Nearly 80 years after the end of World War II, a site in Colorado that once held thousands of Japanese Americans opened its doors this week as the country’s newest national park.
The Department of the Interior reopened what was Camp Amache on Thursday, nearly two years after President Joe Biden signed the park into law following a multiyear bipartisan effort by Colorado lawmakers.
“As a nation, we must face the wrongs of our past in order to build a more just and equitable future. The Interior Department has the tremendous honor of stewarding America’s public lands and natural and cultural resources to tell a complete and honest story of our nation’s history,” Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.
The Amache National Historic Site — previously called the Granada War Relocation Center — was one of 10 concentration camps established during WWII that detained Japanese Americans in the wake of the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack. Over 10,000 Japanese Americans passed through the concentration camp during its brief existence, according to the National Park Service.