An annual report by The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) labeled Japanese American incarceration camp sites as “at-risk” cultural sites. The report found that their remains and the landscapes surrounding them, have been damaged by inclement weather.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation is a non-profit organization that seeks to educate the public throughout North America. Its umbrella program, Landslide, creates an “ongoing collection of important landscapes and landscape features that are threatened and at-risk,” according to the organization’s website. It publishes annual reports to provide information about at-risk sites.
This year’s report provided information about at-risk sites that were significant to struggles over civil and human rights in the United States. Landslide dedicated an entire section of the report to Japanese confinement sites called “A Surrender to Fear Itself: The Landscapes of Japanese American Confinement.”
The sub-section on Japanese American incarceration sites provides readers with a detailed history of Japanese American imprisonment and an explanation of threats to these sites today. According to the report, inclement weather and vandalism have damaged several locations. Land sales have decreased the size of some remaining sites.
On top of the damages, the landscapes continue to languish because they have not been restored or repaired. In 2006, Congress allocated $38 million to the Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program, which aims to preserve and interpret the history of Japanese American incarceration. The program, administered by the National Park Service, has currently provided $21 million for documentation and preservation efforts.
The report alleges that over the past two years the current presidential administration has submitted budget proposals that seek to cut or even cancel funding for the program. Funding has been restored thanks to the work of advocacy groups, but TCLF believes that funding will become an annual struggle despite its legal guarantee.
The Landslide report encourages readers to help preserve incarceration camps by visiting the sites, sharing their history, and donating to non-profit groups that work to preserve the sites. More information about the state of the ten sites and restoration efforts can be found on TCLF’s website.
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