The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. Legislation adding the site to the National Park Service System is expected to be on President Biden's desk soon.Ĭopyright © 2022 NPR. LEWIS: A thousand Japanese Americans held at Camp Amache volunteered to fight during World War II 31 were killed and one earned the Congressional Medal of Honor. So that's the biggest thing for me is we don't want anything like this to happen again. LEWIS: Brandon Gonzales, a local high school student, is one of many who for the last 30 years have helped care for the site.īRANDON GONZALES: If you don't learn, history is bound to repeat itself. And this is one of those tools in which it helps us to do that in order for us to heal as a nation and become a better nation. OKUBO: If we're really to grow as a country, we have to face our demons, and we have to be willing to feel things that we aren't willing to feel and to think about things we don't want to think about. LEWIS: Derek Okubo says his father would be pleased to know that the camp where he was held was on its way to being preserved. She says Americans need to know their stories.ĭEB HAALAND: Our job in the National Park Service is to lift the stories up so that people will learn. On Saturday, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who oversees the park service, visited Amache and met with families and members of the community. LEWIS: Now, following bipartisan work on a bill making its way through Congress, the National Park Service is set to make Camp Amache part of its system. OKUBO: This is an example of where young people change the world. LEWIS: But in the 1990s, a local high school teacher created a history project about the site for his students, and the community got behind it. OKUBO: At the time, there was still a lot of mistrust, a lot of prejudice, a lot of suspicion, a lot of shame and pain that was involved. Okubo says his dad went there in 1982 to talk about creating a memorial. LEWIS: Especially in the nearby town of Granada. ![]() He says, for a long time, America didn't talk about what happened at places like this.ĭEREK OKUBO: It's a part of American history that, for many years, people wanted to sweep under the carpet. Yellow and White Doodle Project Infographics. Pink and Green Colorful Shapes Chronology Timeline Infographic. ![]() ![]() SHANNA LEWIS, BYLINE: Derek Okubo's late father was one of more than 7,000 people incarcerated at Camp Amache, a desolate outpost on the dry, dusty grasslands southeast of Denver. Yellow llustrative Creativity Tips Infographic. From member station KRCC, Shanna Lewis reports. Now, one of those camps is on the cusp of being added to the national park system. For four years, more than 100,000 people of Japanese descent were imprisoned in those camps most of them were American citizens. This weekend marked the 80th anniversary of the executive order that created internment camps in the U.S.
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