Intermountain Region

National Park Service

12795 West Alameda Parkway

PO Box 25287

Denver, CO 80225

OFFICIAL BUSINESS

PENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE $300

FIRST CLASS MAIL

POSTAGE & FEES PAID

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

PERMIT NO. G-83
INSIDE THIS ISSUE

2014: A YEAR IN REVIEW – PRESERVING AND INTERPRETING WORLD WAR II JAPANESE 

AMERICAN CONFINEMENT SITES 

•	 Introduction 

•	 Overview of the Fiscal Year 2014 Grant Program Process

STATUS OF FUNDING FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2015 JAPANESE AMERICAN CONFINEMENT SITES 

GRANT CYCLE

FISCAL YEAR 2014 GRANT AWARDS

 FISCAL YEAR 2014 PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS BY STATE 

•	 Arkansas

•	 California

•	 Colorado

•	 District of Columbia

•	 New York

•	 Utah

•	 Washington

•	 Wyoming

MAP OF GRANT FUNDING BY STATE, 2009-2014

GRAPH OF GRANT FUNDING BY SITE, 2009-2014

SEVENTEEN GRANT PROJECTS COMPLETED IN FISCAL YEAR 2014 

•	 Central Arkansas Library System Preserves Student Artwork at Rohwer 

•	 Chicago Japanese American Historical Society Organizes, Catalogs and Preserves Its Collections

•	 Colorado Preservation, Inc. Rehabilitates and Reconstructs the Guard Tower and Water Tower at Amache 

•	 KEET-TV Highlights Japanese American Incarceration Sites’ Jazz Bands in New Documentary 

•	 Densho Completes Two Projects to “Teach the Teachers” and Partner with Museums and Organizations to Digitally 

Preserve Their Collections 

•	 Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i Completes Pilot Program for Educational Tours of the Honouliuli Internment 

Camp Site 

•	 Klamath County Friends of the Library Breaks the Silence of Japanese American Dissent During World War II with 

Oral History Project

•	 National Japanese American Historical Society Develops Place-Based Database and “Why Do We Remember” 

Teacher Training with Two NPS Grants

•	 National Japanese American Memorial Foundation Recruits and Trains Ten Docents to Guide Tours of the National 

Japanese American Memorial in Washington, DC 

•	 Two NPS Grants Help the University of Idaho Reveal the History of Kooskia Internment Camp

•	 The Japanese American Service Committee’s Legacy Center Archives in Chicago Catalogs its Collection and Places 

Records Online

•	 Bancroft Library Creates the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Digital Archive and Makes Thousands 

of Manuscript Items Available Online

•	 Hawai‘i Heritage Center Assesses Condition of Surviving Buildings at Honouliuli for Future Preservation

•	 CyArk Employs 3D Technology to Virtually Reconstruct Manzanar, Topaz and Tule Lake

JAPANESE AMERICAN CONFINEMENT SITES GRANT PROGRAM QUESTIONNAIRE— 

SUMMARY OF PUBLIC COMMENTS 

CONTACT INFORMATION
1

 Winter 2014 / 2015

National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Japanese American

Confinement Sites

Grant Program

2014: 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 six years, the program has awarded 128 

grant awards totaling more than $15.3 million to private 

nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, state, 

local, and tribal governments, and other public entities. The 

projects involve 19 states and the District of Columbia, and 

include oral histories, preservation of camp artifacts and 

buildings, documentaries and educational curriculum, and 

exhibits and memorials that preserve the confinement sites 

and honor the people incarcerated there by sharing their 

experiences. 

The Fiscal Year 2014 grant awards, featured in this 

report, include the stabilization of historic elementary 

school buildings at the former Poston site in Arizona; an 

continued on page 2 

In this Nov. 2, 2011 photo, Speaker of the House John Boehner presents the Congressional Gold Medal to Japanese American veterans of World War II. 

At the ceremony were, from left, Mitsuo Hamasu (100th Infantry Battalion), Boehner, Susumu Ito (442), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Grant Ichikawa 

(MIS), and the late Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (442). A new Japanese American Confinement Sites grant (see page 11) will fund a Smithsonian Institution digital 

exhibition about the Congressional Gold Medal. Photo courtesy: KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images
2

National Park Service

educational training program for 600 teachers across 

California on local and national stories about the forced 

removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans 

during World War II; and an exhibition exploring the 

significance of the Congressional Gold Medal awarded to 

Japanese American veterans of World War II who served 

in the military while their families lived behind barbed 

wire. 

The 21 grants awarded in 2014 range from $12,650 

awarded to the Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress 

organization for a Speak Out for Justice DVD video series 

that highlights the testimonies of 157 people who spoke 

before the Los Angeles public hearing of the Commission 

on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians 

in 1981, to $497,186 for the Topaz Museum to create 

exhibits for the newly constructed Topaz Museum and 

Education Center in Delta, Utah, located 16 miles from 

the Topaz incarceration site in Millard County, Utah.

As several new projects begin, many of the previously 

funded projects have been completed. The completed 

projects highlighted in this annual report include 

archaeological field work at the lesser-known Kooskia 

Internment Camp in Idaho, recruitment and training of 

volunteer docents for the Japanese American Memorial 

to Patriotism During World War II in Washington D.C., 

and the creation of an exhibit featuring preserved 

artwork by students incarcerated at Rohwer in Arkansas. 

The NPS is fortunate to have the opportunity to work 

with Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant 

Program recipients to remember those who persevered 

and to inspire younger generations to become stewards 

of their historic places so they may carry forward these 

stories and lessons on social justice. 

“As America’s storyteller, the National Park Service is 

committed to sharing this tragic episode of our nation’s 

past and what it teaches us about the fragility of our 

constitutional rights,” National Park Service Director 

Jonathan B. Jarvis said. “These grants fund projects to 

help us gain a better understanding of the past, engage 

new audiences, and build new partnerships in the 

preservation of these historic sites and lessons they hold.” 

continued from page 1

When renowned artist Henry Sugimoto was incarcerated, his view of himself, his art, and the Japanese American experience was forever 

changed. His artwork portrays the compelling story of an immigrant, a Japanese American, and an artist. Sugimoto donated 36 paintings 

and 18 watercolors to the city of Wakayama, Japan, where he was born. Photo courtesy: Wakayama Civic Library, Wakayama, Japan 
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), Amache (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).

Eligible Sites and Projects 

Overview of the 2014 Grant Program Process

For the 2014 grant program, the NPS mailed postcards announcing the availability of 

grant applications and guidelines in early August 2013 to approximately 7,500 individuals 

and organizations. On August 30, 2013, 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 19, 2013, the NPS 

received 36 applications, requesting more than $5.5 million in 

Federal funds. (The deadline was extended from the original 

date of November 1 to November 19 due to the government 

shutdown, as application materials were not available on the 

grant program website during the shutdown). During the week 

of December 9, 2013, 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 archeology, interpretive media, historic 

preservation, history, and landscape architecture. The 

panel evaluated and ranked each proposal using criteria and 

guidelines that were established based on public input. 

The panel recommended 21proposals to receive funding. 

Director Jarvis announced the 21 grant awards on June 12, 2014. 

Families gather for their departure to Salinas Assembly Center, where 

they will await transfer to an incarceration site, March 31, 1942. 

Photo courtesy: Densho (ddr-densho-37-581), National Archives 

and Records Administration - photo by Clem Albers

At Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno, California, families 

moved into small, two-room units located in barracks. 

Photo courtesy: Densho (ddr-densho-151-19), National Archives 

and Records Administration - photo by Dorothea Lange
4

Status of Funding for the Fiscal 

Year 2015 Japanese American 

Confinement Sites Grant Cycle

In December 2014, Congress appropriated 

approximately $3 million for the Japanese 

American Confinement Sites Grant Program. This 

appropriation allows the National Park Service 

to move forward with the Japanese American 

Confinement Sites Grant Program for Fiscal Year 

2015.

The application deadline for the Fiscal Year 2015 

Japanese American Confinement Sites proposals was 

November 12, 2014, by which time the National Park 

Service received 36 grant applications. The Japanese 

American Confinement Sites Grant Selection Panel, 

a panel of Federal agency experts representing 

applicable preservation, history, education, and 

conservation disciplines, reviewed and evaluated all 

eligible applications according to the grant program 

criteria. The panel will provide recommendations 

to the Secretary of the Interior for final project 

selection. 

The NPS anticipates that the grant recipients and 

projects will be announced in late spring 2015. 

Information on the FY2015 grant awards will be 

posted on the grant program website as soon as it 

becomes available: http://www.nps.gov/jacs/

National Park Service

Award-winning woodblock animation from the documentary Searchlight 

Serenade: Big Bands in the WWII Japanese American Incarceration Camps.

The documentary was funded in part by a Japanese American Confinement 

Sites grant, featured on page 19. Image courtesy: KEET-TV, 

created by Amy Uyeki

Frances “Chickie” Ishihara White, who sang with the Harmonaires at Puyallup 

Assembly Center, and later the Tets Bessho Band in Los Angeles, shares her 

experiences in Searchlight Serenade. Photo courtesy: Chickie Ishihara White

Kazuko Matsumoto carved this wooden duck pin while 

incarcerated at Gila River in Arizona. A new interactive 

website featuring artifacts from the ten incarceration sites was 

funded, in part, by a Japanese American Confinement Sites 

grant, featured on page 23. Photo courtesy: National Japanese 

American Historical Society
5

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

FISCAL YEAR 2014 GRANT AWARDS

In 2014 – the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant 

Program’s sixth year – 21 awards provided more than $2.9 million 

to projects in 7 states, and the District of Columbia. A list of the 

winning projects follows. 

Fiscal Year 2014 Project Descriptions by State

ARKANSAS

Recipient: Central Arkansas Library System (Little Rock, 

AR)

Project Title: Rohwer Art Textile Conservation and 

Preservation Project

Grant Award: $26,827

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

Description: The Central Arkansas Library System will 

restore and conserve 30 textile pieces created 

by Japanese American students at Rohwer 

under the instruction of their high school art 

teacher, Mabel “Jamie” Jamison Vogel. These 

textiles are part of a larger collection of artwork 

that was donated to the library system in 2010, 

the conservation of which began with a 2011 

Japanese American Confinement Sites grant.

Recipient: University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Little 

Rock, AR)

Project Title: The Rohwer Relocation Center Cemetery 

Conservation, Phase II

Grant Award: $220,706

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

AR

Description: The University of Arkansas at Little 

Rock will continue its preservation 

efforts at the historic Rohwer Relocation 

Center cemetery. Twenty-four concrete 

headstones and graves will be reset, 

repaired, and cleaned of biological 

staining. The original concrete pathways 

between monuments and headstones will 

be restored, as will the original drainage 

patterns and channels in the cemetery.

The deteriorating headstones at Rohwer Relocation Center Cemetery, a 

National Historic Landmark, will be restored with assistance from a 

Japanese American Confinement Sites grant. 

Photo courtesy: NPS Photo

Student artwork by one of Jamie Vogel’s young artists 

at Rohwer. Image courtesy: Butler Center for Arkansas 

Studies, Central Arkansas Library System
6

National Park Service

CALIFORNIA 

Recipient: ABAS Law Foundation (Sacramento, CA)

Project Title: Research Documents for Tule Lake 

Segregation Center

Grant Award: $47,400

Site(s): Tule Lake Segregation Center, Modoc 

County, CA

Description: The Asian/Pacific Bar Association of 

Sacramento (ABAS) Law Foundation 

will conduct archival research focused 

on the thousands of Japanese Americans 

who protested the injustice of their 

incarceration, were segregated at Tule Lake, 

renounced their U.S. citizenship and then 

spent decades fighting the Department of 

Justice to regain their citizenship. Research 

materials will be used to develop a book 

about the Tule Lake Segregation Center; the 

research materials will then be donated to 

Densho, who will make them available to 

the public on its website.

Recipient: CyArk (Oakland, CA)

Project Title: Rediscovering Honouliuli: Exploring 

Japanese American Confinement 

through Student Narratives and Digital 

Documentation

Grant Award: $39,020

Site(s): Honouliuli Internment Site, Honolulu, 

HI 

Description: CyArk will work with high school students 

from the Mid-Pacific Institute’s CyArk 

Technology Center to digitally document 

the remaining resources at the Honouliuli 

Internment Camp. Students will also 

conduct historical research on the site 

under the supervision of their teachers and 

work in partnership with the non-profit 

Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i.

Recipient: Japanese American National Museum 

(Los Angeles, CA)

Project Title: A Collections-Based Guide for Digitally 

Exploring America’s Concentration 

Camps

Grant Award: $130,432

Site(s): Multiple Sites

At age 16, Kunitake M. Yamanaka received a Notice of Approval of 

Renunciation of United States Nationality from the Department of Justice, 

dated March 22, 1945, while incarcerated at the Tule Lake Segregation 

Center. Image courtesy: Densho (ddr-densho-188-31), K. Morgan Yamanaka

Honouliuli Internment Camp, pictured here circa 1945-1946, was 

constructed on 160 acres of agricultural land northwest of Honolulu. 

Photo courtesy: Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i / Japanese American 

Relocation and Internment: The Hawai‘i Experience Archival Collection – 

photo by R.H. Lodge.
7

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

Description: The Japanese American National Museum 

(JANM) will create online materials that will 

thematically explore the Japanese American 

World War II experience, and incorporate 

objects from the museum’s permanent 

collection as well as newly preserved firsthand recollections. Also as part of the 

project, deteriorating content currently 

housed on outdated media will be preserved, 

and ephemera such as scrapbooks and 

diaries related to the 10 War Relocation 

Authority centers will be digitized. The 

resulting online guide and new webpages will 

be made available on the JANM website. 

Recipient: Los Angeles Harbor Department (San 

Pedro, CA)

Project Title: Lost Communities of Terminal Island, 

Publication

Grant Award: $100,000

Site(s): Terminal Island, Los Angeles County, CA

Description: The Los Angeles Harbor Department (Port 

of Los Angeles) will produce a book, Lost 

Communities of Terminal Island, focused 

on the Terminal Island Japanese American 

community—the first community to face 

arrest and removal following the bombing 

of Pearl Harbor. Archival materials gathered 

for the book will be scanned and made 

available on the Port’s website and on 

the Online Archive of California (OAC). 

Materials will also be made available to the 

public at the Port of Los Angeles Historical 

Archives, where they will be used in rotating 

exhibitions.

Recipient: National Japanese American Historical 

Society (San Francisco, CA)

Project Title: Western Region Confinement Sites 

Education Project

Grant Award: $63,755

Site(s): Multiple Sites

Description: The National Japanese American Historical 

Society (NJAHS) will design and implement 

“Regional Perspectives on Western 

U.S. Confinement Sites,” a professional 

development training for historians, site 

interpreters, and classroom educators. The 

training program will focus on the central 

Five “L.A. girls,” as written on the back of the photograph, pose for a 

photo at Heart Mountain. Photo courtesy: Japanese American National 

Museum (Gift of Mori Shimada, 92.10.2AY)

Aerial view of Canal Camp, the eastern part of Gila River 

incarceration site in southern Arizona. Photo courtesy: 

The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
8

National Park Service

question of, “What role did place have in 

determining the fate of Japanese Americans 

after the bombing of Pearl Harbor?” Key 

activities will include the identification 

of a cohesive regional story, the design of 

curriculum materials for classroom use, 

and resources for a field-based educational 

program. Teaching materials will be 

accessible via a web portal.

Recipient: Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress (Los 

Angeles, CA)

Project Title: Courage of Japanese Americans as They 

Speak Out for Justice (CWRIC Los

Angeles)

Grant Award: $12,650

Site(s): Multiple Sites

Description: Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress (NCRR) 

will enhance their Stand Up for Justice

DVD set, which contains testimonies of 

157 people who spoke at the 1981 Los 

Angeles hearing of the Commission on 

Wartime Relocation and Internment 

of Civilians (CWRIC). Content will be 

organized into chapters and made menudriven, allowing viewers to quickly find 

each testimony. An updated Viewer’s 

Companion will be created, and a 

highlights DVD will be produced. The 

NCRR will distribute 300 copies of the 

DVDs to academics, teachers, students, 

and others in California.

Recipient: Poston Community Alliance (Lafayette, 

CA)

Project Title: Historic Structures Assessment and 

Stabilization for the Poston Elementary 

School Site

Grant Award: $163,750

Site(s): Colorado River (Poston) Relocation 

Center, La Paz County, AZ

Description: The Poston Community Alliance will 

assess the condition of the rapidly 

deteriorating elementary school buildings 

at the former Poston site and create a plan 

to stabilize and preserve these historic 

resources. The project will also result 

in the temporary stabilization of the 

buildings, while a phased restoration plan 

is developed for future work.

The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians 

(CWRIC) was created mainly to investigate matters surrounding the World 

War II incarceration of Japanese Americans and to recommend remedies. 

It conducted hearings in twenty cities beginning in 1981. Photo courtesy: 

Densho (ddr-densho-37-370), National Archives and Records Administration 

Poston Elementary School, Unit 1, Colorado River Relocation Center was 

designated as a National Historic Landmark on October 16, 2012. Photo 

courtesy: NPS Photo - photo by Front Range Research Associates, Inc. 
9

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

Recipient: The Regents of the University of California, 

c/o UC Berkeley Sponsored Projects Office 

(Berkeley, CA)

Project Title: Voices in Confinement: A Digital Archive of 

Japanese American Internees

Grant Award: $287,265

Site(s): Multiple Sites

Description: The Bancroft Library will create a 

comprehensive digital archive of their 

collections related to the incarceration of 

Japanese Americans during World War II. 

The digitized material will be scanned and 

linked to existing finding aids, and made 

accessible through a website created with 

funds from a 2011 Japanese American 

Confinement Sites grant.

Recipient: San Joaquin County Office of Education 

(Stockton, CA)

Project Title: California Legacy Voice Network (CLVN)

Grant Award: $180,836

Site(s): Manzanar Relocation Center, Inyo County, 

CA; Tule Lake Segregation Center, Modoc 

County, CA; and all California WCCA 

Assembly Centers

Description: The San Joaquin County Office of 

Education, working in collaboration 

with the Fred T. Korematsu Institute 

for Civil Rights and Education, will 

create an educational training program 

for 600 teachers across California 

that focuses on the local and national 

stories about the forced removal and 

incarceration of Japanese Americans 

during World War II. The training 

will highlight the stories of Fred 

Korematsu, the “assembly centers” 

in California, and the personal stories 

of those affected by the incarceration 

experience. Lesson plans will be 

developed for elementary, middle, and 

high school students.

Recipient: Visual Communications 

 (Los Angeles, CA)

Project Title: Building History 3.0: Learning about 

Japanese American Incarceration 

Camps through Minecraft

Grant Award: $97,150

Dressed in uniform, a World War I veteran arrives at Santa Anita 

Assembly Center from his home, April 5, 1942. Photo courtesy: 

Densho (ddr-densho-37-765), National Archives and Records 

Administration - photo by Clem Albers

The Santa Anita Racetrack was converted into an “assembly center” to detain 

thousands of Japanese Americans, Arcadia, California, April 6, 1942.

Photo courtesy: National Archives and Records Administration 

(ARC #537403) - photo by Clem Albers
10

National Park Service

Site(s): Multiple Sites

Description: Visual Communications will create Building 

History 3.0, a website and curriculum project 

that uses the popular video construction game 

Minecraft to engage elementary and middleschool-aged youth with the history and meaning 

of Japanese American incarceration 

during World War II. Students will 

research and analyze themes such 

as civil liberties, citizenship and 

democracy, in addition to exploring 

the built environment of the 

incarceration sites through Minecraft. 

Recipient: Visual Communications (Los 

Angeles, CA)

Project Title: The Heart Mountain Barracks 

Project

Grant Award: $89,510

Site(s): Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Park 

County, WY

Description: Visual Communications will update Sharon 

Yamato’s book, Moving Walls: Preserving the 

Barracks of America’s Concentration Camps, and 

produce a video documentary focused on presentday efforts to identify and preserve barracks 

formerly located at Heart Mountain.

COLORADO

Recipient: Colorado Preservation, Inc. (Denver, CO)

Project Title: Amache Laundry Building Relocation and 

Restoration, Mess Hall Planning, and Guard/

Water Tower Security

Grant Award: $150,254

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

County, CO 

Description: Colorado Preservation, Inc., will relocate a 

historic laundry building from a nearby farm 

back to Amache, placing it upon an original 

concrete foundation. Following the closure of 

Amache in 1945, the government dismantled or 

sold most of the buildings, many of them to local 

schools, farms and ranches. The laundry building 

will be placed near the site’s guard and waters 

towers and soon-to-be reconstructed barracks 

building. Colorado Preservation, Inc. will also 

develop reconstruction plans for a mess hall, and 

install lighting and security fencing for the guard 

and water towers.

Heart Mountain Relocation Center, near Powell, Wyoming, 1943.

Photo courtesy: Densho (ddr-densho-157-1), 

Wada and Homma Family Collection

Amache, as viewed from the water tower platform during World 

War II. As one of the highest points around, photographers often 

climbed it to capture aerial views of the camp. Photo courtesy: 

Amache Preservation Society, McClellan Archive Collection 
11

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

Recipient: Colorado State University 

(Fort Collins, CO)

Project Title: “Confinement in the Land of 

Enchantment” Historic Markers, 

Publication, and Website Implementation

Grant Award: $189,864

Site(s): Santa Fe Internment Camp, Santa Fe County, 

NM; Fort Stanton Internment Camp, Lincoln 

County, NM; Camp Lordsburg (US Army 

Internment Facility), Hidalgo County, NM; 

and Old Raton (Baca) Ranch Camp, Santa Fe 

County, NM

Description: Colorado State University will create historical 

markers and develop an outreach publication 

and website pages focused on the Japanese 

American confinement sites in New Mexico. 

Markers will be installed at Ft. Stanton and 

at Camp Lordsburg. The publication will be 

distributed at schools and libraries across the 

state, and web pages will be hosted on the 

website of the New Mexico Office of the State 

Historian. 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Recipient: Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC)

Project Title: Congressional Gold Medal Digital 

Exhibition: The Untold Stories of the Nisei 

Soldiers

Grant Award: $238,090

Site(s): Multiple Sites

Description: The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American 

Center, working in partnership with the 

National Veterans Network, will create 

a digital exhibition that explores the 

significance of the Congressional Gold Medal 

awarded to Japanese American veterans of 

World War II who served in the military while 

their families lived behind barbed wire. A 

curriculum toolkit will also be developed and 

offered along with the digital program as a 

resource to educators nationwide.

On November 2, 2011, the Congressional Gold Medal was awarded 

to the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team 

and Military Intelligence Service. The decoration is the highest 

civilian award in the United States and is awarded to an individual 

or unit who performs an outstanding deed or act of service to 

the security, prosperity, and national interest of the United States. 

Image courtesy: National Veterans Network

Two soldiers visit with internees in the Santa Fe Internment Camp in 

New Mexico, January 23, 1945. Photo courtesy: Japanese Cultural 

Center of Hawai‘i / Joan Oya Collection
12

National Park Service

NEW YORK

Recipient: Camera News, Inc., dba Third World 

Newsreel (New York, NY)

Project Title: Resistance at Tule Lake 

Grant Award: $109,961

Site(s): Tule Lake Segregation Center, Modoc 

County, CA

Description: Camera News, Inc., will produce a 

documentary film that tells the story of 

Japanese Americans who were branded as 

“no-nos” or “disloyals” and incarcerated 

at the Tule Lake Segregation Center. Three 

versions of the film will be developed: a 

60-80 minute theatrical feature, an hourlong public television broadcast, and a short 

version geared for the classroom, which will 

be accompanied by supplemental educational 

materials.

UTAH

Recipient: Topaz Museum (Delta, UT)

Project Title: Manufacturing and Installation of Exhibits 

for the Topaz Museum and Education 

Center

Grant Award: $497,186

Site(s): Topaz Relocation Center, 

 Millard County, UT

Description: The Topaz Museum will design, 

manufacture and install educational 

and interpretive exhibits within the 

newly constructed Topaz Museum 

and Education Center. Curatorial 

storage will also be fabricated to house 

the museum’s collection of artifacts, 

artwork, books, video interviews, 

photographs and primary documents.

WASHINGTON 

Recipient: Densho (Seattle, WA)

Project Title: Online Repository for Editing Confinement 

Sites Video Testimonies

Grant Award: $209,982

Site(s): Multiple Sites

Description: Densho will make available for download over 

800 video interviews that focus on the impact 

of the World War II incarceration on Japanese 

Americans, in order to facilitate the use of the 

The Topaz Museum, located near Delta, Utah, was constructed with 

assistance from a 2012 Japanese American Confinement Sites grant. 

Photo courtesy: Topaz Museum Board - photo by Brian Buroker

Under heavy guard, 25 “lay-down” strikers from Tule Lake 

Segregation Center are marched to the Department of Justice 

train that will take them to the Santa Fe Internment Camp, June 

24, 1945. Photo courtesy: Densho (ddr-densho-37-196), National 

Archives and Records Administration 
Public Law 109-441 - Preservation of Japanese American World War II Confinement Sites

video clips in the classroom. A website also 

will be developed to help users access the video 

clips, and will include policies, guidelines and 

tutorials regarding their use. 

Recipient: Earshot Jazz Society of Seattle 

(Seattle, WA)

Project Title: Panama Hotel Jazz Education and 

Performance Extension

Grant Award: $33,419

Site(s): Bainbridge Island, Kitsap County, WA; Seattle 

Temporary Detention Facility, King County, 

WA; Puyallup Assembly Center, King County, 

WA 

Description: The Earshot Jazz Society of Seattle will 

present “Panama Hotel Jazz: Music Made 

from Memories,” a 90-minute program of 

music and narration that tells the history of 

Seattle’s Panama Hotel and its significance to 

the Japanese American community, especially 

during World War II. The musical program will 

be performed 34 times over a two-year period at 

four locations: the Bainbridge Island Eagledale 

Ferry Dock, the Seattle Temporary Detention 

Station, the Puyallup Fairgrounds, and the 

Panama Hotel, a 103-year-old building designed 

by Japanese American architect, Sabro Ozasa, in 

the heart of Seattle’s Nihonmachi (Japantown). 

WYOMING 

Recipient: Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation 

(Powell, WY)

Project Title: Heart Mountain Accessibility Project

Grant Award: $16,943

Site(s): Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Park 

County, WY

Description: The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation 

(HMWF) will increase accessibility to the 

Heart Mountain Interpretive Center exhibits 

in order to provide an increasingly diverse 

visitation with a greater understanding of 

the Heart Mountain experience. Through 

this project, the museum’s introductory 

film and iPod-based audio tours of the 

exhibits will include Spanish, German and 

Japanese language versions, and the outdoor 

Walking Trail will be upgraded with braille 

interpretation stations. 

 The Puyallup Fairgrounds will host a musical program that will 

educate people about World War II incarceration. Image courtesy: 

Kenjiro Nomura, Camp Harmony, 1942

Watercolor on paper, Collection of Tacoma Art Museum, 

The George and Betty Nomura Collection

Heart Mountain incarcerees head back to camp after saying goodbye to 

their friends when the camp began to close, May 1945. Some families 

returned to their homes before the war, while others resumed their lives 

somewhere new. Photo courtesy: Japanese American National Museum 

(Gift of Mori Shimada, 92.10.2D)

13
14

National Park Service

GRANT FUNDING BY STATE

This map shows total (2009 - 2014) 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 Poston Community Alliance, which is in California, received funding to stabilize historic elementary 

school buildings at the Colorado River (Poston) Relocation Center in Arizona. In addition, some projects generally benefit all confinement sites and/or interpret the overall Japanese American incarceration 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 (2009-2014) 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 incarceration experience. 
16

National Park Service

Following is an overview of 17 project success stories, all of which were completed during Fiscal Year 

2014, and which reflect the dedicated commitment and hard work of numerous groups to preserve, 

interpret and disseminate the history of the Japanese American incarceration during World War II. 

SEVENTEEN GRANT PROJECTS COMPLETED IN FISCAL YEAR 2014

From 1942 to 1945, Mabel “Jamie” Jamison Vogel taught art to Japanese 

American students incarcerated at Rohwer Relocation Center near 

McGehee, Arkansas. Faced with a meager budget, her students crafted 

modest materials, such as scrap wood and cardboard found in the 

camp, into hand-painted bird pins, charcoal portraits, and watercolor 

scenes of life at Rohwer. 

When the war ended and the confinement site closed, Jamie Vogel hung 

on to 306 pieces of her students’ artwork, as well as 185 handwritten 

autobiographies that captured daily life in the concentration camp. 

Before Vogel died in 1994, she willed the collection to a friend, Rosalie 

Santine Gould, who was the mayor of McGehee. Gould housed the 

collection in her home, where, over the years, she hosted as many as 

1,500 researchers who were interested in the artwork and biographies. 

In December 2010, Gould donated the remarkable collection to the 

Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) to be made accessible to the 

public as a tribute to 

Jamie Vogel and to the 

people who created 

art in the face of incarceration at Rohwer. With a 2011 NPS Japanese 

American Confinement Sites grant of $67,821, CALS preserved the 

pieces, now more than 65 years old, and brought them to the public 

through a multifaceted exhibit titled, The Art of Living: Japanese 

American Creative Experience at Rohwer.

During the project, the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, which is 

the history and genealogy department of CALS, cleaned, mended, and 

conserved the paper art, then matted and framed the pieces to ensure 

their safety. They also purchased customized containers to protect the 

items during storage. Meanwhile, they developed The Art of Living

exhibit and a corresponding book that placed the artwork in time, 

describing, for example, how the collection’s drawings reflected a shift 

in women’s fashion trends, and how original posters demonstrated 

Japanese American support for the war effort. Two major public 

exhibitions were held at Concordia Hall at the Arkansas Studies 

Institute (ASI), where more than 6,000 visitors, including numerous 

school groups, viewed the collection. A third exhibition was also held 

in another gallery in the ASI. Butler Center staff members created a 

cell-phone audio tour as part of the free exhibitions. The center also 

created a small permanent exhibit featuring rotating artifacts for the 

ASI research room. Furthermore, the Butler Center inaugurated and 

maintained a website (http://www.butlercenter.org/rohwer/) to highlight 

the collection and its value as an educational resource.

Central Arkansas Library System Preserves Student Artwork at Rohwer

Students used various media to illustrate their lives at 

Rohwer, such as this gouache painting, titled “Rohwer 

Camp #2,” created by Mas. Kitake. Image courtesy: 

Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas 

Library System 

Mabel “Jamie” Jamison Vogel helped her students, 

both youth and adult, find resourceful ways to express 

themselves through art. Photo courtesy: Japanese 

American National Museum (Gift of Mabel Rose Jamison 

(Jamie) Vogel, 88.25.58N)
17

Two wooden birds, a cardinal and a blue jay, handcrafted 

by an incarceree at Topaz; a Purple Heart awarded to Tom 

Arai for his service in World War II; athletic uniforms, 

yearbooks, and family photo albums – these artifacts 

are among those found in the archives of the Chicago 

Japanese American Historical Society (CJAHS). A 2011 

NPS Japanese American Confinement Sites grant of $5,000 

helped CJAHS organize, catalogue, and better preserve 

its collections, which, through donations by incarcerees 

and the general public since the 1990s, capture the wave of 

Japanese Americans who resettled in Chicago directly from 

incarceration sites after World War II.

Upgrading the archive’s organization and storage materials 

makes its collections more accessible and protects the 

artifacts for future generations. With the grant, CJAHS 

purchased acid-free corrugated board and boxes, acidfree tissue paper, archival polyester batting, polyethylene 

microfoam, polyester film (Mylar), and untreated cotton 

fabric for state-of-the-art storage. The grant also helped 

CJAHS hire two interns who catalogued the artifacts in 

a searchable database and stored the materials for safekeeping. 

“After working with so many objects from Japanese Americans 

in Chicago, I now have a greater appreciation for our community 

here,” observed CJAHS intern Alexandra Vasilou in her blog 

“Chicago Japanese American Historical Society Internship,” at 

cjahsarchivevasilou.blogspot.com. Vasilou was surprised by the amount 

and variety of artifacts from the Chicago area, because she had always 

considered the West Coast to be the center of Japanese American 

culture.

Some of the artifacts, including a former incarceree’s box of Hanafuda 

playing cards, were put on permanent display in Chicago History 

Museum’s “Facing Freedom” exhibit. The Japanese “flower cards” 

were kept by a courageous Japanese American family despite the 

scrutiny of their culture during wartime. A second Chicago History 

Museum exhibit, “American Heroes: Japanese American WWII Nisei 

Soldiers and the Congressional Gold Medal,” featured other CJAHS 

artifacts, including Sam Ozaki’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team jacket. 

Vasilou, whose grandfather was incarcerated during World War II, 

reflected upon her work on the collection, “I cannot help but think that 

in studying history that is far from us we will always be able to find a 

road back to home.”

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

Chicago Japanese American Historical Society Organizes, Catalogs and 

Preserves Its Collections

The Hanafuda card set is now safely preserved in the CJAHS archive.

Photo courtesy: Chicago Japanese American Historical Society

The Purple Heart, awarded to Tom Arai during World War II, 

is a combat medal awarded to members of the U.S. armed 

forces who are wounded or killed in action. Photo courtesy: 

Chicago Japanese American Historical Society 
18

National Park Service

Colorado Preservation, Inc. Rehabilitates and Reconstructs the Guard Tower 

and Water Tower at Amache

With a 2011 NPS Japanese American Confinement Sites 

grant of $291,025, Colorado Preservation, Inc. (CPI) 

has both rehabilitated the historic water tower and 

reconstructed a guard tower at the site of the Granada 

Relocation Center, commonly known as Amache. The 

unmistakable presence of these towers on the barren 

Colorado plains once stood as a stark reminder of the 

loss of freedom to more than 7,000 Japanese Americans 

incarcerated there at the height of World War II. Today, 

the towers are a tangible reminder of the events that 

occurred at Amache.

Amache operated from 1942 to 1945; the last of its 

buildings were sold or removed within two years after it 

closed. Although the buildings are long gone, concrete 

slabs where barracks once stood, the street grid, and 

the camp cemetery still mark Amache’s past. In 2006, 

Amache was designated a National Historic Landmark. 

A year later, the NPS, in cooperation with the Town of 

Granada, Friends of Amache, and others, prepared an 

interpretive plan to guide the preservation of the site. 

The plan called for the reconstruction of a guard tower 

as critical for providing visitors a physical reminder 

of incarceration. This plan, coupled with the recent 

acquisition of portions of Amache’s original water tank, 

created an opportune time to bring both structures back 

to Amache.

CPI worked with a team of preservation professionals 

to carry out the project. Scheuber + Darden Architects 

guided and oversaw the construction process using 

plans and specifications previously completed with 

two Japanese American Confinement Sites grants 

awarded in 2010. Wattle & Daub Contractors of Fort 

Collins, Colorado, completed the restoration and 

reconstruction work. An archeological team comprised 

of Richard Carillo, Bonnie Clark (Associate Professor 

of Anthropology at the University of Denver), and 

Abby Hopper monitored ground disturbance during 

construction. Finally, CPI fabricated and installed 

wayside exhibit panels for the water and guard towers. 

The water tower and guard tower project has returned 

two landmark structures to the site, helping create a 

more meaningful experience at Amache, whose growing 

visitor base includes former incarcerees and their 

families, school groups, and the general public. 

On September 11, 2013, the rehabilitated water tank was returned to its 

historic post. Contemporary photo courtesy: Scheuber + Darden Architects, 

historic photo courtesy: Hideo Takeuchi

The reconstructed guard tower at Amache. The man sitting on the ladder in the historic photograph is 

the photographer’s brother, Torao Fuchigami, circa 1943-44. Contemporary photo courtesy: Wattle & 

Daub Contractors, historic photo courtesy: Robert Fuchigami Collection - photo by Bill Fuchigami 
19

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

As young Japanese Americans filed into confinement 

sites, forcibly removed from their friends, schools, 

and neighborhoods, they brought with them a totally 

American art form—jazz music. With help from a 

2011 NPS Japanese American Confinement Sites grant 

of $96,465, KEET-TV (PBS, Eureka, CA) produced, 

promoted, broadcast, and distributed a one-hour 

documentary about the jazz bands that Japanese 

Americans started while incarcerated during World 

War II. The documentary is called Searchlight Serenade: 

Big Bands in the WWII Japanese American Incarceration 

Camps.

“All of the camps had dance bands,” recalled George 

Yoshida, who remembered the thrill of playing jazz at 

Poston. In all, 20 bands were created and thrived in 13 

“assembly centers” and incarceration sites from 1941 

to 1945. Carrying this quintessential form of American 

music behind barbed wire, Yoshida explained, “was 

certainly a matter of healing in my self-image, healing my 

frustration about being put in the camps, being labeled an 

alien.” Playing in the band, he said, was about “more than 

just having fun.”

Featured in the documentary are nine musicians—big 

band trumpet players, saxophonists, and singers—

whose tunes provided a soulful escape from prison life. 

Frances “Chickie” Ishihara White, who sang with the 

Harmonaires at Puyallup Assembly Center, remembered, 

“that was the time to forget that we were incarcerated...

It was a very good thing for everyone.” In the film, 

jazz melodies evoke the energy of the 1940s, even as 

KEET-TV producers artistically contrast the music with the 

musicians’ recollections and historic photos of confinement. 

Also illustrating the documentary is award-winning 

woodblock animation by artist Amy Uyeki, whose inspiration 

for the animated stories came from interviews, archival 

footage, and her own parents’ experiences at Gila River and 

Minidoka. 

KEET-TV distributed the documentary to public television 

stations nationwide. Also, film screenings were held in Los 

Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland, followed by 

panel discussions with some of the musicians featured in the 

documentary and KEET-TV producers. A website, www.

searchlight-serenade.org, was also created for the project, 

and includes a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the 

documentary. The website will be maintained and the film 

aired on American screens through 2017, the length of the 

music and television rights for the documentary. 

KEET-TV Highlights Japanese American Incarceration Sites’ Jazz Bands 

in New Documentary

Frances “Chickie” Ishihara White reminisces about singing with the 

Harmonaires at Puyallup Assembly Center, also known as “Camp 

Harmony.” Photo courtesy: KEET-TV - photo by Claire Reynolds

George Yoshida jams for the documentary film crew. Also an advisor for 

the project, he was “the guiding light and inspiration behind Searchlight 

Serenade.” Photo courtesy: KEET-TV - photo by Claire Reynolds
20

To be effective, teachers need more than a blackboard 

and chalk. They need knowledge and a creative plan to 

pass information along in a way that inspires students to 

think. If the subject matter is the incarceration of Japanese 

Americans during World War II, then teachers have a key 

ally in Densho, which has preserved abundant source 

materials and made them available online. 

And now, with the help of a 2011 NPS Japanese American 

Confinement Sites grant of $281,733, Densho has 

developed a program to introduce teachers to Japanese 

American incarceration source material for use in the 

classroom. The Teach the Teachers project included 16 

workshops, during which 625 teachers from 22 states 

and the District of Columbia were trained in the use of 

“Thinking Routine” activities developed by the Harvard 

Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero, which 

investigates the essential aspects of human learning. 

Teachers, for instance, might show students a World War II 

poster and then challenge them to discover the message in 

the symbols they see. 

The “Teach the Teachers” project also resulted in a 

standards-based curriculum and a resource package with 

primary materials. The package went not only to teachers 

at the workshops, but to thousands of others through the 

creation of 10,000 CDs distributed to school districts, 

educational organizations, list-serves and conferences. 

Workshop materials also were placed online. 

In a separate 2011 NPS Japanese American Confinement 

Sites Grant Program award of $262,980, Densho designed 

and created the Densho Digital Repository (DDR) while 

partnering with four Japanese American heritage and 

preservation organizations. The project provided the 

technology for partner organizations to digitally preserve 

and share materials in their collections, thus increasing 

Densho’s outreach. 

The partners in the project, Digital Archive System for 

Community Organizations, were: the Heart Mountain 

Wyoming Foundation (Powell, Wyoming); the Japanese 

Cultural Center of Hawai‘i (Honolulu); the Oregon Nikkei 

Endowment (Portland, Oregon); and the Japanese American 

Museum of San Jose (San Jose, California). DDR staff 

set up a computer workstation at each partner site and 

provided on-site training in the collection and processing 

of materials. Staff also developed a DDR Digitization and 

Preservation Manual and a suite of software components to 

support the DDR. 

During the two-year project period, more than 50,000 

historic materials relating to the Japanese American 

experience before, during, and after World War II were 

processed and added to the DDR system. The material 

comprised photographs, correspondence, diaries, artwork, 

and other documents and ephemera. 

Densho Completes Two Projects to “Teach the Teachers” and Partner with 

Museums and Organizations to Digitally Preserve Their Collections 

National Park Service

Users can browse the repository by collection, topic, or facility, or perform 

a keyword search. Photo courtesy: Densho

Janet Hayakawa, Densho’s education specialist, encouraged Hawaiʻi teachers 

to use a variety of classroom materials such as photographs, oral histories, 

documents, and newspaper articles to develop their students’ analytical and 

reasoning skills. Photo courtesy: Densho
“When I was in elementary school, we took a field trip 

to Pearl Harbor, visited the memorial, and learned 

about what took place on December 7, 1941,” recalls 

a student at Waialua High School in Hawai‘i. But it 

wasn’t until high school that many students learned 

the rest of the story about what took place in Hawai‘i 

after the bombing. Within 49 hours of the attack 

on Pearl Harbor, hundreds of Hawai‘i Japanese 

Americans were arrested and detained in camps on the 

islands. Hawai‘i’s largest internment site, Honouliuli 

Internment Camp on O‘ahu , opened in 1943. The 

student continued, “I believe we should see every 

aspect of World War II history, especially if it is in our 

own backyard.” 

With a 2011 NPS Japanese American Confinement 

Sites grant of $38,565, the Japanese Cultural Center 

of Hawai‘i (JCCH) developed an educational tour 

of Honouliuli, making it accessible to students and 

the general public. The Honouliuli site is owned 

by Monsanto, which restricts access to the site but 

gave permission to JCCH for this pilot program of 

educational tours. The demand for tours of Honouliuli is 

very high. During the pilot program, JCCH conducted 18 

tours for 616 individuals, including high school and college 

students, members of the public, Hawai‘i legislators, and 

veterans from the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

As a pilot program, JCCH had the flexibility to try different 

approaches to navigating the remote gulch where Honouliuli 

is located, and also develop creative ways to engage 

participants. As the tour evolved, JCCH incorporated 

stories shared by former internees’ family members 

who went on the tours, and highlighted archeological 

resources both on site and, for inaccessible areas due to 

brush overgrowth, through photographs. The process also 

included a “Train the Trainers” session where program 

coordinators taught tour presenters and sought input from 

tour guides on what stories resonated the most with tourgoers. A fine-tuned program resulted, which began with 

a classroom session for around 50 tour participants that 

featured a short presentation and film, The Untold Story: 

Internment of Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i, which was 

completed with a FY2010 Japanese American Confinement 

Sites grant. Then, participants and guides traveled to 

Honouliuli, where they explored the site within the confines 

of the gulch. JCCH also created a brochure as a reference 

for the history and resources of Honouliuli. 

Over the two years of the project, JCCH fostered strong 

partnerships with former internees’ families and local 

organizations that support the need to maintain and access 

the Honouliuli site, including landowner Monsanto. JCCH 

prepared a report evaluating the pilot program, and will use 

it to implement regular educational tours at Honouliuli.

21

Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i Completes Pilot Program for Educational 

Tours of the Honouliuli Internment Camp Site

JCCH Hawai‘i Internment Education Committee Chairperson, Jane Kurahara, 

uses a historic photo to point out the aqueduct running through the Honouliuli 

Internment Camp. Photo courtesy: Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i

St. Andrew’s Schools teacher Hallie Gleason and her U.S. History and AP 

History classes tour Honouliuli, led by Jane Kurahara in March, 2013.

Photo courtesy: St. Andrew’s Schools

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

Klamath County Friends of the Library Breaks the Silence of Japanese American 

Dissent During World War II with Oral History Project

Already confined to prison camps across the country 

during World War II, Japanese Americans were 

further affronted by their government when the 

War Department and the War Relocation Authority 

required every incarceree, age 17 and older, to 

fill out forms that became known as the “loyalty 

questionnaire.” Two questions, in particular, caused 

concern. Question 27 asked: “Are you willing to 

serve in the armed forces of the United States on 

combat duty, wherever ordered?” And Question 28 

asked: “Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the 

United States of America and faithfully defend the 

United States from any or all attack by foreign or 

domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance 

or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or any other 

foreign government, power, or organization?”

With a 2010 NPS Japanese American Confinement 

Sites grant of $55,000, Klamath County Friends 

of the Library interviewed 22 former incarcerees 

who were affected by the loyalty questionnaire, 

which subsequently divided the Japanese American 

community between those considered “loyal” for 

answering the two questions “yes, yes,” and those deemed 

“disloyal” for answering “no” to one or both questions. The 

“disloyals” were branded “no-no boys” or “troublemakers,” 

and were transferred by the federal government to Tule Lake 

Segregation Center. A stigma around those incarcerated at 

the high-security Tule Lake Segregation Center still endures 

today.

The Klamath County Friends of the Library project 

challenged the notion that protest equaled “disloyalty.” It 

also dispels the myth that Japanese Americans were passive 

victims of wartime incarceration.

The interviewees included thirteen women and nine men. 

One interviewee said he answered “no, no” out of hurt 

and anger from his unjustified expulsion from the military 

at the start of the war – only to be followed by the loyalty 

questionnaire. Another interviewee, Sadako Betty Abe, 

was too young to answer the questionnaire, but remembers 

moving from Manzanar to Tule Lake, although her parents 

never mentioned the loyalty questions. “We were just 

going,” was the explanation she recalled. She went on to 

say, “it’s amazing how strong my parents were.”

To capture the oral histories, project director Gayle 

Yamasaki contacted people in the Japanese American 

community in California, Oregon, and Washington. 

Along with transcribing the interviews, the project team 

also collected photographs, scrapbooks, yearbooks, 

publications, letters, cards, and other artifacts such as 

kitchen utensils and shell jewelry. The interviews, both 

audio and visual footage, historic and current photographs, 

and documents compiled during the project have been 

submitted to the Tule Lake Unit of the World War II Valor in 

the Pacific National Monument for long-term safekeeping.

Interviewee Sadako Betty Abe looks through mementos from her young life, 

which carried on in the midst of incarceration. Photo courtesy: Gayle Yamasaki

Gayle Yamasaki (center) with interviewee Mary Kawano Fong (far right) 

and her relatives during one of the Tule Lake pilgrimages. Mary was 

instrumental in opening the way for many interviews captured for this 

project. Photo courtesy: Gayle Yamasaki

National Park Service
23

With a 2009 NPS Japanese American Confinement 

Sites grant of $18,568, the National Japanese American 

Historical Society (NJAHS) has completed a searchable 

database that integrates confinement site plans, 

architectural drawings, works of art, and artifacts from the 

ten War Relocation Authority “relocation centers.” NJAHS 

partnered with the Department of Art and Architecture at 

the University of San Francisco (Seth Wachtel, Department 

Chair, and Dr. Lynne Horiuchi, Visiting Scholar) to develop 

the website as an interpretive tool that links these resources 

together – making connections that bring a richness that 

the plans, drawings and objects cannot individually convey. 

More than 230 artifacts, drawings, and plans are available 

to the public on the interactive website (www.njahs.org/

confinementsites/). Approximately one-third of the 

drawings and plans in the NJAHS collection were made 

publicly accessible by Jimi Yamaichi, a former incarceree 

who advocated for the preservation of the Tule Lake 

Segregation Center. Other maps and drawings were 

researched and scanned from the collections 

of the National Archives and Records 

Administration. With technical support from 

the University of San Francisco Gleeson 

Library, more images can be indexed and 

loaded onto the database in the future. 

Continuing its mission to share the Japanese 

American experience with a diverse 

community, NJAHS used a second Japanese 

American Confinement Sites grant of $85,200 

that it received in 2011 to develop a curriculum 

to engage students in rigorous thinking 

about the Japanese American experience 

during World War II. Then, in partnership 

with Golden Gate National Recreation 

Area, NJAHS held a three-day training for 

20 secondary school teachers from four 

areas: Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Northern 

California, and the Pacific Northwest. Held 

at the Presidio of San Francisco, the training 

was titled “Why Do We Remember?: Teachers’ 

Presidio Institute on the Japanese American 

Internment Camps—Historic Inquiry and 

Place-Based Learning.” The teachers who attended the 

Presidio Institute then trained a total of 106 teachers at 

their regional sites, including at Manzanar, Tule Lake, 

Topaz, and Bainbridge Island. These teachers then trained 

an additional 150 teachers. The ripple effect has now 

reached more than 270 teachers, and it is anticipated that 

the current will continue.

National Japanese American Historical Society Develops Place-Based Database 

and “Why Do We Remember” Teacher Training with Two NPS Grants

Teachers and National Park Service educators gather for a group photo 

during the three-day, 2012 summer institute. Photo courtesy: 

National Japanese American Historical Society

By clicking on a map of incarceration sites, users of the NJAHS website can 

connect to digitized plans, drawings, and objects from each specific site. 

Photo courtesy: National Japanese American Historical Society

Public Law 109-441 - Preservation of Japanese American World War II Confinement Sites
24

The National Japanese American Memorial to 

Patriotism During World War II in Washington, D.C., 

honors the 120,000 Japanese Americans unjustly 

incarcerated during the war. Located a stone’s throw 

from the U.S. Capitol, where laws were enacted 

forcing Japanese Americans into incarceration sites, 

the memorial is the only major location in the eastern 

United States that now tells this important story. 

Guided tours of the memorial offer visitors – including 

federal officials, journalists, civil rights leaders, 

educators, and the general public – insight into the 

memorial’s origins, symbols, architecture and artistic 

elements, information that is not explained by signage.

With a 2010 NPS Japanese American Confinement 

Sites grant of $38,909, the National Japanese American 

Memorial Foundation trained ten new docents to guide 

tours of the memorial. Previously, the foundation had 

only four docents, all of whom were members of the 

442nd Regimental Combat Team or had been confined 

in one of the incarceration centers. Now in their 

80s and 90s, these docents could only accommodate 

approximately ten of the dozens of tour requests the 

foundation receives each year. 

Author and historian Dr. Franklin Odo developed training 

sessions in collaboration with the foundation to recruit a 

new generation of docents for the memorial. The docents 

are diverse in ethnicity, and range from students to retirees. 

Over a nine-month period, they were trained during five, 

two-hour workshops that included visits to the memorial, 

training regarding the memorial’s development and design, 

and attendance at special programs that utilize tours, such 

as the Cherry Blossom Freedom Walk and the Day of 

Remembrance, which included a special screening of the 

documentary 442: Live with Honor, Die with Dignity and 

Q&A with filmmaker Junichiro Suzuki. They also learned 

about the fundraising efforts used to build a memorial on 

the National Mall. The docents will provide routine tours, 

as well as tours during events held at the memorial and for 

specific anniversaries.

The grant also funded educational materials on the 

foundation’s website at www.njamf.com. The website 

supplements the memorial’s Wall of Honor, which lists the 

names of the 810 Japanese American men who died during 

World War II, with more information such as the men’s 

ranks, medals received, and memories from family and 

friends. 

National Japanese American Memorial Foundation Recruits and Trains Ten 

Docents to Guide Tours of the National Japanese American Memorial in 

Washington, DC

The Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II in 

Washington, D.C. Davis Buckley Architects and Planners designed the memorial; 

Paul Matisse designed the memorial bell; and Nina Akuma created the “Golden 

Cranes” sculpture. Photo courtesy: Davis Buckley Architects and Planners

Volunteer docents-in-training, guest speakers, and project director 

Franklin Odo met at the Memorial during the first training session. From 

L-R: Raymond Murakami, Noriko Sanefuji, Ted Gong, Betty Taira, John 

Kusano, Mai Ichihara, Mike Balis (NPS), Warren Minami, Bruce Yamashita, 

Gale Awaya McCallum, Franklin Odo. Photo courtesy: National Japanese 

American Memorial Foundation

National Park Service
25

Forty miles east of Kooskia, Idaho, the thick woodlands 

of Clearwater National Forest conceal the deteriorating 

Kooskia Internment Camp site, a World War II U.S. 

Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) detention 

facility and work camp. Between May 1943 and May 1945, 

256 men of Japanese heritage were interned here, many 

of whom the U.S. government had removed from Peru, 

Mexico, and Panama. They were tasked with constructing 

U.S. Highway 12 between Idaho and Montana, representing 

the government’s first attempt to utilize internee labor for its 

construction projects. 

With a 2009 NPS Japanese American Confinement Sites 

grant of $16,456, the University of Idaho uncovered the 

history of this lesser-known internment site through a 

summer 2010 archeological field school and subsequent 

laboratory work. University of Idaho archeologist and 

historian Dr. Priscilla Wegars spearheaded the project with 

her extensive research of Kooskia, and encouragement 

for an archeological survey. Then, led by Dr. Stacey Lynn 

Camp, assistant professor of anthropology at the University 

of Idaho, students searched for architectural remains, 

surveyed landscape features, unearthed artifacts, then 

catalogued the objects and shared their findings with the 

public.

During the archeology field school, University of Idaho 

students conducted a surface survey, shovel testing, a 

ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey, and digital mapping 

of the site. Among the discoveries were the foundation of a 

camp building, Japanese gaming pieces, and home medicinal 

products. Students then cleaned, sorted, and rehoused 

1,968 artifacts into 18 boxes. For public outreach, a website 

was created (http://www.uidaho.edu/class/kicap) to share 

the site’s history, project updates, and student and faculty 

experiences. The project team also advertised and hosted 

a Public Archaeology Day, where more than 40 participants 

toured the site and learned about its history. 

For Phase II of the project, the University of Idaho was 

awarded a second grant during the 2011 funding cycle 

for $6,176. During this phase, students catalogued 26 

additional boxes of artifacts. The grant also helped expedite 

the lengthy process to analyze and interpret the artifacts 

discovered during the first phase. Artifact analysis plays a 

critical role in communicating the experiences of Kooskia’s 

internees to the public. For example, the Japanese gaming 

pieces made from local stone were a creative way internees 

sought to transform their environment into some semblance 

of home. Dr. Camp and her students shared their findings 

related to Kooskia Internment Camp at several academic 

conferences. The artifact interpretation and analysis will 

provide ample support for the Kooskia Internment Camp’s 

nomination to the National Register of Historic Places 

and inform the creation of interpretive signage at the site, 

processes that Dr. Wegars, Dr. Camp, her students, and the 

Clearwater National Forest set into motion.

Two NPS Grants Help the University of Idaho Reveal the History of Kooskia 

Internment Camp

University of Idaho archeology students unearth artifacts from Kooskia 

Internment Camp. Photo courtesy: University of Idaho – 

photo by Dr. Stacey Camp

This porcelain dragon artifact was uncovered during the project. 

Photo courtesy: University of Idaho – photo by Dr. Stacey Camp

Public Law 109-441 - Preservation of Japanese American World War II Confinement Sites
26

The Japanese American Service Committee’s 

(JASC) Legacy Center Archives in Chicago 

houses materials that touch on every facet 

of Japanese American life from 1890 to the 

present. Here you will find Japanese passports, 

diary entries about the attack on Pearl Harbor, 

and personal letters written from World War 

II confinement sites. From photographs to 

official government documents, the archives 

is a treasure trove overseen by JASC, a group 

founded in 1946 to help former incarcerees 

start new lives in Chicago, the largest postwar 

resettlement community.

With the help of a 2012 NPS Japanese American 

Confinement Sites grant of $75,268, the JASC was able to 

purchase database software and hire two archivists to assist 

the Legacy Center’s Manager and Project Director Karen 

Kanemoto in processing and cataloguing 86 collections 

containing 3,700 records. About three-quarters of 

the archive is now catalogued. 

The new software – Eloquent Archives using 

the WebGENCAT toolkit (which maintains 

applications and allows the building of new ones) 

– enabled Legacy Center staff to digitize finding 

aids and all descriptive content associated with 

the manuscript collections, and then put them 

online for easy access. Researchers now can visit 

the Legacy Center’s catalog via a link posted on 

the JASC website: http://www.jasc-chicago.org/

cultural-and-community-programs/legacy-center/

archives/. In the catalog, researchers will find links 

to all collections and can locate materials through 

a keyword search. The software also enhances the 

Legacy Center’s capabilities to manage collections 

through the generation of record forms and 

accession records. 

The grant also allowed Kanemoto to attend 

two weeks of training at the Georgia Archives 

Institute, where she enhanced her knowledge of 

preservation and conservation, cataloging, and the 

use of data management software. She oversaw selection 

of the Eloquent Archives software, drafted language for 

the archives database and helped prioritize collections for 

processing. Working with Kanemoto were Project Archivist 

Justine Wagner-Mackow and Consulting Archivist Jane 

Kenamore. 

The Japanese American Service Committee’s Legacy Center Archives in Chicago 

Catalogs its Collection and Places Records Online

A Girl Scout troop at Rohwer. Photo courtesy: Japanese American Service 

Committee Legacy Center Archives, Chicago, Illinois

The Certificate of Naturalization for Cho Yamamoto from 1956. Issei were 

not allowed to become U.S. citizens until the passage of the Immigration 

Act of 1952. Photo courtesy: Japanese American Service Committee 

Legacy Center Archives, Chicago, Illinois

National Park Service
27

Bancroft Library Creates the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement 

Digital Archive and Makes Thousands of Manuscript Items Available Online

The Bancroft Library at the University of CaliforniaBerkeley holds a wealth of manuscript and archival 

collections documenting the experience of Japanese 

Americans in the forced removal from their homes and 

incarceration at confinement sites during World War 

II. The materials are among the most heavily used at 

the library, but locating and accessing them has been 

difficult because they are widely dispersed in various 

formats throughout the library. 

To solve that problem, the library created the Japanese 

American Evacuation and Resettlement Digital Archive, 

where nearly 100,000 original manuscript items from 

its collection have been made available online (http://

bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/jais/index.html). The 

project was funded with the help of a 2011 grant award 

of $220,493 from the Japanese American Confinement 

Sites Grant Program. 

The digital archive showcases holdings from the Japanese 

American Evacuation and Resettlement Study (JERS), 

a research project initiated in 1942 at the University 

of California, Berkeley, to document and examine the 

mass incarceration of Japanese Americans. The project 

recruited Nisei social science students from the Berkeley 

campus and placed them into selected War Relocation 

Authority-administered sites. As a staff member for JERS, 

Richard S. Nishimoto observed incarcerees’ initial reactions 

to the rescinded exclusion orders at the end of the War. 

Overall Community Council of the three units at Poston. Minoru Okamoto, 

quoted in the report, is in the third row, fourth from the left, September 1, 

1943. Photo courtesy: The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

In one firsthand account from Poston, he penned, 

“M. Okamoto, City Manager, remarked, ‘It has finally 

come.’” The study also documented the postwar 

resettlement phase in Chicago. The collection, 

which comprises journals, field reports, life histories, 

correspondence, and secondary research materials, 

was deposited in the University Library in 1948 by 

Dorothy Swaine Thomas, a sociologist and JERS 

director.

Users of the new website can find materials in a variety 

of ways, from a textual search to GIS tagging and 

interactive mapping. In addition, materials have been 

linked to an existing finding aid located at the Online 

Archive of California (OAC).

Digitization of the JERS collection is Phase One of 

what the Bancroft Library anticipates will be a threephase project to digitize all of its holdings related 

to the Japanese American experience. In Phase 

Two, the library hopes to place online cartons of 

personal papers donated to the library by various 

camp detainees, as well as film, photographs, maps, 

broadsides, drawings, and oral interviews. Phase 

Three will focus on the library’s collection of War 

Relocation Authority (WRA) records and those in the 

National Archives.

Users can browse the content-rich database, or search the digital archive by 

incarceration site location or a keyword search. Photo courtesy: The Bancroft 

Library, University of California, Berkeley 

Public Law 109-441 - Preservation of Japanese American World War II Confinement Sites
28

In Hawaiian, Honouliuli means “blue harbor” or “dark 

bay.” But to those interned there during World War 

II, Jigoku Dani, meaning “hell valley,” was a more 

fitting name. Established in March 1943 in an isolated 

gulch on the island of O‘ahu, Honouliuli was the 

largest of Hawai‘i’s confinement sites, though today 

it bears little resemblance to its use as an internment 

site 70 years ago. Although this history is evident in 

the property’s more than 130 archeological sites, of 

its approximately 175 original buildings, only two 

remain. 

With the help of a 2011 NPS Japanese American 

Confinement Sites grant of $58,600, the Hawai‘i 

Heritage Center evaluated the two buildings, both of 

which are in poor condition due to heat, encroaching 

vegetation, and water and termite damage. With 

the grant, Hawai‘i Heritage Center hired Minatoishi 

Architects, Inc. of Honolulu to prepare an Existing 

Conditions Report. The study determined that the 

buildings, located immediately inside the front gate, 

most likely are a guard duty station, and a barrack used 

by the guards. 

The Existing Conditions Report recommends that the 

guard duty station, which retains its integrity of design, be 

rehabilitated with limited reconstruction of a missing rear 

section. The barrack, on the other hand, lacks enough 

original material that reconstruction, the report concludes, 

is “the only feasible treatment.” The barrack’s walls, front 

porch, and original roof have been removed and half of the 

original foundation exists. After the war, the building was 

used as a chicken coop. 

Honouliuli, situated in a deep gulch between two large, 

agricultural fields, has limited access. But still, the 

landscape and remaining features, which include rock 

alignments, foundations, and parts of the sewer, water, 

and road systems, as well as the historic guard 

duty station and barrack, offer the potential “to 

provide a unique opportunity for increasing our 

understanding of the Hawaiian internment and 

other aspects of World War II history,” the report 

states. The 122-acre Honouliuli site is listed on the 

National Register of Historic Places.

In addition to the Existing Conditions 

Report, the Hawai‘i Heritage Center prepared 

Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) 

documentation of the two buildings, including 

photographs and measured drawings that will 

assist in their restoration and reconstruction. 

Finally, the project also included a fire protection 

plan and rehabilitation cost estimate for the guard 

duty station. The estimated cost for rehabilitating 

the building is $1,143,790.

Hawai‘i Heritage Center Assesses Condition of Surviving Buildings at 

Honouliuli for Future Preservation

The guard duty station (left) and barrack are situated at the entrance of the camp, 

just inside the main gate. Photo courtesy: Hawai‘i Heritage Center 

– photo by David Franzen

Termites and carpenter bees have eaten away at the wooden walls and floors of 

the guard duty station. Photo courtesy: Hawai‘i Heritage Center – photo by David 

Franzen

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

CyArk Employs 3D Technology to Virtually Reconstruct Manzanar, 

Topaz, and Tule Lake 

When Manzanar Relocation Center closed in 

1945, most of the buildings were sold as scrap 

lumber or moved to private property. The same 

was true at Topaz and Tule Lake. While a few 

original structures were left standing – such 

as the jail at Tule Lake and the auditorium at 

Manzanar – the limited physical remains can 

make it difficult today to envision the detail and 

vast sweep of fences and barracks as they once 

appeared. 

Modern 3D digital technology can reconstruct 

simulated long-lost buildings, locate them 

graphically to show where they once stood, and 

then provide a 360-degree virtual tour of historic 

sites. This technology, which employs 3D laser 

scanning, the global positioning system (GPS), 

and high definition photography, is the specialty 

of CyArk, a non-profit organization founded in 

2003 with the goal of helping to conserve historic 

sites through digital documentation. The name 

CyArk stems from the words cyber and archive.

In 2011, CyArk, based in Oakland, California, was 

awarded a $240,611 NPS Japanese American 

Confinement Sites grant to digitally preserve 

the Manzanar and Tule Lake sites in California 

and the Topaz site in Utah. The digital content 

created for the project may be seen at http://

archive.cyark.org/wwii-japanese-americanconfinement-sites-theme. The project was 

completed with the assistance of the Densho 

Digital Archive and the University of Colorado 

at Denver. CyArk also consulted with Manzanar 

National Historic Site, the Tule Lake unit of 

the World War II Valor in the Pacific National 

Monument, and the Topaz Museum Board to 

ensure proper modeling and interpretation in 

capturing features unique to each site.

In addition to the virtual tours, which allow 

visitors to switch back and forth between 

current and historic views, the CyArk web portal 

also provides a roster of statistical and personal 

information about those incarcerated at the three 

sites. Visitors can locate the barrack block on which 

an incarceree lived if a location was specified. Also 

included on the website are oral interview videos, 

drawings, three-dimensional representations 

of buildings, and images of documents and 

photographs, both historic and current. 

Perspective of the reconstructed Topaz site. Photo courtesy: CyArk

Point cloud perspective of the interior of Barrack 01 at Block 14. This block has been 

partially reconstructed at Manzanar to interpret the living conditions of the incarcerees. 

Photo courtesy: CyArk

29
National Park Service

The 2013 Annual Report for the Japanese American 

Confinement Sites Grant Program included a questionnaire 

that invited comments regarding the progress of the 

grant program, which was then at its five-year mark. The 

questionnaire was included as an insert in the 2013 Annual 

Report, and mailed in December 2013 to over 7,200 

individuals and organizations. Fifty-one people returned 

their questionnaires to NPS by the March 7, 2014 deadline. 

We are grateful that people took time to fill out the 

questionnaire, and appreciate the informative and 

constructive responses. Overall, the majority of respondents 

believe that the projects that have been funded through the 

Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program have 

met the intent of the legislation, and that the criteria for 

evaluating projects is effective. 

In addition, the majority of comments reflected continued 

support for the Japanese American Confinement Sites 

Grant Program, and appreciation for the work that has 

been accomplished by the grantees. As one respondent 

noted, “Our history is being preserved in a way I never 

dreamed could happen!” Another said, “I’m grateful 

that funds are available to store, catalog and share this 

part of U.S. history, for after all, what happened to the 

120,000 Japanese Americans is truly an American story. 

We just can’t let it happen again.” Many respondents also 

expressed appreciation to the NPS for its administration 

of the program, with encouragement to “keep up the good 

work.” Several people also noted that they found the annual 

newsletter informative. In addition, some respondents 

offered their thoughts on the types of projects that they 

supported or would like to see funded in the future. A 

number of people also gave recommendations as to how 

the NPS could improve the impact and effectiveness of the 

program, particularly requests for more information on 

completed projects to be posted on the NPS website, and for 

more use of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. 

The NPS asked four questions in the questionnaire: 

1) Do you believe that the funded projects have met 

the intent of the legislation? If not, please explain. 

2) Do you believe that the project proposal criteria 

should be changed in any way to better meet the 

intent of Public Law 109-441? If so, how? 

3) Is there anything that you believe should be done 

to help improve the impact and effectiveness of the 

grant program? 

4) Do you have any other suggestions or comments?

JAPANESE AMERICAN CONFINEMENT SITES GRANT PROGRAM 

QUESTIONNAIRE-SUMMARY OF PUBLIC COMMENTS 

Responses to Questionnaire

Thirty-two people responded to Question 1. Of those 

32 people, 31 (97%) said that the funded projects 

met the intent of the legislation. The one person 

who replied “no” stated that the “NPS has made an 

honest effort,” but noted that the program has been 

constrained by the budgetary process, adding that 

although the 2006 enabling legislation authorized $38 

million, only $12.4 million had been appropriated by 

2013. Nisei and even Sansei “are rapidly dying off,” 

the person wrote, adding that, “We need to better and 

more quickly preserve their knowledge, experiences 

and general history.”

Twenty-two people directly responded “yes” or “no” 

to Question 2. Of those 22 people, 19 (86%) said 

that the program criteria should not be changed. The 

remaining 3 (14%) gave a qualified “yes” response, 

with 2 providing specific recommendations as to how 

the project criteria should be changed – to focus future 

funding on the training of docents, and to encourage 

projects on the WRA personnel that lived and worked 

in the camps. In response to Question 2, the NPS 

received additional comments that expressed support 

for specific types of projects. These include:

•	 Nine comments supported projects to 

document and interpret lesser known 

and more diverse sites and stories of 

incarceration.

•	 Six comments expressed the need for 

education projects. Three of those comments 

stressed student education, with one person 

noting the importance of educating “the 

public schools on the U.S. Constitution and 

how it failed during World War II.” The other 

three comments underscored the importance 

of educating the general public, with one 

person adding “so that as citizens we can both 

appreciate the safeguards we have but also 

understand that these safeguards are only as 

effective as we are vigilant and watchful.” 

30
Public Law 109-441 - Preservation of Japanese American World War II Confinement Sites

•	 Four comments emphasized the importance 

of prioritizing oral history projects. 

•	 Three comments wanted more funding for 

restoration and reconstruction projects.

•	 Two comments encouraged projects to 

increase volunteerism and help elders and 

youth to work together to build bridges within 

their communities, as well as let the general 

public know how they can get involved with 

these efforts. 

There were also many comments with individual 

recommendations, including: “keep the focus on the 

10 WRA camps”; search for “artists such as painters, 

potters, musicians who could add their views of 

internment and recovery”; fund projects that preserve 

historic photographs; “fast-track” funding for wellresearched and documented projects; and encourage 

projects that “connect” all of the confinement sites in 

order to create a stronger national impact. 

In response to Question 3, there were 12 

recommendations as to how the NPS could improve 

the impact and effectiveness of the grant program. 

Five people asked NPS to provide more information 

on completed grant projects in order to increase 

awareness of their achievements, including more 

information on the program website. Two people 

suggested more use of social media, such as Facebook 

and Twitter. One person noted the importance of 

making all grant program information available by 

mail so as not to exclude people who do not have 

access to the internet. And one person stated a desire 

for NPS to take a more active role in identifying sites 

for preservation and inviting people to lead those 

projects. 

In terms of additional suggestions and comments 

given in response to Question 4, nearly half the 

respondents took this opportunity to state their 

support for the Japanese American Confinement 

Sites Grant Program, as well as to remember and 

honor those who lived through the incarceration, 

with one admonition to “never forget.” One person 

also expressed gratitude for the Japanese American 

community activists who led the initial efforts to 

preserve and interpret the incarceration sites.

31

Again, NPS thanks everyone who took the time to respond 

to the questionnaire. Since the establishment of the grant 

program in 2009, the NPS has asked the public to provide 

input and feedback to make sure the projects funded 

through the program are meeting the intent of Public Law 

109-441, which established this program to preserve and 

interpret the historic confinement sites where Japanese 

Americans were detained during World War II in order 

to educate the public and future generations. We greatly 

appreciate your input and will use these comments in 

our continuing efforts to improve the effectiveness of the 

program. If you have additional comments, please share 

them with us as we move into the seventh year of the grant 

program. 

Photo published in the Minidoka Irrigator in Hunt, Idaho, 1943.

Photo courtesy: The Wing Luke Museum - photo by Joe Tanaka 

A badge worn by the young wife of a Japanese American serviceman at 

Camp Shelby, Mississippi, where new recruits from both Hawaiʻi and the 

mainland began training. Photo courtesy: Densho (ddr-densho-105-7), 

Tsubota Family Collection
National Park Service

32

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

and Historian

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/JACS

“Like” 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 2014 / 2015
Two children journey down a dirt lane lined with tar-papered barracks at Minidoka. Photo courtesy: The Wing Luke Museum