Physics Colloquium: Stacey Camp, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Idaho

Monday, March 26 2012 at 4:00 PM

Location: EP 209

Title: “Archaeological Research at Idaho’s Kooskia Internment Camp, a World War II Japanese American Internment Camp”

Abstract: On February 19, 1942, over 120,000 individuals of Japanese heritage were forced to leave the comfort and solace of their homes and communities and relocate to internment camps spread throughout some of the harshest and destitute locales in the Western United States. Seen as enemies of the state during World War II, Japanese Americans were given an ultimatum: abandon their homes within six to twenty-one days or be imprisoned. Idaho’s Kooskia Internment Camp was one of the most unusual and demographically unique internment camps, as it was the U.S. government’s first attempt at using male internees as a work force to build a highway. This talk will explore archaeological and archival research conducted at the site, which has shed new light on how Kooskia’s internees coped with forced internment and labor.

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