WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Friday, President Biden signed the Amache National Historic Site Act, which designates the Amache site in Granada as part of the National Park System.

Amache, also known as the Granada Relocation Center, was one of 10 incarceration sites established by the War Relocation Authority during World War II to detain Japanese Americans forcibly removed from the West Coast of the United States under the terms of Executive Order 9066. More than 10,000 people were incarcerated at Amache from 1942-1945, which housed 7,310 incarcerees at its peak, two-thirds of whom were United States citizens.

This designation will permanently protect the site for future generations and will help tell the history of Japanese American incarceration during World War II.

“As a nation, we must face the wrongs of our past in order to build a more just and equitable future,” said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. “I applaud President Biden and the bipartisan action in Congress that has ensured this important and painful chapter in our nation’s story is preserved and honored for the generations to come. After visiting Amache and meeting with survivors and descendants, I was moved by their resilience and the way in which Colorado communities came together during and after the injustice to support Japanese Americans.”

Today, the Amache site consists of a historic cemetery, a monument, concrete building foundations, and several reconstructed and rehabilitated structures from the camp-era. Amache was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on May 18, 1994 and designated a National Historic Landmark on February 10, 2006.

FILE – A sign points the way to the cemetery of Camp Amache, on Jan. 18, 2015, the site of a former World War II-era Japanese-American internment camp, in Granada, Colo. On the eve of the 80th anniversary of the forced internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans at the onset of World war II, Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah is getting backlash for holding up the creation of a national historic site at the former internment camp in extreme southeast Colorado. (AP Photo/Russell Contreras, File)

“The National Park Service will continue working closely with key stakeholders dedicated to the preservation of Amache, and those directly impacted by the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, to preserve and interpret this significant historic site to the public,” said National Park Service Director Chuck Sams.

To formally establish the park, the National Park Service will work with the Town of Granada to acquire the lands intended in the law, a process is likely to take more than a year. For more information visit the National Park Service’s Amache website.