News Release

National Park Service Awards More Than $3.2 Million in Grants to Preserve and Interpret World War II Japanese American Incarceration Sites

The University of Arkansas will revamp their Rising Above in Arkansas website, one of the most comprehensive websites on the Rohwer and Jerome incarceration sites in Arkansas.

Photo courtesy of University of Arkansas, Alton and Virginia Magruder Cole Collection

News Release Date: July 11, 2024

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WASHINGTON – The National Park Service today announced $3,273,639 in Japanese American Confinement Sites grants to support nine preservation, restoration, and education projects that help tell the story of the more than 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, incarcerated by the U.S. government following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942.  

“These grants support our commitment to tell a more complete story of the injustice that Japanese Americans experienced during World War II,” said National Park Service Director Chuck Sams. “These projects will help Americans understand our shared history – including these hard truths -- so we can make a better future.”   

Japanese American Confinement Sites grants may be awarded to projects associated with the ten War Relocation Authority centers established in 1942 and more than 40 additional incarceration sites. The program’s mission is to teach future generations about the injustices of the World War II confinement of Japanese Americans, preserve sites and stories associated with this history, and inspire a commitment to equal justice under the law. Award recipients must match the grant with $1 in non-federal funds or "in-kind" contributions for every $2 they receive in federal money.  

Examples of projects funded this year include:  

• Educational Exhibition: Wing Luke Memorial Foundation will design a new permanent exhibition, “Japanese American Incarceration Experience” at the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience in Seattle. This core exhibition will be accompanied by new educational programs, curriculum, and teacher trainings. The museum serves 50,0000 visitors each year, including 2,500 students on tours.  

• Documentary Film: New York-based Third World Newsreel will produce a film using historical drama to bring a Japanese American story of forced removal and family separation to life. They Took My Father Too will shed light on the rarely heard Issei voices and perspectives of the lesser-known Tuna Canyon Detention Station in California. The film will be modified for classroom use to engage students with vital historical and current civil liberties issues.  

• Preservation of Historic Structure: The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, based in Wyoming, will complete restoration of the single remaining root cellar built by Japanese American incarcerees in 1943. The restored root cellar and future interpretive work will tell the history of agriculture at Heart Mountain and the ingenuity and expertise of Japanese American farmers incarcerated at Heart Mountain who successfully cultivated nearly 2,000 acres of farmland—building a sustainable agricultural infrastructure that would benefit future generations of local farmers following the war.    

Below is a full list of the nine projects selected to receive funds in 2024. For more details about these projects, visit the Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program site.  
 

Grantee	Project Title	Project Site	Amount
University of Arkansas	Rising Above in Arkansas: Expanding the Narrative and Writing Curriculum to Create a More Comprehensive Web Resource	Jerome Incarceration Site, Chicot and Drew Counties, AR and Rohwer Incarceration Site, Desha County, AR	$325,547
The Regents of the University of California	Preservation, Creation, and Advance Translation of a Community-Oriented Archive of Tule Lake Literary Journals	Tule Lake Segregation Center, Modoc County, CA	$296,227
Japanese American Cultural and Community Center	Ask the Mountain for the Menu: A Multisensory Exploration of the Foodways of the War Relocation Authority Camps	Multiple Sites	$241,997
Japanese American National Museum	In the Future We Call Now: Realities of Racism, Dreams of Democracy	Multiple Sites	$652,296
University of Connecticut	Fudeko Project: A Japanese American Digital Journaling Project	Multiple Sites	$246,883
Third World Newsreel (Camera News, Inc.)	They Took My Father Too	Tuna Canyon Detention Station, Los Angeles County, CA; Tule Lake Segregation Center, Modoc County, CA	$293,484
Densho	Strengthening Our Legacy: Capacity-building for Densho's Next Generation of Oral Historians	Multiple Sites	$255,295
Wing Luke Memorial Foundation	Wing Luke Museum’s New Permanent Exhibition, “Honoring Our Journey 2.0/Japanese American Incarceration Experience,” Related Curriculum, and School Tours	Multiple Sites	$110,084
Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation	Heart Mountain Root Cellar Restoration: Public Access Phase	Heart Mountain Incarceration Site, Park County WY	$851,826
Total			$3,273,639

www.nps.gov 

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