Amache Preservation Society

05/07/2026

05/26/2025

Memorial Day is a time to honor the people who made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. During World War Two, there were 32 men from Amache who died overseas while their friends and families remained behind barbed wire.

One of these men was Private First Class Kiyoshi Muranaga. He volunteered to serve in the 442nd RCT in May 1943. On June 26, 1944, his first day in action in Italy, he laid down is life in an act of extraordinary heroism. His troop encountered strong enemy forces and heavy casualties. Despite this, he singlehandedly manned a mortar in an attempt to disable the enemy weapons. He fired three shots before he was killed but successfully forced the enemy troops to retreat.

For his bravery and sacrifice, he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army's second-highest decoration. Decades later, the award was upgraded to a Medal of Honor.

Learn more about Private First Class Muranaga's acts of heroisms here: https://goforbroke.org/medal-honor-recipients/kiyoshi-k-muranaga/

Image of Kiyoshi Muranaga's mother, Kikuyo Muranaga, accepting the Distinguished Service Cross from an Army representative. Courtesy of UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement Collection.

05/26/2025

12/07/2024

If you know someone that would be interested send them to apply! Information in this post below!

Let's try this again...

Join our team!

Amache National Historic Site is hiring a WG 5 Maintenance Worker. This is a term position and will last between one to two years. Duties include performing routine maintenance, cleaning facilities and bathrooms, and performing other duties such as painting, masonry work, roofing, welding, or assisting higher grade workers with maintenance of utility systems in the facility. The position announcement closes on December 19th, 2024.

To apply, visit www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/822432200

We also highly recommend checking out this website on writing federal resumes. Resumes for federal jobs are very different than jobs outside the federal government!
help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/what-to-include

If you have any question about the position or Amache National Historic site, please email Site Manager Chris Mather at [email protected]

12/04/2024

It was a great visit from the Colorado Department of Education! Glad to have you and continue teaching about Amache!

11/26/2024

Are you a teacher interested in visiting Amache? To schedule a ranger-led tour of the National Historic Site, please visit our website: https://www.nps.gov/amch/learn/education/index.htm

To schedule a student-led tour of the Amache Museum with the Amache Preservation Society, please contact [email protected]

NPS Photo/J. Kepford

10/21/2024

"What does America mean to you?"

Marion Konishi pondered this question as she wrote a speech for the Amache Senior High 1943 graduation. She was the school's valedictorian. While she wrote, search lights from guard towers reflected into her windows. Marion, her family, and her classmates were some of the 120,000 people of Japanese descent who had been forcibly removed from their homes along the west coast and sent to incarceration sites across the western US. From behind barbed wire, she wrote, "Sometimes America failed and suffered. Sometimes she made mistakes, great mistakes, but she always admitted them and tried to rectify all the injustice that flowed from them."

81 years later, Marion's speech still resonates. The land her family was imprisoned on is now one of the newest additions to the National Park Service. The National Park Service's commitment to telling the full American story is a realization of the hopeful future Marion described in her speech.

Read more about Marion and her speech here: https://ow.ly/vstt50TPYa2

Image courtesy of Anne Wilson

10/05/2024

Join us next weekend on Saturday, October 12th at the Lamar Public Library for a lecture about Amache.

The lecture will be in the Cultural Events Center at 2 pm. The following weekend on Saturday, October 19th, there will be a site tour at Amache National Historic Site at 10 am. We can't wait to see you there!

NPS Photo/J. Ellis

09/27/2024

We thank you Judge Gogo for donating this flag in honor of the survivors of the Japanese American Incarceration Legacy Project! Please come visit the Amache museum to see this new piece in the exhibit and also make your way to visit the Amache National Historic Site!

09/05/2024

The water tower was a landmark for the people of Amache. Survivors who were children while incarcerated remember being allowed to explore wherever they wanted, "as long as you can see the water tower."

After the site closed many of the buildings were auctioned off, the water tower included. In the late 2000s, the tank portion of the water tower was found mostly intact on a ranch 20 miles south of Granada. In 2010, the family donated the tank to the Amache Preservation Society. In 2012, the water tower was rebuilt and restored to its original location. It once again functions as a landmark for the region and can be seen from miles away.

Learn more about the restoration work done at Amache: https://amache.org/improvements-and-restoration/

NPS Photo