NPS ANNOUNCES JAPANESE-AMERICAN CONFINEMENT SITES GRANT AWARDS

DAHP has received word from the National Park Service regarding the recipients of the 2009 Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program Awards. This grant program resultes from Public Law 109-441: Preservation of Japanese American Confinement Sites including provision of grants to organizations "to preserve and interpret the confinement of sites where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. The announcement mentions that for the 2009 grant cycle, 32 applications were submitted out of which 19 projects were funded for a total of $980,000. While Washington state did not have a confinement site, Public Law 109-441 does encompass associated properties other than the 10 War Relocation Authority camps, such as Minidoka in Idaho. In Washington, associated sites include the Eagledale Ferry site on Bainbridge Island, the Puyallup Fairgrounds, McNeil Island, and a detention site near Toppenish. Of the funded applications, one Washington entity, Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project, received $112,500 for iits oral history effort entitled "Stories Less Told: Video Oral Histories of Japanese American Incarceration" focusing on oral histories of subjects at the 10 relocation camps. (www.densho.org). The National Park Service also notes that it has scheduled seven "Listening Sessions around the nation during the next month to gather comments about the first grant round and the upcoming grant round for 2010. One listening session is scheduled for Seattle on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009 at the Densho office at 1416 South Jackson Street. Contact the NPS at 925-943-1531 ext 122 for more information.