2011 JA Confinement Sites

$3 Million Budgeted for Confinement Site Grants

National Park Service now accepting applications for third round of grants.

DENVER — The National Park Service is now accepting applications for grants to preserve & interpret the U.S. confinement camps & other sites where more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were detained during World War II.

Beginning in late January 2011, the National Park Service will hold informational meetings for potential grant applicants under the Japanese American Confinement Sites program for Fiscal Year 2011, the 3rd year of the grants program.

Program managers also will provide an update at each meeting about recent projects that received funds in the 2010 round of grants. Meetings are scheduled through early February in 6 cities: Denver, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Omaha, San Francisco, & Seattle. Individual meetings with prospective applicants also may be held in Dumas, Little Rock, & McGehee, AR.

This year’s deadline for applications is Tuesday, March 1.

Congress allocated a total of $4 million in grant money to the program during its first two years. The president’s budget plan for Fiscal Year  2011 calls for $3 million more in grants. However, Congress has yet to pass the federal operating budget, or appropriations bill, for Fiscal Year 2011, so the funds have not been committed to this year’s grant program. The National Park Service expects to be able to award grants for Fiscal Year 2011 after Congress passes the appropriations bill.

During the past 2 years, the program has awarded $3,895,000 to non-profit organizations, educational institutions, & state, local & tribal governments, working to preserve the confinement sites & their histories.

To date,  the program has granted funds to 42 projects that involve 16 states (and Washington DC): AZ, AR, CA, CO, HI, ID, IL, MA, MN, MT, ND, OR, TX, UT, WA & WY. Many of the projects are related to a specific location, however some are multiple sites and are conducted from other locations & states.

The program, established by Congress in 2006, aims to preserve & interpret the places where Japanese American men, women & children — most of them U.S. citizens — were relocated & detained after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. Congress has authorized up to $38 million in grants to be awarded over the life of the program. Funds can be used to identify, research, evaluate, interpret, protect, restore, repair & acquire historic internment sites. The goal is for present & future generations to learn about & gain inspiration from the sites & those who were imprisoned in them.

“These projects are helping us understand better a shameful chapter in America’s not-so-distant past,” said Kara Miyagishima, JA Confinement Sites program manager for the National Park Service.  “As stewards of many important places in America’s cultural history, we in the National Park Service are glad to assist groups & communities that want to preserve these sites. Collectively, their efforts can deliver sobering lessons about how vulnerable our freedoms can be — even those protected by the Constitution.”

In 2010, the program’s second year, the National Park Service awarded 23 grants totaling $2,925,000. Grant awards varied.  The Friends of Minidoka received $17,295 to document & rebuild the historic Honor Roll that once stood near that camp’s entrance, listing all those from Minidoka who served in the U.S. Army. In Wyoming, the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation received $832,879 to finish building 11,000-square-foot Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center at the camp site.

The program encourages applicants to raise project funds from other sources to meet a 1-for-2 “match” with the grant money, which is awarded in a competitive process. Successful grantees must provide $1 in non-federal funds or “in-kind” contributions for every $2 they receive in federal money. For example, the minimum grant, $5,000, would be matched with $2,500 from the recipient. Matching funds can be raised & spent during the grant period & do not have to be “in the bank” when a group applies for a grant. Applicants also can receive up to 2 grant awards a year.

Eligible historic locations:  10 War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps which were established in 1942 in 7 states: Amache, CO.; Gila River and Poston, AZ.; Heart Mountain, WY.; Jerome and Rohwer, AR.; Manzanar & Tule Lake, CA.; Minidoka, ID; and Topaz, UT. 

Also eligible: civilian & military-run assembly, relocation & isolation centers.

Of the 10 WRA sites, 3 are now units of the National Park Service (Manzanar National Historic Site, Minidoka Internment National Monument, & Tule Lake National Monument) & 4  are National Historic Landmarks (the Rohwer cemetery, Granada, Topaz & Heart Mountain camps).

Grants can be used for a variety of projects, including design & construction of  interpretive centers, trails, wayside exhibits & other facilities; oral histories & site-history research; school curriculums on internment history; and the purchase of non-federal lands at 5 of the sites (Jerome, Rohwer, Topaz, Heart Mounain & Honouliuli, Hawaii.)

More info is available at:

http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/hpg/JACS/index.html

National Park Service staff program contact information:

• Pacific West region  (CA, ID, NV, OR, WA & other states not listed):

Tom Leatherman, (925) 943-1531 x 122

email: tom_leatherman@nps.gov

• Intermountain region (AZ, CO, MT, NM, OK, TX, UT, WY): 

Kara Miyagishima, (303) 969-2885

email: kara_miyagishima@nps.gov

• Midwest region (AR, IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI: 

Rachel Franklin-Weekley, (402) 661-1928

email:  rachel_franklin-weekley@nps.gov

• Hawaii: Frank Hays, (808) 541-2693 x 723

email: frank_hays@nps.gov

Schedule of applicant informational meetings:

Denver, Colorado
Friday, Jan. 21, 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
National Park Service Intermountain Region Office, 12795 W. Alameda Parkway
Contact: Kara Miyagishima, (303) 969-2885 (RSVP recommended)

Dumas, Little Rock, and McGehee, Arkansas
Wednesday, Jan. 12-Friday, Jan. 14
Contact Rachel Franklin-Weekley at (402) 661-1928 to set up an appt in one of these locations

Honolulu, Hawaii
Wednesday, Jan. 26, 6-8 p.m.
Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, 2454 S. Beretania St., 5th floor (Manoa Grand Ballroom)
Contact: Frank Hays, (808) 541-2693 x 723
Location phone: (808) 945-7633 or (888) 388-3369 (Manoa Grand Ballroom)

Los Angeles, California
Wednesday, Feb. 2, 6-8 p.m.
Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, 244 S. San Pedro St., Suite 505
Contact: Tom Leatherman, (925) 943-1531 x 122
Location phone: (213) 628-2725

Omaha, Nebraska
National Park Service (NPS) Midwest Regional Office, 601 Riverfront Drive
Contact Rachel Franklin-Weekley at (402) 661-1928 for info on meeting date & time

San Francisco, California
Saturday, Feb. 5, 2-4 p.m.
Japanese Cultural & Community Center of No.California, 1840 Sutter Street., Suite 201
Contact: Tom Leatherman, (925) 943-1531 x 122
Location phone: (415) 567-5505   

Seattle, Washington
Thursday, Feb. 3, 6:30-8 p.m.
Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, 719 S. King Street
Contact: Tom Leatherman, (925) 943-1531, ext. 122
Location phone: (206) 623-5124 (Wing Luke Museum)

Source:  http://rafu.com/news/2011/01/confinement-grants/