Colorado Internment Camp Now National Historical Site

Above, a guard tower at Manzanar War Relocation Camp.
Camp Amache in Colorado has now become a national
 historical site like Manzanar. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Six years ago, I visited the Manzanar Internment Camp in the Owens Valley of California. There, Japanese-Americans were incarcerated following the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a big black stain on our nation's history.

Another Japanese-American internment camp has become a National Historical Site operated by the National Park Service. It is Camp Amache of Colorado.

TravelAwaits reported:

Camp Amache National Historic Site reminds visitors of the courage of Japanese Americans unjustly confined during World War II. After Pearl Harbor pushed the United States into World War, the War Relocation Authority forcibly removed the Japanese Americans from their West Coast homes. The wind-swept former camp is now a pale shadow of its 1942-1945 self. A reconstructed barracks, guard, and water towers now mark the site, but most of it was leveled after the war. 

At its peak, the camp housed 7,310 Japanese Americans. It was Colorado’s 10th largest city, and two-thirds of its inhabitants were American citizens. (The law denied the oldest Japanese the right to become citizens.) Amache’s constant wind calls the names of those who came unwillingly to this remote Colorado corner. Their story is one of betrayal, courage, and resilience despite adversity.  

The Colorado Congressional delegation introduced the Amache Study Act in 2018. It passed in 2019. Amache became a National Historic Site on March 18, 2022.

To read more, go here.