Camp Amache

As a country the United States has done a lot that we can be very proud of. Amache, Colorado (among other places like it) is not one of them.
At one time, for about three years, Amache was the tenth largest city in the state of Colorado. There and then, in the early 1940’s, there were 7,500 people, crammed into a single square mile, surrounded by barbed wire, as prisoners. Their crimes? That’s the funny thing—they weren’t criminals. They were American citizens, of Japanese ancestry. And they had done nothing wrong.
One of the most egregious mistakes that this country has ever made happened during World War II when President Roosevelt ordered the eviction from their homes and subsequent internment of approximately 110,000 Japanese-American citizens living on the West Coast of the United States. These citizens, approximately two thirds of whom were BORN here, were hustled off, thrown into hastily built camps that were no better than POW camps, and were generally treated like evildoers. All because of their heritage. Over 110,000 were placed in ten locations throughout the midwest and the west coast. The most famous of these is Manzinar, but the others are just as shameful by their very existence. The numbers varied for each location, and the smallest of these populations, 7500, were sent to Camp Amache, in Granada, Colorado.
Im not here to tell the whole story of the internment camps, though. They are written about pretty thoroughly. I am here to tell you about a small but very nice little museum in Granada that does a good job of presenting the facts as they were, with displays, photos, artifacts and more. I passed by today as I was walking through town. A group of young people were painting the building, sprucing it up, I suppose, and it looked nice. I saw the sign, crudely painted, outside (I hope they will replace it with a nicer sign that does the museum and the town justice) and headed in to see what it was about. I had never heard of Camp Amache, and was delighted to see that someone had set up a fitting tribute to the place and to the people whose lives were stolen out from under them all those years ago because of the stupid paranoia that war brings.
There were informational displays and literature. A scale model of the camp with its buildings and setting occupied a large table. Art that the internees made was on display, as were some of the US military(!) uniforms that some of them had worn during the war. Traditional Japanese garb, photos and other memorabilia were also on display. The museum is free, but donations are gladly accepted. Again, it is not a big museum, but it is an important one and Im glad I stumbled across it on my journey.
For more information, there is a website that will fill you in on the more intricate details and let you sign up for a newsletter. It’s important to NOT forget that this nonsense happened. A country is only great when they can own up to their mistakes, as America has done. And this was one of them.