"Caring for Their Prisoner Compatriots": Health and Dental Hygiene at the Kooskia Internment Camp

Summary

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 site indicate that dental care was also available. A toothbrush handle, the cap of a toothpaste tube, a denture mold, and human teeth show evidence of these activities. A review of the terms of the Geneva Convention, all dental related artifacts, and archival documents will provide additional insight into the quality of dental care available to internees at the KIC. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015   •
• Intimate Archaeologies of World War II

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 206