A nonprofit that operates a museum at a former Japanese American internment site in northwest Wyoming is now a Smithsonian affiliate.
The Smithsonian added Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation to its network of museums earlier this month.
Executive Director Aura Sunada Newlin said this will allow the nonprofit to tell the story of what happened to Japanese Americans during World War II to a larger audience.
“We want for all Americans to know about that history and why that happened and understand that it was more about racial tensions and war history and failed political leadership than it was about a national security risk,” she said.
Around 14,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated at the Heart Mountain site near Cody from 1942 to 1945.
Sunada Newlin says the nonprofit is joining the Smithsonian network at a critical time. This summer Heart Mountain plans on hosting the largest annual pilgrimageof Japanese Americans to the former incarceration site since it opened in 2011.
During that week in July, the nonprofit will open a new conference center and archive aimed at fostering bipartisan dialogue and cooperation.
Heart Mountain is the second museum in Wyoming to join the Smithsonian affiliate network, alongside the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody.
