Granada War Relocation Center

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, historic landmark, resettlement / relocation site, U.S. National Historic Landmark

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The Granada War Relocation Center was a Japanese American internment camp located in southeast Colorado near the small farming community of Granada, Colorado on U.S. 50. The Center was one of ten that were created by the FDR Administration, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. The camp opened in August 1942 and had a maximum population of 7318 persons.

Most of the internees at the camp came from the West Coast of the U.S., mostly from the Los Angeles area. Each person was only allowed one bag, therefore, many people were forced to sell what they could or give away their possessions before being forced out. This also included pets.

The camp's unofficial name quickly became Camp Amache, named after a Cheyenne Indian chief's daughter who was also the wife of John Prowers, the man who had the county that Camp Amache is located in named after him. It received this name because of a mail mix-up between the town of Granada and the Granada Relocation Center. Amache had barbed-wire fencing and eight machine-gun towers located all around the camp, however, all eight towers were rarely manned and the guns were never used. The camp had a police department which was actually worked by Japanese Americans living at the camp. Camp leaders, internees themselves, set up a separate Amache District for Boy Scouts at the camp. Colorado Governor Ralph Lawrence Carr was one of the few to welcome the Japanese to Colorado, going against the current anti-Japanese sentiment of the times.

Today the camp is a lonely, desolate place on the high prairie, covered by scrubby vegetation and small cacti. All of the buildings were torn down or sold and hauled off, and the cement foundations remain. After the war the land was not sold back to the original owners, but to the highest bid. Signs were added, showing locations of schools, laundries, dining halls, clinics, fire station, etc. The highway signs identify the place only as Camp Amache.

Sources (see below) indicate that the high school football team lost 1 game in 3 years. One interesting occurrence with the Amache football team was when they played the undefeated Holly, Colorado football team. Holly is located just 11 miles east of Amache on U.S. 50. This game was unique because Holly actually agreed to come up to the camp and play Amache. Former Colorado Governor Romer played on the Holly team at the time. The Amache team won this game by a score of 7-0, the only touchdown coming from a trick play.

In the southwest corner of Camp Amache is a small cemetery and memorial dedicated to the Japanese Americans from there who volunteered to fight in Europe in World War II. Nisei from all the camps were in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit of its size in American military history. A large stone memorial with men's names engraved in it sits in the cemetery in memory of those who died defending the U.S. in the 442nd. The graves at the cemetery are only the children who died while at the camp.

Today, the camp is maintained by the Amache Preservation Society. The camp was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 18, 1994, and designated a National Historic Landmark on February 10, 2006. As a school project, Granada Undivided High School students have set up a museum for the Granada War Relocation Center.

On December 21, 2006 President Bush signed H.R. 1492 into law guaranteeing $38,000,000 in federal money to restore the Granada relocation center along with nine other former Japanese internment camps