Legendary newscaster and author Tom Brokaw will receive the third LaDonna Zall Compassionate Witness Award during the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation’s annual Pilgrimage. The event will be held July 27, at the location of the World War II Japanese American confinement site.

“We have been honored with Tom [Browkaw]’s support since the day we opened the doors to our interpretive center, and we want to show our appreciation,” said Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation Chair Shirley Ann Higuchi.

Since speaking at the 2011 grand opening of the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, Brokaw has continued to report on the injustice of the Japanese American incarceration, including an NBC News report marking the 75th anniversary of Japanese internment in 2017.

“I am greatly honored to be a part of the testimonial to the heroic Japanese American citizens who endured the cruel incarceration during WWII,” Brokaw said. “What happened at Heart Mountain should be taught to every succeeding generation of American schoolchildren.”

Created in 1996, the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation has worked to preserve the site where almost 14,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II.

LaDonna Zall is a Powell resident who witnessed the final train of prisoners leaving Heart Mountain in 1945. She was instrumental in building the interpretive center and curating its artifact collection.