2016 Grant Project Summaries

Please note: projects are listed by the states of the grant recipients.

Arkansas

Recipient: Central Arkansas Library System (Little Rock, AR)

Project Title: Exhibitions and Educational Outreach on the Confinement Camps at Rohwer and Jerome, Arkansas
Grant Award: $153,699
Site(s): Rohwer Relocation Center, Desha County, AR; Jerome Relocation Center, Chicot and Drew counties, AR
Description: The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, a department of the Central Arkansas Library System, will produce four major exhibitions to tell the story of Japanese Americans incarcerated at Rohwer and Jerome during World War II. The exhibits will showcase thousands of historic documents and hundreds of pieces of recently acquired artwork created by incarcerees in the Arkansas camps. Lesson plans, a brochure, and a special webpage with links to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas database that tie in to the exhibits will be produced and made accessible to the public. An interpretive specialist will be hired to staff the exhibits and a field-trip program established for school groups.

California

Recipient: Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (San Francisco, CA)

Project Title: Developing Permanent Exhibits about Japanese Internment on Angel Island for its Pacific Coast Immigration Center
Grant Award: $22,800
Site(s): Angel Island, North Garrison of Fort McDowell (INS and U.S. Army), Marin County, CA
Description: The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation will create an exhibit to share the experiences of Japanese American detainees held at Angel Island during World War II. This permanent exhibit will be part of the new, multimillion dollar, Angel Island State Park Pacific Coast Immigration Center, which is scheduled to open in 2017. The Center will teach about Pacific Coast immigration and detention before, during, and after the Angel Island immigration period, which extended from 1910 to 1940. The grant also will be used to update the Foundation’s website (www.aiisf.org).

Recipient: Go For Broke National Education Center (Los Angeles, CA)

Project Title: Communities of Compassion and Courage
Grant Award: $378,937
Site(s): Multiple Sites
Description: The Go For Broke National Education Center will develop a traveling exhibit in partnership with ten communities in seven states, from Ohio to Hawaii, to share the unique stories of communities who demonstrated compassion and courage by helping Japanese Americans during World War II. As part of the exhibit, each community will research and tell its own story through oral histories, graphics, audio/visual diplays and artifacts. Middle and high school curriculum also will be developed, and the exhibits showcased during a lecture series at the Japanese American National Museum’s Center for Democracy in Los Angeles and at other venues.

Recipient: Japanese American Citizens League, Pacific Southwest District (Los Angeles, CA)

Project Title: Bridging Communities Fellowship Program
Grant Award: $41,340
Site(s): Manzanar Relocation Center, Inyo County, CA; and Tuna Canyon Detention Station (INS), Los Angeles County, CA
Description: The Japanese American Citizens League, Pacific Southwest District will engage college students from the Muslim American and Japanese American communities in the Bridging Communities Fellowship Program, which draws on the history of Japanese American incarceration during World War II and the experiences of Muslim Americans in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to better understand history, community and self-identity. During field trips to Manzanar National Historic Site, mosques, and the Tuna Canyon Detention Station, students will participate in workshops, develop leadership skills, and express themselves through art. The program will culminate with the Bridging Communities Capstone Art Exhibit, where students will showcase their artwork.

Recipient: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, CA)

Project Title: The Eaton Collection Project, Phase I
Grant Award: $41,485
Site(s): Multiple Sites
Description: The Japanese American National Museum, which acquired the 455-item Eaton Collection, will conserve, catalog, and digitize 40 paintings and assess the condition of 102 objects that require treatment. These objects were originally obtained by Allen Hendershott Eaton, a folk art expert, who visited various 3 Japanese American incarceration sites and acquired pieces of art created by incarcerees. Eaton promised to one day make an exhibition to honor the artists, but died before fulfilling this promise. As Phase I, this project will lay the groundwork for a future on-site and traveling exhibition of the Eaton Collection.

Recipient: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, CA)

Project Title: Meet the Yamashitas: An Interactive Website
Grant Award: $74,275
Site(s): Multiple Sites, including Rohwer Relocation Center, Desha County, AR; Fort Missoula Internment Camp (INS), Missoula County, MT; Santa Fe Internment Camp (INS), Santa Fe County, NM; and Camp Livingston (U.S. Army), Rapides Parish and Grand Parish, LA
Description: The Japanese American National Museum will translate and digitize the Yamashita family’s collection of letters, photographs, crafts, and home movies, which document the family’s life during World War II. On December 8, 1941, Gihachi Yamashita was arrested and incarcerated in a series of jails and confinement sites far from his wife and two daughters, who were sent to the Rohwer Relocation Center in Arkansas. The family did its best to stay connected through letters and the exchange of small gifts. The collection, including a journal kept by Mr. Yamashita during his incarceration, will be made accessible on an interactive website, providing educators, students, and the general public a better understanding of Japanese American experiences during World War II.

Recipient: National Japanese American Historical Society, Inc. (San Francisco, CA)

Project Title: The Untold Stories: The Department of Justice Internment Teacher Education Project
Grant Award: $139,605
Site(s): Multiple Sites, including Crystal City Internment Camp (INS), Zavala County, TX; Fort Lincoln Internment Camp (INS), Burleigh County, ND; Kooskia Internment Camp (INS), Idaho County, ID; and Santa Fe Internment Camp (INS), Santa Fe County, NM
Decription: The National Japanese American Historical Society, Inc., (NJAHS) will work with experts and organizations within the Japanese American and academic communities to develop secondary school curriculum focused on the history of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Army internment sites. Two-day workshops will be held to train 160 teachers on how to implement the curriculum in their classrooms. The curriculum and resources will be posted on the NJAHS’ website and an education coordinator will present the curriculum at professional conferences and other educational events.

Recipient: Midpeninsula Community Media Center, Inc. (Palo Alto, CA)

Project Title: 50 Objects/50 Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration
Grant Award: $143,482
Site(s): Multiple Sites
Description: The Midpeninsula Community Media Center, Inc., will identify 50 objects – including a family piano, toolbox, and a father’s letter – to tell 50 stories about the wartime experience of Japanese Americans. Images of the artifacts and their accompanying stories will be posted on a dedicated website and the stories shared through short films, text and still photos, audio narrations, and social media. A DVD also will be produced and distributed to cable stations.

Recipient: Tanforan Assembly Center Memorial Committee (Richmond, CA)

Project Title: Tanforan Assembly Center Memorial
Grant Award: $363,839
Site(s): Tanforan WCCA Assembly Center, San Mateo County, CA
Description: The Tanforan Assembly Center Memorial Committee will design and install a memorial honoring nearly 8,000 Japanese Americans who were sent to the Tanforan Assembly Center in 1942. The memorial will include a bronze statue, inspired by a Dorothea Lange photograph showing two girls on their way to Tanforan, interpretive panels, a memorial wall listing the names of those held there, and replica horse stalls demonstrating living conditions for some at the former thoroughbred racetrack. The memorial will be located on the former “assembly center” site, now a shopping mall, in the exterior plaza at the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station in San Bruno.

Recipient: Valley Public Television, Inc. dba Valley PBS (Fresno, CA)

Project Title: Silent Sacrifice: The Story of Japanese American Incarceration and Beyond in California’s San Joaquin Valley
Grant Award: $373,716
Site(s): Merced WCCA Assembly Center, Merced County, CA; Fresno WCCA Assembly Center, Fresno County, CA; Pinedale WCCA Assembly Center, Fresno County, CA; and Tulare WCCA Assembly Center, Tulare County, CA
Description: Valley Public Television, Inc., will create and air a documentary film chronicling life before, during, and after the incarceration of Japanese Americans from the San Joaquin Valley. The 90- to 120-minute film will focus on their exodus to the Merced, Tulare, Fresno or Pinedale “assembly centers,” and then to various War Relocation Authority incarceration sites, ending with their return home to the San Joaquin Valley. Eight video and printed lessons plans will also be created for 7 th to 12th graders and be made available to teachers across the nation through the PBS LearningMedia website.

Idaho

Recipient: Friends of Minidoka (Twin Falls, ID)

Project Title: Minidoka Legacy Memorial Interpretive Exhibit Project
Grant Award: $78,000
Site(s): Minidoka Relocation Center, Jerome County, ID
Description: Friends of Minidoka will design and fabricate an interpretive exhibit that honors the Issei, Nisei, and Sansei who were incarcerated at Minidoka during World War II. The approximately 400-square-foot, mobile exhibit will be temporarily housed at the Minidoka National Historic Site until a new Visitor Center is built. Friends of Minidoka will work with park staff to identify artifacts and archival materials to accompany the exhibit.

Washington

Recipient: Densho (Seattle, WA)

Project Title: Names Registry and Thesaurus of the Japanese American Experience
Grant Award: $421,941
Site(s): Multiple Sites
Description: Densho will develop an online biographical database of the more than 120,000 individuals held at the various World War II incarceration sites, as well as a standard subject list and thesaurus to link scattered resources pertaining to the Japanese American experience during World War II. The Names Registry and Thesaurus will be used to tag and index the oral histories, photographs, correspondence, newspapers and other digitized content offered by Densho and its partners in the online Densho Digital Repository and Encyclopedia.

Recipient: Densho (Seattle, WA)

Project Title: Saving and Preserving Confinement Sites Materials from Personal Collections
Grant Award: $344,204
Site(s): Multiple Sites
Description: Densho will seek out, preserve and post to its online repository 40,000 digital images of historic photographs, letters, diaries, and publications related to the World War II Japanese American confinement sites. The documents will come primarily from at-risk personal collections from across the United States. Priority will be given to collections from rural communities, towns and smaller cities on the West Coast, and locations away from the West Coast. Densho will conduct research trips to assess the materials offered, make arrangements for packing 6 and shipping materials and either return them to owners or place them in an appropriate respository.

Recipient: Wing Luke Memorial Foundation dba Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience (Seattle, WA)

Project Title: Inspiring Future Generations: Challenging the Forced Incarceration through Acts of Resistance
Grant Award: $151,639
Site(s): Multiple Sites
Description: The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience will create a graphic novel based on the experiences of five Japanese Americans who resisted forced incarceration or the military draft, and were then sent to the Tule Lake Segregation Center or to federal prison. The graphic novel will engage high school and middle school students and explore the broader concepts of loyalty, patriotism, courage and bravery. A school curriculum guide and animated short video also will be created, as well as a website to provide access to the novel and curriculum.

Wyoming

Recipient: Heart Mountain, Wyoming Foundation (Powell, WA)

Project Title: The History of the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee and Resister Movement Project
Grant Award: $116,038
Site(s): Heart Mountain Relocaton Center, Park County, WY
Description: The Heart Mountain, Wyoming Foundation will preserve existing documents and facilitate the discovery of new materials related to the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee and Resister movement. During World War II, seven Issei and Nisei incarcerated at Heart Mountain formed and led a draft resistance movement known as the Fair Play Committee. Ultimately, members of the group, as well as Selective Service “Resisters,” were arrested and sentenced to prison. Primary and secondary source materials will be accessible on the Foundation’s website, specialized user guides will be developed, and a fellowship established to encourage widespread use of the collection.