The site near the Kansas border where thousands of Japanese Americans were wrongly imprisoned during World War II will soon become a park in the US National Park system.
The area of the former Grenada Relocation Center will now be called Camp Amache, after the thousands of Japanese Americans who were taken there against their will at the height of World War II.
The designation of the Amache site as part of the National Parks system is a way to honor survivors and descendants of Camp Amache who continue to share their stories, help us learn about their experiences, and ensure we never repeat this painful chapter in our nation's history.
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The Amache Preservation Society was founded by the former principal of the high school, John Hopper. Students care for the site and travel through Kansas and Colorado to educate people about Japanese internment camps and Amache.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the relocation of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast of the United States. In Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming, the War Relocation Authority built incarceration camps.
The Grenada Relocation Center opened on August 27, 1942.
According to the Amache Preservation Society, the camp would eventually cover one square mile and consist of 29 blocks of barracks, with each barrack consisting of six apartments.
The construction was not complete when the first Japanese Americans arrived. There were only two blocks of barracks and a mess hall. The families decorated their homes with their own ingenuity, using scrap lumber from around the camp to make furniture.
The Japanese Americans were held against their will at the peak of the camp.
On October 15, 1945, Camp Amache closed. On May 18, 1994, the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places and on February 10, 2005, it was designated a National Historic landmark.
This is the first step in the process of becoming a national park. Though it is authorized to become part of the national parks system, much more work needs to be done in order to establish it as one.
The acquisition process is expected to take approximately two years, pending authorization of acquisition funding to establish legal land descriptions, required environmental site assessments, and agreements on maintaining the town's water system.
Amache National Historic site will become the 424th park in the National Park System when it is established.
Yes. The historical site is open during the day.
There are no restrooms at the site. It can get very hot during the day, so plan your visit for the cooler hours of the early morning or early evening.
The Amache Museum is located in downtown Granada. Students from the high school help with private tours in the museum.
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