Anna Tamura, a landscape architect by training, is engaged in researching and planning for historic cultural landscapes within the Seattle Support Office of the National Park Service's (NPS) Division of Park Planning. Anna got her start with the NPS as in intern in the Cultural Landscapes Program. She is a recent graduate of both the Masters in Landscape Architecture and Preservation Planning & Design Certificate programs at the University of Washington.

Anna was recently promoted to Project Coordinator for the General Management Plan (GMP) for the Minidoka Internment National Monument in Idaho. As such, Anna and three other team leaders coordinate the multi-disciplinary planning team and public workshops for the historic site in Idaho where Japanese Americans were interned during World War II.

Anna's other projects include site planning and design for both American and English Camps at the San Juan Island National Historic Site, and research support for the Manzanaar National Historic Site in California -- another former Japanese American internment camp.

In the Beginning

Anna was born in Boston, MA but grew up in Portland, OR. She attended Bard College in Annandale, NY and received a bachelor's degree in Anthropology and Archeology, with an emphasis in "Anthropology of Place." For her senior thesis, Anna wrote about the Crazy Horse Monument and Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

After graduation from Bard, Anna worked on a contract basis on two archeological survey projects at military sites. Anna found these jobs through recruitment ads sent to her department at school. The first was a six-month project at Fort Drum, NY under the management of Colorado State University. The second was another six-month project at Fort Polk, LA, under the direction of a private cultural resource management firm based in Stone Mountain, GA.

After these projects, Anna joined the Peace Corps. Anna was stationed in Togo, West Africa for the next two and a half years and served as an Environmental Protection Agent. In this capacity, she conducted grass-roots development work in small villages that were geared toward "the protection and enhancement of natural resources" and worked to ensure public access to such resources. This involved projects in organic farming, tree nurseries, environmental education classes, and construction of wells for potable water.

Upon the completion of her Peace Corps service in the fall of 1998, Anna moved to the Los Angeles area where her family had relocated. While considering possible graduate studies, she became interested in the field of Landscape Architecture and attended extension classes in Landscape Architecture at UCLA to gain a better understanding of the profession. After a quarter, she decided that she wanted to enter a Landscape Architecture program the following year. In the meantime, she undertook more contract work in archeology with the same firm she had worked with before. The firm, New South Associates, asked her to work on the excavation of a pre-historic Native American site in South Carolina.

Graduate School and Beyond

Anna says she chose the University of Washington because of its location in the Northwest and because of various options offered by the College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP) Certificate Programs in Urban Design and Preservation Planning. She briefly considered additional studies in Construction Management at CAUP. Ultimately, she found her preservation courses more interesting than her other work.

During her first year in the program, Susan Dolan, a Historical Landscape Architect from the NPS Seattle Support Office, visited one of Anna's Landscape Architecture classes as a guest lecturer. Afterwards, Anna spoke with Susan briefly and accepted her business card.

After contacting Susan as a follow-up, Anna was offered the opportunity to be a research assistant on a project Susan was conducting related to the history of American orchards. That summer, Anna became a NPS intern in their Cultural Landscapes Program. She worked with another UW Landscape Architecture student, Michael Hankinson, to produce documentation for sections of the Cultural Landscapes Inventory for the Wonderland Trail at Mount Rainier National Park.

At the end of the summer, Anna made a brief visit to the Minidoka internment site on her way to Utah for a vacation. "I knew very remotely that my family had been interned there, but I didn't know anything more than that." Because it was 'on the way' she decided to stop there.

Although Minidoka had been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979, Anna says it appeared to be "just sitting there and wasn't on anyone's radar." At that time, she was unaware of any connections the site would have to her professional career, but the visit prompted her to explore her family history and her Japanese American heritage for the first time.

Manzanar, a California internment camp, was a part of the National Park system for about ten years before the federal government began efforts to complete a cultural landscape report on the site. "Because I had shown so much interest in these sites, they asked me to come back to work on it for the next summer." That winter, while Anna was studying abroad in Mexico, NPS acquired Minidoka and declared it Minidoka Internment National Monument and a new unit of the National Park system.

Upon her return, NPS asked if she would also be interested in work at Minidoka. Because NPS understood that the gardens created by the internees at both Manzanar and Minidoka were significant cultural resources, they suggested that Anna study these for her masters thesis.

In the summer, at Minidoka, she conducted a Cultural Landscapes Inventory. This included researching and writing the site history, documenting the existing landscape, and then analyzing and comparing what is existing to the historic landscape to determine whether the site has historic integrity. At Manzanar, she focused on researching and documenting cultural traditions as a component of the larger Cultural Landscape Report document. This was primarily focused on the gardens. Thus her thesis research and project work were conducted simultaneously. She completed her thesis and graduated from the UW College of Architecture and Urban Planning in the spring of 2002.

The NPS extended Anna's contract to 2005 so that she could continue her work at Minidoka through the planning phase, as a member of the planning team. Anna's primary role is organizing public involvement in the planning process. This includes not only the public review process of the Environmental Impact Statement, but several public workshops with the local and regional communities with ties to the site, such as the city of Seattle and the larger Japanese American community.

Anna notes, "Minidoka is a significant seventy-three acre landscape, but the real resource is the people. We really want to get their input, get their ideas, hear from them what they want to see for the future of Minidoka. We have gone to extraordinary lengths to engage the public." She also is involved in the cultural landscape work and site design planning.

As the coordinator for the General Management Plan, these duties are carried out while organizing the efforts of twenty team members, including community leaders, historians, an anthropologist, and two outside design consulting firms. One of these firms is Seattle-based Jones and Jones, a Landscape Architecture and Architecture firm. Jones and Jones has prior experience with NPS planning and cultural landscapes projects, including the Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve on Whidbey Island.

Anna says that the Minidoka project comes with "a lot of challenges to meet because it's so remote and it's still such a contested history.and an emotional history."

Connecting the Past to the Future

When asked what led her to study anthropology and archeology, Anna spoke of the influence of cultural immersion through travel and sharing experiences with her parents. " When I was a kid my family was pretty poor. When my parents spent money it wasn't on anything material, but we would take lots of trips, travelling on the local buses and staying at shabby motels. We went to Europe, and to Central America. We went all over the U.S., camping. My mom and dad were both Peace Corps volunteers. I was always hearing about their experiences, and it made me interested in people and in place."

When asked if there had been any significant mentors that influenced her education or career. "My most influential mentors have always been strong, compassionate, and profoundly intelligent women. People like my own mother. Also, Michele Dominy, an anthropology professor at Bard, and most recently, Gail Dubrow who was my advisor at the University of Washington."

When asked what the future holds, Anna indicated that when her NPS contract expires, she may have an opportunity to renew it and pursue other projects. She says she might also consider leaving NPS to pursue work in design and planning at a private firm. Whatever she decides, her experiences at NPS will be excellent preparation for any challenges she may face in her future endeavors.

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