Race, Health, and Hygiene in a World War II Japanese American Internment Camp

Summary

During World War II, approximately 120,000 individuals of Japanese heritage were imprisoned in internment camps in the United States, with 2/3 of the prisoners holding American citizenship. This paper looks at health and hygiene related artifacts found at one such internment camp, the Kooskia Internment Camp, which was located in north Idaho and in operation from May 1943 to May 1945. Hygiene and health products mediated the racial boundaries between not only Anglo American officials and their Japanese prisoners, but also helped define and reify class divisions between members of the Japanese American community prior to the war. Archaeological and archival data from the Kooskia Internment Camp also provide a glimpse into the medical treatment of Japanese American prisoners in a remote Idaho incarceration facility.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Critical Mass: The Emerging Field of Japanese Diaspora Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 787