 

original look. Other improvements included new flashing to 

divert moisture away from the brick at the wall steps, helical 

pins to reinforce the brick, and an enhanced lightning 

protection system. 

On July 20, 2013, former Heart Mountain internees and 

their families helped dedicate the preserved chimney 

during the 2013 Heart Mountain Pilgrimage. At the ribboncutting ceremony, Milward Simpson, Director of Wyoming 

State Parks and Cultural Resources, declared that through 

these efforts, “this structure will stand for years to come 

and educate future generations of the story of Japanese 

American Internment in this country and specifically in 

Wyoming.”

Heart Mountain Pilgrimage attendees gather around the restored boiler 

house chimney for its dedication. Photo courtesy: Heart Mountain 

Wyoming Foundation - Photo by Bacon Sakatani

Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation board members and Wyoming State 

Parks and Cultural Resources Director Milward Simpson (third from right), 

joined former internees born in the camp at the ribbon-cutting ceremony 

for the restored chimney. Photo courtesy: Heart Mountain Wyoming 

Foundation - Photo by Sharyl McDowell
23

“Education is like brickwork,” states Ujinobu Niwa, “if 

you take a few bricks out, it’s very hard to regain it.” In a 

new oral history, Niwa shared the struggle many Japanese 

American teenagers feared when Executive Order 9066 

interrupted their educations and plans for college. This 

was not the United States that interviewee Esther Nishio 

knew from her life in America, nor from her high school 

civics class. “I realized the government was interning 

American citizens and putting them behind barbed wire,” 

she recounts. “I just could not believe it.” With help from 

agencies such as the Quaker-affiliated National Japanese 

American Student Relocation Council, Niwa, Nishio, and 

more than 4,000 other young Japanese Americans left 

confinement sites, and their families, to attend mainland 

colleges, mostly in the East and Midwest. 

To document this lesser known chapter of confinement, 

a 2010 Japanese American Confinement Sites grant of 

$68,852 awarded to the Institute for Asian American 

Students (IAAS) at the University of Massachusetts 

Boston, helped chronicle, through video oral histories, 

the experiences of 18 Japanese Americans who left 

confinement as young men and women to receive formal 

educations. They later entered the workforce as chemists, 

engineers, professors, and accountants.

For Japanese Americans, World War II and the 

reverberations felt for years after were defining moments, 

explains Paul Watanabe, a professor and IAAS director 

at the University of Massachusetts Boston. To preserve 

the legacy of agencies and individuals who aided Japanese 

American students, Watanabe, IAAS staff member Jenny 

Lau, and graduate student Laura Ng traveled throughout 

New England, then to California, Washington, Louisiana, 

Maryland, and Illinois, to meet with the former students, 

whose ages now range from 83 to 90. The 18 transcribed 

video oral histories are available to researchers and the 

public on the IAAS website (www.iaas.umb.edu/JA_

archive). 

Three evacuee students, Cromwell Mukai (Topaz), Marie Yamashita 

(Heart Mountain) and Joe Nishimura (Manzanar) leave the stadium at the 

University of Nebraska. Photo courtesy: The Bancroft Library, University of 

California, Berkeley

From Confinement to College: Oral Histories Recorded by the University of 

Massachusetts Boston

Interviewee Ujinobu Niwa (left) with Paul Watanabe, professor 

and IAAS Director at University of Massachusetts Boston. 

Photo courtesy: University of Massachusetts Boston

Public Law 109-441 - Preservation of Japanese American World War II Confinement Sites
In 1941, a Japanese American community of more than 

150,000 people flourished in Hawai‘i – representing more 

than a third of Hawai‘i’s population. Within 49 hours of 

Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaiʻi authorities arrested 

several hundred local Japanese on Oʻahu, Maui, Hawaiʻi and 

Kauaʻi. In total, over 2,000 men and women of Japanese 

ancestry were arrested, detained and interned in Hawaiʻi. 

Although these internees represented “only” one percent 

of the Japanese American population, the effects were 

disproportionately large because the government sought 

out community leaders, whose removal resulted in closed 

Japanese schools, newspapers, temples, and churches. 

With a 2010 Japanese American Confinement Sites grant 

award of $117,626, the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i 

(JCCH) produced the first full-length documentary film on 

the incarceration of Hawai‘i Japanese, titled “The Untold 

Story: The Internment of Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i.” 

In the film, the late Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawai‘i says 

this story should be told, if only as a reminder, “that this can 

happen in our democracy if we’re not vigilant. Because it 

did.” 

24

National Park Service

Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i Produces First Full-Length Documentary of 

Japanese American Internment in Hawai‘i

“The Untold Story” Director Ryan Kawamoto with JCCH associates; 

from left: Jane Kurahara, Betsy Young, and JCCH President and 

Executive Director Carole Hayashino. Photo courtesy: Japanese Cultural 

Center of Hawai‘i 

Poster for “The Untold Story” film, which premiered at the 

Hawai‘i International Film Festival. Photo courtesy: Japanese 

Cultural Center of Hawai‘i

The grant helped fund all production costs, as well as duplication 

of the documentary film. Written and directed by Ryan Kawamoto, 

“The Untold Story” is illustrated by historic photographs and 

research-based reenactment scenes. The film features personal 

interviews and oral histories gathered by JCCH with internees, 

their children, and scholars. JCCH premiered the film during four 

screenings at the Hawai‘i International Film Festival in October 2012. 

Two additional sold-out screenings in Honolulu in November 2012 

reached more than 2,200 people in the first few months of its release. 

This turnout led to additional screenings on Maui, Hawai‘i, Kaua‘i, 

and O‘ahu, including a 13-week run at a Honolulu theater. JCCH 

estimates that the film has reached approximately 6,000 people. 

Requests from California will bring the film to San Jose, San Francisco, 

and Los Angeles in the fall of 2013. Also, JCCH produced a 25-minute 

version of the documentary for use in the state’s public and private 

high school classrooms to correspond with Hawai‘i confinement sites 

lesson plans. 

The Hawai‘i confinement sites represent the ill will and hatred that 

can result from racial profiling. “We can be pretty cruel,” scholar 

Franklin Odo acknowledged, “and treat entire groups of people as 

non-people.” The “Untold Story” also supports JCCH’s broader goals 

of public education and the preservation of Hawai‘i confinement sites 

as physical reminders of internment. 
25

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

In 1909, Issei immigrant Sanzo Murakami 

opened the Higo Ten Cent Store in Seattle’s 

Nihonmachi (Japantown). While the 

Murakami family was confined at Minidoka 

from 1942 to 1945, their non-Japanese 

American neighbors guarded the boarded-up 

shop. When Sanzo Murakami died eight days 

after returning to Seattle, his wife, Matsuyo, 

and their three children continued his legacy 

by re-opening the family business. Realizing a 

different fate from many Japanese businesses, 

the Higo Ten Cent Store linked pre- and postWar Nihonmachi. 

In 2003, Higo closed its doors when daughter 

Masa Murakami, at age 83, could no 

longer care for the store. The building was 

transferred to grandnephew Paul Murakami, 

who leased the store’s space to the art gallery, 

KOBO at Higo. During the move, boxes 

of rare historic materials from Minidoka 

surfaced, including first-person writings 

and photographs. These artifacts revealed 

the intimate experiences of Issei and Nisei 

Japanese Americans before, during, and 

after World War II internment. Capturing 

the Issei experience is especially important because, as 

Nihonmachi resident Hiro Nishimura explains, “The 

story should be coming from our parents...They were 

the ones that have the stories.” With help from a 2010 

Japanese American Confinement Sites grant of $100,000 

awarded to the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific 

Two community members reminisce about the antique cash register used in 

the former Higo Ten Cent Store, on display at the Meet Me at Higo exhibit. 

Photo courtesy: Wing Luke Museum

Matsuyo Murakami stands in the doorway of the Higo Ten Cent Store on South Weller 

Street, circa 1912. Photo courtesy: Murakami Family Collection, Wing Luke Museum

Minidoka Stories from Seattle’s Higo Ten Cent Store are Shared with the Public 

through Wing Luke Museum Exhibits and Book

American Experience, these stories have been preserved 

and made accessible to the public through artifact 

preservation, 12 oral histories, a permanent display at 

KOBO at Higo, a traveling exhibit titled Meet Me at Higo: 

An Enduring Story of a Japanese American Family, and a 

book by the same title, by local author Ken Mochizuki. 

Showcased at six locations between December 2011 and 

September 2012, the exhibit’s inaugural tour reached 

an estimated 43,000 visitors, with an additional 740 

participants engaged through walking tours. The book 

received the Award of Publication Excellence from 

the Washington Museum Association in June 2012. 

Through KOBO at Higo, the Higo Ten Cent Store’s 

legacy contributes a sense of place to the revitalizing 

Nihonmachi. Less remote than incarceration sites, the 

Wing Luke Museum and KOBO at Higo provide accessible 

venues to tell the compelling local story of Japanese 

American internment, with continued reach through the 

traveling exhibit. In early 2013, the National Park Service 

designated the Wing Luke Museum as an affiliated area. 

Having led the effort, Congressman Jim McDermott 

stated, “We are very lucky to have a nationally recognized 

cultural center in our backyard, especially one that invests 

so much in our city and our Pan-Asian Pacific community.”
National Park Service

26

George Takei is well-known for his role as Hikaru Sulu in 

“Star Trek.” But in 1942, long before Takei was a famous actor, 

armed soldiers forced five-year-old George and his family from 

their California home to the Rohwer Relocation Center near 

McGehee, Arkansas. “I could see from my kindergarten window, 

a barbed wire fence that imprisoned me,” Takei said of learning 

the Pledge of Allegiance at his camp school. “I didn’t know 

then that those words I spoke meant the exact opposite of what 

was happening to me, my family, and 120,000 other Japanese 

Americans.”

Today, the guard towers and barbed wire fences of Rohwer and 

the nearby Jerome Relocation Center, which together interned 

more than 16,000 Japanese Americans, are gone. But a new 

museum in the town of McGehee, as well as interpretive signage 

and an audio walking tour at the Rohwer site, tell the story of 

Japanese American internment in Arkansas. These projects were 

accomplished through three Japanese American Confinement 

Sites grants. The first, a 2010 award of $434,967, enabled 

the McGehee Industrial Foundation to rehabilitate the city’s 

abandoned railroad depot “eating house” as a museum to house 

a $2-million exhibit titled “Against Their Will: The Japanese 

American Experience in World War II.” Two other Japanese 

American Confinement Sites grants, awarded in 2010 and 2011 

to Arkansas State University, made possible the interpretative 

signage and walking tour at Rohwer. 

In April 2013, nearly 500 people were on hand to dedicate the 

new museum in McGehee. George Takei gave the keynote 

address. “To be an American citizen is something very important 

that too many people take too lightly,” he said. “I value my 

Three Grants Help the McGehee Industrial Foundation and Arkansas State University 

Bring the Story of Japanese American Internment Back to Arkansas through a New 

Museum, Signage, and Audio Tours

The historic McGehee Depot, now the WWII Japanese American Internment Museum in 

McGehee, Arkansas. Photo courtesy: WWII Japanese American Internment Museum

citizenship profoundly. That is represented by the 

stories told by this museum.”

The “Against Their Will” exhibit, developed in part 

by the Rockefeller Foundation, had been sitting in 

storage following a temporary display in the Little 

Rock Statehouse Convention Center. That was until 

the McGehee Industrial Foundation 

saw a way to address two needs at once: 

rehabilitate the town’s old railroad “eating 

house” and utilize the space to bring the 

Japanese American story to McGehee, 

which is centrally located between the two 

Arkansas camps. Thus, the exhibit came 

out of storage, and the city’s vacant depot, 

which is listed on the National Register of 

Historic Places, found new life. The grant 

helped fund the renovation of the depot’s 

south building, including a new roof, 

sheet rock placement, cleaning, brick wall 

sealing, electrical updates, new plumbing, 

heating and ventilation. It also paid for 

exhibit lighting.

George Takei releases butterflies—symbolizing “beauty confined”– as 

a part of the dedication ceremony. 

Photo courtesy: Grav Weldon
Public Law 109-441 - Preservation of Japanese American World War II Confinement Sites

27

By September 2013, the museum counted more than 1,850 

visitors from 28 states. “Most of those folks were completely 

unaware of this story before they walked in,” said McGehee 

Mayor Jack May, who attributes the success of the museum and 

the interpretive projects to the unique story they tell. Bringing 

that story to the American public, as well as international 

visitors, May said, “was our main purpose.” The World War 

II Japanese American Internment Museum is located at 100 

S. Railroad Street, McGehee, Arkansas, and is open Tuesday 

through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

From the museum, visitors can travel the 11 miles to the Rohwer 

site, now interpreted through two grants awarded to Arkansas 

State University. In cooperation with its Heritage Studies 

doctoral program, the Arkansas Heritage Sites Program, and 

the Arkansas Delta Rural Heritage Development Initiative, 

the university used a 2010 Japanese American Confinement 

Sites grant of $100,502 to identify major themes and events 

surrounding the internment in Arkansas. In consultation with 

the community and stakeholders, Arkansas State University and 

the project consultant—Section 106 Group of Minneapolis, 

Minnesota—developed an interpretive plan for the Rohwer 

Relocation Center site, installed a four-paneled interpretive 

kiosk and wayside panel, and printed 5,000 brochures. 

McGehee Mayor Jack May speaks at the World War II Japanese 

American Internment Museum dedication. Photo courtesy: 

McGehee Industrial Foundation

A 2011 award of $93,155 funded Phase II of the 

project, again in partnership with the Arkansas 

Heritage Sites Program and Arkansas Delta Rural 

Heritage Development Initiative, which added three 

wayside interpretive panels, welcome signage, and 

20,000 additional brochures. The grant also was 

used to develop an audio tour of the site, narrated by 

George Takei. The tour includes stops at Rohwer’s 

brick smokestack and cemetery, which is a National 

Historic Landmark. Dr. Ruth Hawkins, Director 

of the Arkansas Heritage Sites Program at Arkansas 

State University, noted that the tour and signage 

are “thought-provoking reminders of how fear and 

insecurity can dramatically affect people’s lives.”

The World War II Japanese American Internment Museum provides 

a sense of what life held for Japanese Americans at Jerome and 

Rohwer. Photo courtesy: National Park Service

The Rohwer Relocation Center Cemetery National Historic 

Landmark includes a memorial for Rohwer internees who died 

serving in World War II. Photo courtesy: Arkansas State University
28

On December 7, 1941, nursing student Alice Watanabe was 

popping bread in the kitchen toaster at San Francisco’s St. 

Luke’s Hospital when she saw the newspaper headline: “War.” 

Watanabe’s immediate concern for her family back in Hawai‘i 

was eased when her brother wired, “Everyone’s safe.” However, 

Executive Order 9066 loomed, and Watanabe feared she would 

be interned alone, without the security of family and friends. A 

friend’s family claimed Watanabe as their niece, she explained, 

“so I could be with them” at Tule Lake War Relocation Center. 

With a Japanese American Confinement Sites 2009 grant of 

$14,955, the University of Hawai‘i (UH) Center for Oral History 

recorded oral histories of ten Hawai‘i Japanese Americans, like 

Watanabe, who were attending school or working on the West 

Coast when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. 

Of the ten, five were in college when confined, two in high 

school, one in vocational school, and two employed, dispelling 

the notion that the government only incarcerated prominent 

Hawai‘i Japanese Americans. The project was inspired by a 

2004 interview with the late Sidney Kosasa, founder of Hawai‘i’s 

ABC Stores, who remembered that there were Hawai‘i-born 

internees with him at Tule Lake War Relocation Center. The ten 

oral histories, which cover childhood and youth in Hawai‘i, as 

well as West Coast experiences, internment, and postwar life, are now 

documented, transcribed, and distributed to repositories at the 

University of Hawai‘i Center for Oral History Saves the Stories of Hawai‘i Residents 

Captive on the Mainland during the War Years

Left: Alice and her husband, Dr. Tetsui Watanabe (also interviewed for this project), met while 

working at the Tule Lake medical facility. Right: Alice Watanabe, 1941. 

Photos courtesy: Watanabe Family Collection

St. Luke’s nursing students, 1939. 

Photo courtesy: Watanabe Family Collection

National Park Service

National Park Service, University 

of Hawai‘i libraries, the Hawai‘i 

State libraries, and the Japanese 

Cultural Center of Hawai‘i. 

Transcripts are also online at 

http://www.oralhistory.hawaii.

edu/pages/historical/captive.html, 

with the project’s nearly 34 hours 

of audio recordings archived at 

UH’s Hamilton Library.

During the project, Watanabe 

was diagnosed with pancreatic 

cancer. When asked to reflect 

on her life, she recalled these 

wise words: “You teach your 

children how to live. Before you 

die, you teach them how to die, 

and that’s what I’m trying to do.” 

With these words, she concluded 

her interviews, preserving her 

experiences for her children, 

grandchildren, and the public. 

Watanabe passed away two 

weeks later, underscoring the 

importance of preserving these 

rarely examined stories. 
29

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

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, Assistant Program Manager

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: 510-232-1542 ext. 6301

Email: tom_leatherman@nps.gov

Hawai‘i

Contact: Paul DePrey, Superintendent

World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument

Phone: 808-266-0826

Email: paul_deprey@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

Please visit the NPS Japanese American 

Confinement Sites grant program for more 

information, including a list of eligible sites 

and projects, grant program guidelines, funded 

projects, and past newsletters:

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

JACS/index.html. 

Join us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/

jacsgrant

Thank you for your interest in the Japanese 

American Confinement Sites Grant Program.

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 

Winter 2013