Day of Remembrance

Together, NPCA, survivors, and descendants, advocate for the former sites to be national park units so that the experiences can be memorialized and preserved for all to learn.

Press Release

The Day of Remembrance Marks Need for Continued Japanese American Incarceration Site Protections

Conservation group advocates for further protections to honor survivors and descendants’ experiences.

NPCA works alongside Japanese American survivors and descendants of the World War II incarceration sites. We work to get those incarceration sites that are not currently within the National Park System, included with a national park designation. By doing so, we help create a fuller representation of all communities’ experiences in U.S. history.

On February 19, 1942, Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, and put into law one of the most shameful government-funded efforts of our time. The order called for the removal of Japanese Americans, most U.S. citizens, from their homes and into incarceration sites on the West Coast and in the Southwest. Held without trial or hearing, over 120,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned on U.S. soil during World War II.

February 19th is observed annually as The Day of Remembrance.

Blog Post Confronting America’s Dark Past Feb 2022 | By Glenn Nelson 80 years ago, the federal government imprisoned innocent civilians for their Japanese ancestry. Today, survivors and their descendants fight to preserve the sites where these injustices took place — and to not let history repeat itself.

120,000

Japanese Americans were incarcerated during WWII

I am 82 now. Most children of the camps across the United States are in our 80s and 90s, our parents long gone. I, like many other incarceration survivors, work hard to preserve the land and what is left of the barracks, guard watchtowers and fencing. After Amache was closed in 1945, the land was abandoned and left for the prairie to reclaim.

Carlene Tanigoshi Tinker, Amache survivor

Preserving the History of Amache

Press Release

Victory: President Biden, Parks Leaders Welcome Amache National Historic Site

“By preserving Amache, we can ensure that as a country we confront our mistakes, honor the stories of those who were unjustly imprisoned, and protect the site for future generations"…

The Granada Relocation Center in Colorado, better known as Amache, was a prison for more than 7,500 Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. Our parks have the power to fill in the gaps of our history that are deliberately or carelessly forgotten. What happened to the people incarcerated at Amache is an American story that must not be forgotten. It’s a story of failure by the U.S. government to protect its own citizens. And it’s a story that remains relevant to how America treats its Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.

NPCA helped advocate for a national park site preserving the story of Amache, where thousands of people of Japanese descent were unconstitutionally incarcerated.

Amache National Historic Site Act (H.R. 2497) passed in the Senate and House unanimously and was signed into law by President Biden on March 18, 2022.

Blog Post Amache: An American Story That Must be Told Feb 2020 | By Tracy Coppola An interview with Mitch Homma, whose family members were incarcerated at Amache during World War II simply because of their Japanese ancestry.