National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis Tuesday announced 20 grants totaling more than $2.8 million for the sites. More than 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were American citizens, were imprisoned by the U.S. government following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941. The Tule Lake Unit recognizes Tule Lake Detention Center, later a Segregation Center, the nation’s largest and most controversial.

   “As stewards of our nation’s history, the National Park Service recognizes the importance of preserving these confinement sites,” Jarvis said. “They are poignant reminders — today and for future generations — that we must be always vigilant in upholding civil liberties for all. These grants help us share valuable lessons on the fragility of our constitutional rights and ensure the experiences of those who were incarcerated are not forgotten.”  

   The grants will be used for a variety of projects, including a traveling exhibition to tell the lesser known story of the former Tuna Canyon Detention Station in California; the stabilization of a root cellar the incarcerated used to store fruit and vegetables they raised at Heart Mountain, Wyo.; and the creation of an online archive that will include more than 1,300 digitally scanned documents and photographs related to the former Rohwer incarceration site in Arkansas.

   Grants from the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program will go to 10 War Relocation Authority centers established in 1942 or to more than 40 other confinement sites. Successful proposals are chosen through a competitive process that requires applicants to match the grant award with $1 in non-federal funds or “in-kind” contributions for every $2 they receive in federal money.