Intimate Archaeologies of World War II

DOCUMENT Citation Only Allison Young. Allison M Young.

During the Second World War, thousands of prisoners of war were transported to the United States to be held for the duration of the conflict. The Geneva Convention served as the primary doctrine influencing how camps were built and how the prisoner populations were treated. Under the convention, prisoners were able to work for a wage as well as pursue hobbies in areas like education, sports, and the arts. This paper explores how the artistic pursuits of German POWs influenced the material record...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kristen M Tiede. Kaitlyn Hosken.

The Kooskia Internment Camp (KIC) near Lowell, Idaho, housed Japanese internees during World War II. Open from 1943 to 1945, Kooskia was home to 256 Japanese men who helped to build U.S. Highway 12 during their stay. As detainees of the U.S. Department of Justice, these individuals were treated as foreign prisoners of war and were therefore subject to the conditions of the 1929 Geneva Convention. As such, the internees possessed the right to adequate medical care.  Artifacts recovered from the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kari Jones.

Over 50,000 Italian prisoners of war were transported to the United States during World War II. After Italy negotiated an armistice with the Allies, POWs were presented with a choice. Those that signed an oath of allegiance to the new Italian government were assigned to Italian Service Units (ISUs). They provided support services for the United States military in exchange for limited freedoms and better living conditions. Those that refused to sign the oath remained in POW camps. This paper...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carroll J Scogin-Brincefield.

Dark Shadows of the Home-front During America’s World War II  Crystal City and Internment Carroll-Scogin-Brincefield MA  The textbooks and historical documentaries all discuss the shameful treatment of Japanese Americans being forced to relocation and internment camps during World War II, but selective amnesia concerning German and Italian Americans have left a void in the true history of internments in the United States. Texas had 21 POW camps and 3 Internment camps, that’s twice the amount of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only April Kamp-Whittaker.

During World War II thousands of Japanese American families were relocated from the west coast to the interior of the United States. Internment along with rampant racism and cultural stereotyping focused public attention on individuals of Japanese descent in this county and raised questions about identity and national allegiance. Research from Amache, the internment camp located in Colorado, is used to explore issues of children’s national identity and broader understanding of the war. ...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jodi Barnes.

Camp Monticello, located in southeast Arkansas, served as a Prisoner of War camp for Italians from 1943 to 1946. The spatial arrangement of the camp, which consists of two officer’s compounds and three enlisted men’s compounds, was structured according to the central principles of surveillance, discipline, and control. The food, clothing, and possessions of Camp Monticello's inmates were provided by the institution. From mess hall menus and a chapel, archeological research reveals intimate...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Chris M Morine.

From 1943 to 1946, the U.S. government held over 3,000 German POWs at Camp Trinidad in southern Colorado. In 2013, archaeological fieldwork and research was conducted in order to better understand the daily lives of those incarcerated within the conformity of institutional confinement. The information gathered, in the form of artifacts, environmental features, and personal narratives, has uncovered stories about those that used them and has allowed for the development of lesser known details of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kyla E Fitz-Gerald.

Historical archaeology provides many insights about unexpected aspects of daily life. One example is the hygiene and beauty practices of the men at World War II Kooskia Internment camp located near Kooskia, Idaho. Excavations in 2010 and 2013 resulted in the recovery of a variety of objects documenting men’s grooming in the camp, including items such as cold cream jars, a cologne bottle, and shampoo bottles. This work explores how these everyday objects provide new insight into the hygiene...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Harold Mytum.

The British interned both men and women on the Isle of Man during World War 2. The men were housed in camps in Douglas, Ramsay and Peel, and the women (and later, married couples) were in a large camp comprising both Port Erin and Port St Mary. Each camp developed its own sub-culture, but gender stereotypes amongst both staff and internees created different expectations. Famous artists produced important, innovative works in the men's camps, where newspapers were also regularly published., but...