Granada War Relocation Center Amache National Historic Site | |
 A general view of a section of the site looking north and west. | |
  Amache National Historic Site  Amache National Historic Site | |
| Location | 23900 County Road FF,Granada, Colorado |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 38°02′59″N102°19′43″W / 38.04962°N 102.3286°W /38.04962; -102.3286 (Amache) |
| Built | 1942 |
| Architect | US Army Corps of Engineers; Lambie, Moss, Litle, and James |
| Website | Amache National Historic Site |
| NRHP reference No. | 94000425[1] |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | May 18, 1994[1] |
| Designated NHL | February 10, 2006[2] |
| Designated NHS | March 18, 2022 |
Granada War Relocation Center, known to the internees asCamp Amache (/ɑːmɑːtʃi/ah-mah-chee) and later designated theAmache National Historic Site, was aconcentration camp forJapanese Americans inProwers County, Colorado. Following the Japaneseattack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese Americans on theWest Coast were rounded up and sent to remote camps.
The camp, located 1.3 miles (2.1 km) southwest of the small farming community ofGranada, south ofU.S. Highway 50,[3] was listed on theNational Register of Historic Places on May 18, 1994, and designated aNational Historic Landmark on February 10, 2006.[2][4] On March 18, 2022,U.S. PresidentJoe Biden signed the Amache National Historic Site Act[5] authorizing the Granada War Relocation Center to become part of theNational Park System.[6] It was formally established as part of the National Park Service on February 15, 2024,[7] thethird National Historic Site in Colorado afterBent's Old Fort and the site of theSand Creek Massacre.
Following the Japaneseattack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt authorized the forced relocation of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast withExecutive Order 9066. Over the spring of 1942, some 120,000 Japanese Americans were moved into temporaryassembly centers before being transferred to more permanent and isolated relocation centers like Granada. Run by theWar Relocation Authority, the government body responsible for administration of the incarceration program, Granada was one of ten such camps, the only one to be built on private land.[8] The camp site covered 10,000 acres (40 km2), of which only 640 acres (2.6 km2) was used for residential, community and administrative buildings, while the rest was devoted to agricultural projects. The land was owned by several ranchers and farmers before the war, and only one of these property owners willingly sold his acreage to make way for the camp, creating tension between the WRA and the other landholders, whose parcels were taken viacondemnation. This did not necessarily translate to overall resistance to Japanese Americans being housed in the area: Colorado GovernorRalph Lawrence Carr was one of the few to welcome the Japanese Americans and the only governor not to oppose the establishment of a WRA camp in his state, going against theanti-Japanese sentiment of the times.[9]
Granada opened August 27, 1942, and reached a peak population of 7,318 persons by February 1943, making it the smallest of the WRA camps (although the total number who passed through the camp during its three-year existence was over 10,000). Nearly all of the camp's original internees came from California: southwestLos Angeles, the Central Valley and the northern coast.[10] Many had been residents of theYamato Colony, a farming settlement established byIssei businessmanKyutaro Abiko.[9]
The camp's unofficial name quickly became Camp Amache, named after aCheyenne chief's daughter,Amache Prowers, the wife ofJohn Wesley Prowers. (The county where Camp Amache is located is named after Prowers.)[11]
The Camp Amache residential area is spread atop a low hill, which prevented the flooding and mud problems which plagued other WRA camps, although the area was prone to high winds and severe dust storms.[9] It was surrounded by barbed-wire fencing, with eight machine-gun towers located all around the camp. However, all eight towers were rarely manned at one time, and the guns were never used. The Project Director,James G. Lindley, allowed internees to take day trips to the town of Granada, located within walking distance of the camp, and although some locals remained hostile to their "Jap" neighbors, most eventually warmed to the internees, with many business owners hiring Japanese Americans and stocking goods that catered to their Amache customers.[9]
Although relations with the residents of Granada and other nearby communities were largely positive, many Coloradans protested the construction of Amache High School in 1943. The region was still recovering from theDepression of the 1930s, and citizens argued their tax dollars should not go to support Japanese American students. Echoing widespread rumors that the WRA was "coddling" confined Japanese Americans while the rest of the country suffered from wartime shortages, U.S. SenatorEdwin C. Johnson called it an example of "pampering" the enemy. The high school was completed in June 1943, but plans to construct two additional schools for elementary and junior high students were abandoned; middle schoolers shared the Amache High building with older students, while elementary school classes continued in a barracks in Block 8H.[9][12] There were several clubs, extracurricular activities, and social events that were available to students of all grade levels in Amanche High School.[13]
Sources indicate that the high schoolfootball team lost one game in three years. One noteworthy event was when the Amache football team played the undefeated football team from Holly, Colorado, which is located just 11 miles (17.7 km) east of Amache on U.S. 50. This game was unique because Holly actually agreed to come up to the camp and play Amache on their home field. One of the Holly team players wasRoy Romer, who went on to become Governor of Colorado. The Amache team won this game by a score of 7-0, the only touchdown coming from a trick play, thus the Amache team can claim to be undefeated on their own field.[citation needed][14]
Adults in camp had various opportunities for employment. The camp had a police department which was worked by sixty Japanese American internees, although it was headed by a white security officer. Similarly, the Amache Fire Department consisted of three crews of Japanese American firefighters and one internee fire chief working under white supervisors.[15] Some (though not many) who had earned teaching credentials prior to their confinement were employed in the camp schools.[12] Asilkscreen shop was established in 1943, and its forty-five staff members created training materials and over 250,000 color posters for the U.S. Navy, in addition to calendars, program events and other personal-use items for camp residents.[9] As in all the WRA camps, doctors, nurses, dentists, and other healthcare workers found work at the camp hospital, although they were paid significantly less than their white coworkers — and fellow internees often pooled money to subsidize their low wages.[15]
Most of the work in Granada was directed at agricultural production. Like most of the other WRA camps, the land surrounding the residential areas were devoted to farming and raising livestock. The WRA budget restricted the per-inmate food allotment to 45 cents a day, partly to avoid the complaints of coddling and partly because the camp was intended to be mostly self-sufficient in its food production. These efforts proved especially successful at Granada, where internee laborers produced enough to feed the entire camp population and send the surplus to the U.S. Army and other camps. (In 1943, for example, Granada farmers grew 4 million pounds of vegetables.)[9][16]
Internee leaders set up a separateAmache District forBoy Scouts at the camp. These Scouts still flew the American flag as seen in the photograph at right of a Boy ScoutMemorial Day parade at the camp.[citation needed]
In June 1942, the War Department authorized the formation of the 100th Infantry Battalion consisting of 1,432 men of Japanese descent in the Hawaii National Guard and sent them to Camps McCoy and Shelby for advanced training.[17] Because of its superior training record, the Army's previous restrictions against Nisei (listed as enemy aliens ineligible for active service after Pearl Harbor) were lifted in order to create the 442nd RCT in January 1943 when 10,000 men from Hawaii signed up with eventually 2,686 being chosen along with 1,500 from the mainland.[18] The 100th Infantry Battalion entered combat in September 1943 and it became known as the Purple Heart Battalion because of their heroism and horrific casualties. It was joined by the 442nd RCT in June 1944 and together it lived up to the motto "Go For Broke" because of the degree to which its soldiers risked their lives in battle and became the most highly decorated unit in the war and to this day, for its size and length of service. Eventually, 441 Nisei joined the U.S. Army from this camp, either volunteering or accepting their conscription into the famed 100th/442nd and MIS. In the southwest corner of the camp is a small cemetery and memorial dedicated to the Japanese Americans from there who volunteered to fight in Europe in World War II. A large stone memorial with 31 men's names engraved in it sits in the cemetery in memory of those soldiers from Amache who died defending the U.S.[3]
Since 1990, the Amache Preservation Society, a Granada high school group, has worked on preservation of the site and its documents.[4][19] As a school project,Granada Undivided High School students have set up a museum for the Granada War Relocation Center.[citation needed]
On December 21, 2006, PresidentGeorge W. Bush signed H.R. 1492 into law guaranteeing $38,000,000 in federal money to restore the Granada relocation center and nine other former Japanese American internment camps.[20] Granada Relocation Center National Historic Site Acts were introduced in 2006[21] and 2007[22] by Colorado Sen.Wayne Allard but got no traction.
In April 2021, Colorado U.S. RepresentativesKen Buck andJoe Neguse introduced the Amache National Historic Site Act (HR 2497).[23][24][25]President Joe Biden signed the act into law on March 18, 2022, authorizing the site to become part of theNational Park Service pending acquisition of property.[26] The NPS completed a Special Resource Study on the site in October 2022.[27]
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