Japanese American Confinement Education Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1931 extends the authorization of the Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program and establishes a new competitive grant program to award grants to Japanese American organizations to create and disseminate educational materials about the history of Japanese American confinement during World War II.

In 2006, Congress established the Japanese American Confinement Sites, or JACS grant program to preserve and interpret U.S. Confinement Sites during World War II. However, the program will soon run up against the end of its authorization cap.

The program has supported valuable projects across the country, including at least 12 in my home State of Arkansas, where important projects have been funded at my alma mater, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, as well as Arkansas State University, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, University of Central Arkansas, and the Central Arkansas Library System, and the McGehee Industrial Foundation.

These projects include archiving, creating educational exhibits, hosting workshops and lectures, preserving cemeteries, and recording oral histories.

I appreciate Representative Matsui's work on this important legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support extending the program.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I encourage passage of this bill.

I have friends back in Arkansas who, like Representative Matsui, at a young age, were in some of these internment camps, and they are great Americans, very patriotic. We owe it to them to recognize what happened and to support this program.

Mr. Speaker, I, again, urge adoption, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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