Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program

The Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program provides financial assistance to organizations and entities working to preserve historic Japanese American confinement sites and their history, including: private nonprofit organizations; educational institutions; state, local, and tribal governments; and other public entities, for the preservation and interpretation of U.S. confinement sites where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II.  The authorizing legislation for the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program identifies up to $38 million for the entire life of the grant program for projects to identify, research, evaluate, interpret, protect, restore, repair, and acquire historic confinement sites in order that present and future generations may learn and gain inspiration from these sites and that these sites will demonstrate the Nation’s commitment to equal justice under the law (Public Law 109-441, 120 Stat. 3288; as amended by Public Law 111-88).

Projects funded through the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program must benefit one or more historic Japanese American confinement sites. The term historic confinement sites is defined as the ten War Relocation Authority sites (Gila River, Granada, Heart Mountain, Jerome, Manzanar, Minidoka, Poston, Rohwer, Topaz, and Tule Lake), as well as other historically significant locations, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior, where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. These sites are specifically identified in Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites, published by the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Western Archaeological and Conservation Center, in 1999.