House unanimously pass bill to help preserve WWII incarceration camps for Japanese Americans

The Amache Internment Camp in Colorado as it looked in WWII.

The drive to preserve the incarceration camps used to relocate Japanese Americans during WWII came a step closer to reality with the unanimous passage of the Japanese American Confinement Education (JACE) Act in the House of Representatives last week.

“The Japanese American story is one that is not told nearly enough. It is one of pain, one of redemption, and one of enrichment," said Rep. Doris Matsui, D-CA, who was born in the euphemistically named the Poston Relocation Center in western Arizona in 1944,

"This bill will ensure that these lessons live into the future – that we continue bending the moral arc of this country by sharing these stories, lifting our voices, and fighting so that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past."

In 2006, the Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) Program was established for the preservation and interpretation of U.S. confinement sites where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II.

This original legislation was introduced by then-Representative Bill Thomas, Doris Matsui, and Mike Honda. Since the first year of funding in Fiscal Year 2009, $36 million has been provided to 268 projects in 24 states and the District of Columbia. Funding has ranged from as little as $5,000 to over $800 thousand for a single project. 

The JACE act provides an additional $42 million dollars in funding for a total of $80 million. Of that total, $10 million in funding may be used by Japanese American organizations to implement education programs to ensure that present and future generations of Americans will learn from the experience of Japanese American confinement and our country’s subsequent commitment to equal justice under law.

This funding will be used for research and education relating to Japanese American incarceration, and the creation and disbursement of educational materials to promote a national understanding of how and why about 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during WWII.

The Japanese American Citizen League gave credit to Matsui for her leadership in authoring and championing the JACE Act and to Chairman Neguse, Ranking Member Fulcher, and the rest of the members of the National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands subcommittee for shepherding the JACE act to passage.

The JACL urges the Senate to swiftly pass the JACE Act (S.988) where it was sponsored by Hawaii's Sen. Brian Schatz.

"The essence of the American experience isn’t that we’re perfect," said Matsui, "it is that we heal from seeing where we’ve been and teach our younger generations to build a more inclusive, equitable future.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and tips from an AAPI perspective, follow me on Twitter @DioknoEd.