2020 Grant Project Summaries

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

California

Recipient: Alameda Free Library (Alameda, CA)

Project Title: The Impact of Japanese American Incarceration on Alameda, CA – the First California Community Removed under Executive Order 9066
Grant Award: $139,220
Site(s): Multiple Sites
Description: The Alameda Free Library will catalogue and digitize a community-wide archive of oral histories, photographs, and other documents that shed light on the World War II incarceration experiences of Japanese Americans from Alameda, California. The project will document the long-term impacts of the forced removal and incarceration across religious, generational, and social divides. The content will be preserved online through Densho’s website, and Internet Archive’s digital library.

Recipient: Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA)

Project Title: Vigilant Love Solidarity Arts Fellowship
Grant Award: $47,518
Site(s): Manzanar Incarceration Site, Inyo County, CA
Description: Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles, in partnership with Vigilant Love, will continue the work of “Bridging Communities” through the Vigilant Love Solidarity Arts Fellowship. A cohort of 16 college students from Japanese American and American Muslim communities will visit the Manzanar National Historic Site to learn more about Japanese American World War II incarceration history. The program will engage students through educational workshops to better understand this history and its relevancy today.

Recipient: City of Richmond (Richmond, CA)

Project Title: Roses & Thorns: Sustaining Stories of Japanese American Lives in Richmond’s Miraflores Development
Grant Award: $97,500
Site(s): Tanforan "Assembly Center", San Bruno, San Mateo County, CA; Topaz Incarceration Site, Millard County, UT National Park Service Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program
Description: The City of Richmond will design and install permanent interpretive elements that convey impacts of World War II confinement on a thriving community of Japanese Americans who ran cut-flower nurseries: Oishi, Sakai, and Maeda. The “Roses & Thorns” exhibit will be installed at the historic site of the nurseries and will tell the full arc of the Japanese American story in Richmond from 1905 to the 21st century.

Recipient: Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association (Bishop, CA)

Project Title: Relocation of a WRA Staff Building Back to Manzanar National Historic Site
Grant Award: $44,152
Site(s): Manzanar Incarceration Site, Inyo County, CA
Description: The Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association will return a War Relocation Authority staff apartment building back to Manzanar National Historic Site for preservation and interpretive purposes. Relocating the historic building back to Manzanar will enhance the visitor’s experience by serving as a counterpoint for comparing the staff and incarceree living conditions.

Recipient: Fred T. Korematsu Institute (San Francisco, CA)

Project Title: “Then They Came for Me” Traveling Exhibition
Grant Award: $247,540
Site(s): Multiple Sites
Description: The Fred T. Korematsu Institute will create a traveling version of the successful “Then They Came For Me” exhibit, and tour it in ten locations across the United States. Along with complementary programming and digital components including curricula, the exhibition will reach diverse audiences with the story of the incarceration and its urgent connections to today.

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

Project Title: Unsung Service: Preserving the Nisei Cadet Nurse Corps
Grant Award: $28,481
Site(s): Multiple Sites
Description: The Go For Broke National Education Center (GFBNEC) will research the lives and service of Nisei Cadet Nurses, who volunteered from World War II incarceration sites to fill the nation’s shortage of nurses. GFBNEC will record oral histories, create a temporary exhibition and public program based on the research, and develop a website to disseminate this information across the country.

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

Project Title: Valor in Confinement: Perspectives of the Japanese American Veterans of World War II 3
Grant Award: $96,729
Site(s): Multiple Sites
Description: The Go For Broke National Education Center will create temporary exhibitions to highlight the stories of Japanese American incarcerees who either volunteered or were drafted into the military while their families remained behind barbed wire. Trading cards featuring veterans from every camp will be produced and shared, and 100 interview tapes will be digitally preserved and made accessible to the public.

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

Project Title: JANM Camp Digitization Project
Grant Award: $286,508
Site(s): Multiple Sites
Description: The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) will digitize, catalog, and archive over 10,000 artifacts, documents, and photographs in the museum’s permanent collection related to the World War II incarceration experience. All items will be shared publicly through JANM’s website as well as the Densho Digital Repository.

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

Project Title: Sutra and Bible: Faith and Japanese American World War II Incarceration
Grant Award: $245,382
Site(s): Multiple Sites
Description: The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) will present an experiential exhibition exploring the important role religious institutions and individuals played in providing a sense of security and stability for Japanese Americans during World War II. The exhibit, which will be accompanied by a catalogue, will incorporate photographs, documents, fine art, and artifacts. JANM will also interview former incarcerees and feature their stories in the exhibition.

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

Project Title: WRA Incarceree Farm Labor Teacher Education Project
Grant Award: $156,018
Site(s): Multiple Sites
Description: The National Japanese American Historical Society will develop two curricula for elementary and secondary education levels in partnership with content experts in Japanese American and academic communities. As part of this teacher professional development series, seven regional workshops will be held for teachers, the curriculum will be posted online, and follow-up teacher-to-teacher peer meetings will be held to disseminate the information.

Recipient: Poston Community Alliance (Pleasant Hill, CA)

Project Title: Poston Live: Its Lessons and Multicultural Legacy
Grant Award: $50,075
Site(s): Poston Incarceration Site, La Paz County, AZ
Description: The Poston Community Alliance will create an educational multimedia and multicultural project that includes a short narrative film, and a research document examining the evolution and development of the Poston incarceration site. The two-part educational model will serve the general public as well as high school and college students exploring the connections between Japanese American and Native American communities at Poston during World War II and beyond.

Recipient: San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (Oakland, CA)

Project Title: Tanforan Assembly Center Exhibit
Grant Award: $62,100
Site(s): Tanforan “Assembly Center,” San Bruno, San Mateo County, CA
Description: The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit will design and install a long-term display within the San Bruno BART station that explores the impacts of Executive Order 9066 during World War II. The exhibit and associated Tanforan Memorial outside the station will provide history in situ for visitors. Opened on April 28, 1942, the Tanforan Assembly Center was used to detain over 8,000 Japanese Americans until they were sent to one of 10 War Relocation Authority incarceration sites, the majority being sent to Topaz in Utah.

Recipient: Story Boldly (West Hills, CA)

Project Title: Digital Storytelling Workshops
Grant Award: $110,586
Site(s): Multiple Sites
Description: Story Boldly will host several workshops to engage former incarcerees and their descendants in recording short films about their personal experiences during World War II, and the impacts on their families. These films will be shared with educators, and across social media, to reach youth and others unfamiliar with this part of our nation’s history.

Recipient: Visual Communications Media (Los Angeles, CA)

Project Title: They Answered No-No: Wayne Collins & the Renunciants
Grant Award: $198,284
Site(s): Tule Lake Segregation Center, Modoc County, CA; Crystal City Internment Site (Department of Justice), Zavala County, TX 5
Description: Visual Communications Media will produce a documentary film about Northern California attorney, Mortimer Collins, who helped restore U.S. citizenship to 5,000 Japanese Americans who renounced under duress during World War II. The film will be shown at select incarceration site events and available via online resources and DVDs.

Colorado

Recipient: Colorado Preservation, Inc. (Denver, CO)

Project Title: Amache Barrack-Interior Interpretation
Grant Award: $64,000
Site(s): Amache Incarceration Site, Prowers County, CO
Description: Colorado Preservation, Inc., working in partnership with local Granada High School students, will produce furnishings and signage to interpret three of the six interior rooms in a restored barrack located at the site. One room will portray the barrack at the time incarcerees first arrived, while a second room will illustrate changes incarcerees made to their barracks over time. A third room will serve as an interactive space for visitors to engage with the history and learn more about the site.

Hawaii

Recipient: Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii (Honolulu, HI)

Project Title: Remembering the Past to Change the Future
Grant Award: $151,960
Site(s): Honouliuli Internment Site (US Army), Ewa, Honolulu County, HI; Sand Island Detention Site, (US Army), Honolulu County, HI
Description: The Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii will work with teachers, the State Department of Education, and the Hawaii Arts Alliance to develop curriculum aligning with new state standards, and other professional development resources for teachers to share this history with their students. Day of Remembrance events will also be produced to recognize and honor all of Hawaii’s internees.

Louisiana

Recipient: National World War II Museum of New Orleans (New Orleans, LA)

Project Title: Japanese American Experiences in World War II Electronic Field Trip 6
Grant Award: $100,594
Site(s): Heart Mountain Incarceration Site, Park County, WY; Amache Incarceration Site, Prowers County, CO
Description: The National World War II Museum of New Orleans will create a free, live interactive webcast for K-12 classrooms exploring Japanese American experiences in World War II through the lens of student reporters from around the country. This electronic field trip will include a host and an expert to virtually engage students live and segue into edited programs related to the Museum and the Heart Mountain and Amache incaceration sites.

Massachusetts

Recipient: Center for Independent Documentary (Boston, MA)

Project Title: Baseball Behind Barbed Wire
Grant Award: $208,945
Site(s): Multiple Sites
Description: The Center for Independent Documentary will produce and distribute a short documentary film telling the story of incarceration through the lens of baseball. The film will incorporate archival footage of baseball in the camps, archival photographs, illustration, and interviews with former incarcerees. The short film will be produced in conjunction with the feature length documentary Diamond Diplomacy that examines the 150-year history connecting the United States and Japan through baseball.

Michigan

Recipient: Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI)

Project Title: Internment Archaeology Digital Archive
Grant Award: $379,017
Site(s): Kooskia Internment Site (Department of Justice), Idaho County, ID; Minidoka Incarceration Site, Jerome County, ID
Description: Michigan State University will create The Internment Archaeology Digital Archive (IADA), which will preserve, provide access to, and interpret a robust digitized collection of archaeological materials, archival documents, and oral histories from two Japanese American World War II incarceration sites. The archive will provide broad public access to archival materials related to Minidoka National Historic Site and Kooskia Internment Site.

Montana

Recipient: Historical Museum at Fort Missoula (Missoula, MT)

Project Title: Fort Missoula Internment Camp Barracks Assessment
Grant Award: $40,000
Site(s): Fort Missoula Internment Site (Department of Justice), Missoula County, MT
Description: The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula will conduct an assessment of two original barracks moved back to the former World War II Department of Justice internment site. The assessment will inform future restoration of the buildings and interpretation of the site’s history.

New York

Recipient: Global Kids, Inc. (New York, NY)

Project Title: GRIT-Global Kids (G2K)
Project Grant Award: $210,258
Site(s): Manzanar Incarceration Site, Inyo County, CA
Description: Global Kids, Inc., will educate 720 New York City public school students about the history of Japanese American World War II incarceration through live performances of the play GRIT. The project will use drama as a unique teaching tool to engage students about this subject and educate a new audience on the importance of this story. Theme-based workshops will involve students in oral history interviews, and identifying injustices outlined in the play and their connection to current issues.

North Dakota

Recipient: United Tribes Technical College (Bismarck, ND)

Project Title: Fort Lincoln Memorial Courtyard
Grant Award: $190,133
Site(s): Fort Lincoln Internment Camp (Department of Justice), Burleigh County, ND
Description: United Tribes Technical College will plan for the adaptive use of approximately 6,000 square feet of outdoor space on the college campus to recognize and identify individuals of Japanese ancestry confined at the Fort Lincoln Internment Camp from 1941-1946. The installation will provide interpretive information for visitors and explore the history of Japanese internment during World War II in relation to the Alien Enemy Control Program.