The National Park Service will hold a question-and-answer session Feb. 12 in the Denver area concerning the $3 million allocated this year for the preservation and interpretation of U.S. confinement sites where Japanese-Americans were detained during World War II.
The program is entering its second year.
Late last year, the government announced the money allocated for the program in 2010 is three times the amount allocated for the first year, 2009. The second-year allocation was announced Jan. 4, and site grant applications are due March 4.
Those interested in the grant program may meet with National Park Service staff and discuss any questions they might have about the fiscal-year 2010 grant application process.
Meetings are also scheduled for Honolulu; Little Rock, Ark.; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Seattle; and Washington, D.C.
The metro Denver meeting will be held between 10 a.m. and noon at the National Park Service office, 12795 W. Alameda Parkway in Lakewood.
In 2009, the Park Service awarded 19 grants totaling $970,000. By far the largest amount went to the former Heart Mountain Relocation Center, between Cody and Powell, Wyo.
The Park Service allocated $292,252 to help build a museum at Heart Mountain, an internment camp where almost 11,000 Japanese-Americans were detained.
The $5.5 million Heart Mountain Interpretative Learning Center will be about 11,000 square feet. It will house major historical collections, including all editions of the Heart Mountain Sentinel newspaper, official records related to the interment camp and hundreds of original photographs, sketches and diaries.
Congress established the grant program in 2006 to preserve and interpret the places where Japanese-American men, women and children — most of them U.S. citizens — were held after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
