Input sought on preserving WWII's internment camps
Yet the Japanese-Americans who were imprisoned at Heart Mountain and dozens of similar camps during World War II do not want their forced relocation to be forgotten. And now they have an opportunity to share their thoughts on preserving the sites during a series of public hearings starting Tuesday on a new $38 million federal grant program.
"The purpose of the grant program is to find the resources for local community groups to determine how they want their story told, what kind of legacy they want to leave, and then come in and seek federal funding," said Gerald Yamada, national coordinator for the Japanese American National Heritage Coalition.
Last year, Yamada's group lobbied Congress to pass the grant program for the 10 major internment camps and 40 other sites related to Japanese relocation in 17 states. President Bush signed the bill in December, and Yamada expects Congress to approve funding next year.
Topaz — the Central Utah Relocation Center — north of Delta, is one such internment camp. Used between 1943 and 1945, it was dedicated as a national historic landmark on June 30.
"It could be an interpretive center. It could be a marker," said Yamada, who spent part of his childhood at two internment camps in southern Arkansas. "It doesn't necessarily have to be a multimillion-dollar project. It could be a plaque."
He said the two tribes on the Gila River Indian Reservation just south of Phoenix might apply for a grant involving the Gila River Relocation Center, which housed some 13,348 people at its peak. The tribes are interested in making an exhibit on the camp part of a planned tribal museum, Yamada said.
In Arkansas, the funds might help a group obtain land for a state park at the Jerome Relocation Center, Yamada said.
"At each location, the stories are different," he said. "I keep saying that the only common bond that the internment camps have is Executive Order 9066, which established the internment camps."
Greg Kendrick, partnership coordinator for the National Park Service in Denver, said there has been a need for the grant program, especially at sites not owned by the agency. The National Park Service owns only two internment camp sites, Manzanar in California and Minidoka in Idaho, he said.
"They're owned by nonprofits who are struggling to not only preserve the site, but struggling to provide better visitor education programs," Kendrick said.
Recent comments
I wasn't alive during this period of time. I don't remember...
Bucko | Jan. 28, 2008 at 3:57 p.m.
