Amache concentration camp for Japanese Americans during WWII to become historical site

In the grasslands of Colorado stands an old watchtower that used to look over the the concentration camp that housed thousands of American citizens of Japanese descent. It will become part of the future Amache National Historic Site.

Late Monday (Feb. 15), the US Senate unanimously passed legislation to establish the Amache National Historic Site, located outside of Granada, Colorado, as a part of the National Park System.

“I have waited many, many years to see the day where we can be certain that Amache, as a place of reflection, remembrance, honor, and healing, is protected for our current and future generations,” said Amache survivor and advocate, Bob Fuchigami, in a statement. “My parents did not live to see this day. The time is not only right; it is long overdue.”

“This is an important action by our nation in acknowledging the injustice that was inflicted upon the Japanese American community by our government," said David Inoue, executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League.

"This will be an opportunity to share not only the injustice of what happened to those incarcerated at Amache, but also puts their story in the context of Colorado’s history and the bravery of Governor Ralph Carr, who was the rare politician who stood up for the rights of Japanese Americans and opposed the incarceration. His steadfast values cost him his political career.”

The legislation was led by Colorado Senators Michael Bennet (D) and John Hickenlooper (D) and Colorado US Representatives Joe Neguse (D) and Ken Buck (R).

To get the Senate's full support, backers agreed to a last-minute amendment in order to address the concerns of Utah's Republican Senator Mike Lee, who held up its earlier passage last week.

"Senator Lee does not object to this specific historical site. He does object to any increase in the total amount of land owned by the federal government as the federal government fails to adequately care for the land already in its vast holdings," Lee's spokesman, Lee Lonsberry, told The Associated Press.

After negotiations between Lee and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, the final version of the bill merely requires the National Park Service accept the land, less than a square mile of public land maintained by volunteers, as a donation from the nearby town of Granada, reports Colorado Public Radio.

With the amendment, the bill will have to return to the House for final approval. It originally passed that chamber 416-2. The bill will then go to President Biden for his signature.

HISTORICAL FILE

The Amache camp housed 7,000 Japanese Americans during WWII.

Amache was one of the 10 American concentration camps where nearly 120,000 people of Japanese descent were incarcerated during WWII under the false pretense of national security. Over 7,000 men, women, and children were at Amache, formally known as the Granada War Relocation Center.

The passage of this legislation this week is particularly poignant as on February 19, we commemorate the 80th anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066 which paved the way for the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans in the following months. The result was thousands of families uprooted from their homes with little to no time to pack any belongings or set their affairs in order. The government issued a formal apology for what it had done through the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.

“I’m thrilled the Senate passed our bill to establish Amache as a part of the National Park System,” said Sen. Bennet after the passage of the legislation. "The incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II at sites like Amache is a shameful part of our country’s history. Our bill will preserve Amache’s story to ensure future generations can learn from this dark chapter in our history.”

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Japanese Americans angry that former WWII incarceration site will be used to detain immigrant children

ASAM NEWS & VIEWS FROM THE EDGE

The Trump administration's plan to turn a former site to incarcerate Japanese Americans during WWII to a detention center for immigrant children is like "a gut punch," say Japanese American activists.

Health and Human Services has decided to send immigrant children in their custody to an army base in Oklahoma because it is running out of room at government shelters, Time reports. The children will be detained at Fort Sill, a 150-year-old army base that once served as a incarceration center for Japanese Americans during WWII.

The Obama administration also used the base to temporarily detain immigrant children for four months in 2014.

“The Trump administration’s decision to use a military base that once housed Japanese Americans during internment is fundamentally wrong and tone-deaf,” Rep. Doris Matsui, a California Democrat who was born in the Poston War Relocation Center internment camp in Poston, Arizona, told The Daily Beast. “With this recent action, I fear that the Trump administration is ignoring a painful moment of our past.”

According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Fort Sill will be used as “a temporary emergency influx shelter.” The influx comes as the HHS prepares to detain a record number of immigrant children. According to Time, the Trump administration has detained 40,900 children through April 30, a 57% increase from last year. The administration is on track to surpass the record-breaking 59,171 children it detained in 2016.

The Trump administration also considered using two other bases in Georgia and Montana to detain immigrant children in their custody, The Hill reports. However, the HHS says those two bases are no longer being considered as possible detainment sites.

The Trump Administration will detain 1,400 unaccompanied children at Fort Sill. They will be detained until they can be given to an adult relative.

The decision to use the site of an internment camp as an emergency detention facility highlights parallels that have been made between the Trump administration and the incarcerationt of Japanese Americans during World War II.

While campaigning in 2015, according to Rolling Stone, Trump said that he might have supported internment of Japanese Americans. “I would have had to be there at the time to tell you, to give you a proper answer,” he said. “I certainly hate the concept of it. But I would have had to be there at the time to give you a proper answer.”

“That our country is once again incarcerating children in facilities used previously to incarcerate Japanese Americans is like a gut punch to the Japanese American community, many of whom continue to feel the effects of the inter-generational trauma inflicted from their families' incarceration experiences,” David Inoue, executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League, told The Daily Beast. “The damage being done to these children is immoral.”

“Families like mine still bear the scars from the suffering they underwent when they were held in Japanese internment camps during World War II. It is shameful and immoral for our government to be holding immigrant children seeking asylum in those very same facilities that caused so much suffering," said Rep. Mark Takano, D-CA.  'Military bases, makeshift camps, and federal prison cells are not appropriate places to house people who are coming to this country seeking asylum, especially children. 

"The inhumanity we are witnessing, and the treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers has become a humanitarian crisis that must be addressed. We must restore humanity into our immigration process and fix our broken immigration system to keep families together and support those seeking refuge in America.”

UPDATED June 17, to include remarks of Rep. Mark Takano.

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