HAWAI‘I RECEIVES OVER $245,000 FOR PRESERVATION OF WWII JAPANESE AMERICAN CONFINEMENT SITES

Projects Among $3 Million in National Park Service Grants

Three Hawai‘i-based organizations have received over $245,000 in grants from the National Park Service in projects related to the preservation and interpretation of WWII confinement sites.

The project awards are for three projects:

Hawai‘i Confinement Sites Educational Documentary
Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i
Honouliuli Internment Camp, Honolulu County, HI
Sand Island Detention Camp, Honolulu County, HI
Kilauea Military Camp, Hawai‘i County, HI
Kalaheo Stockade, Kaua‘i County, HI
Haiku Camp, Maui County, HI
$117,626

Unspoken Memories: Oral Histories of Hawaii Internees at Jerome, Arkansas
University of Hawaii, Center for Oral History
Jerome Relocation Center, Chicot and Drew Counties, AR
$29,080

Multidisciplinary Research and Education at Honouliuli Internment Camp, Phase 2
University of Hawaii, West O'ahu
Honouliuli Internment Camp, Honolulu County, HI
$ 98,544

The awards are among 23 grants totaling $2.9 million to help preserve and interpret historic locations, where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II.

In the program’s second year, the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grants will help fund projects in a dozen states, including the restoration of a historic railroad depot in Arkansas that will house an exhibit about that state’s two confinement sites, and an educational outreach program to engage youth in preserving confinement sites through art, conversation, and community service.

“The Japanese American internment experience is an important chapter in American history,” said NPS Director Jon Jarvis. “The National Park Service is honored to be part of this shared effort to preserve these sites, which are a tragic reminder of a shameful episode in our past, and a compelling lesson on the fragility of our constitutional rights.”

Congress established the Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program in 2006 to preserve and interpret the places where Japanese Americans were sequestered after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The law authorizes up to $38 million in grants for the life of the program to identify, research, evaluate, interpret, protect, restore, repair, and acquire historic confinement sites. The program aims to teach and inspire present and future generations about the injustice of the World War II confinement and demonstrate the nation’s commitment since then to equal justice under the law.

Congress appropriated $3 million for grants in the current fiscal year. They were awarded in a competitive process, matching $2 in federal money for every $1 in non-federal funds and “in-kind” contributions raised by groups working to preserve the sites and their histories. Congress appropriated $1 million for fiscal year 2009, the first year of the grants.