Communal Spaces and Ideas of Belonging in a WWII Japanese Incarceration Center

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeologies of Immigration and Refugee Resettlement" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans was based on a questioning of national allegiance and the role of minority groups within this nation. This paper looks at the development of communal spaces at the Amache Incarceration Center in southeastern Colorado and explores the ways these areas express ideas of national and cultural identity. Communal facilities created by internees demonstrate the dual cultural heritage of the population at Amache by incorporating Japanese and western elements. Constructed at both a neighborhood and site-wide level these community spaces may have helped mitigate some of the negative impacts of detention by helping create new social ties and a sense of belonging. The communal experience of unjust incarceration has had a continuing impact on how these sites are interpreted and their role in our national narrative surrounding Japanese American Incarceration.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeologies of Immigration and Refugee Resettlement   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23021