Nat'l Trust for Historic Preservation

The Poston Community Alliance Receives $10,000 from the National Trust for Historic Preservation

Only a week ago, a proposal was submitted to the Western Region Office in San Francisco to the National Trust for Historic Preservation for intervention funds.

Anthony Veercamp, Director of Programs, acted quickly and was able to secure funding to support the Poston Relocation & Rehabilitation Project.

In March 2010, the Poston Community Alliance received a grant of $31,000 from the National Park Service’s Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program for relocating and preserving the internment camp barrack located in Parker.

On September 15, 2010 staff from the Intermountain Regional Office of the National Park Service and the Arizona State Historic Preservation Office made a site visit. Members of the Poston Community Alliance, (Jon Villalobos, Marlene Shigekawa & Ruth Okimoto), were also present.

It was determined that a storage facility is needed on the Poston site to protect and secure the barrack. The storage facility currently on the site is inadequate and is incapable of storing the barrack.

The estimated cost for constructing a steel building that would preserve, protect and secure this historic structure from vandals would be range from $12,000 to $15,000. The Tribal Council of CRIT has already spent $50,000 to secure the Poston site with a fence.

Project Director, Marlene Shigekawa, and Assistant Project Director, Ruth Okimoto contacted the National Trust for Historic Preservation Office in San Francisco. A proposal was written for emergency or "intervention" fund.

Anthony Veercamp notified Marlene and Ruth that a $10,000 grant was awarded to the project.

We are fortunate to have received these funds and are appreciative of Anthony Veercamp's rapid response and commitment to our project.

Those interested in further supporting this project can send their contributions to Marlene Shigekawa or go to Paypal and send payment to marshige@gmail.com

New! Poston Block Map Project

MANY THANKS to Bob Iwamasa (Poston II) who continues to help me with making a dream come true...

With Bob's numerous volunteer hours at the computer, we are attempting to put the Poston camp census and the database that I created from numerous sources and putting the names in their apartments/barracks/blocks.

The sources of my database are numerous: reading the Poston Chronicles at least 3 times searching for people's names and camp addresses, browsing through the first Poston Red Cross directory, "Mohaveland" (Poston III YBA Directory), the high school yearsbooks for camp II & III, old Poston reunion program booklets & mailing list directories, reading obituaries, and the Watsonville/Santa Cruz JACL newsletter edited by Mas Hashimoto, *multi-tons* of hours searching on the on-line NARA database, obtaining my own family's WRA records, emailing people, interviewing people, reading news articles on former Postonites, especially the recent honorary degree recipients, various internet webpages, including the California State University Fullerton Oral History project, California State University, Sacramento library special collection on Japanese Americans, Tulare County Public Library oral history, California State University Fresno Special collections on Japanese American Relocation, Fresno County Public Library oral history collection, University of California-Berkeley on-line photo archives, Arizona Historical Society website, various former Postonites books, and websites, and emails from total strangers searching for information about their family in Poston.  Also thousands of hours of research contributed by Tak Kohatsu (Poston I) using the FAR records and sharing with us.

I will be uploading the draft copy of the block maps as they are completed.

They were a *huge hit* at the April 2010 Poston III reunion. I received many valuable bits of information from everyone and have included them on these maps.
Because of the tremendous additional information obtained, I am starting with the Poston camp III block maps. I hope to have all of the camp III maps revised before the next Poston III reunion in April 2011 (week before Easter) in Las Vegas. (EVERYONE is invited to attend.)

NOTE: We have many names with their block numbers, but need the information on the barrack and apartment numbers before we can add them to the maps. If you have access to this information, please share!

The Poston Camp Block Maps blog is located at:
http://postonblockmaps.blogspot.com/