From the Inside Out: Thinking through the Archaeology of Japanese American Confinement
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From the Inside Out: Thinking through the Archaeology of Japanese American Confinement Bonnie J. Clark 1
& Dana
Ogo Shew 2
Accepted: 6 October 2020/ # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract For better or for worse, the archaeology of the Japanese diaspora has been dominated by the study of sites of WWII-era incarceration. For all its considerable merits, such research focuses on a brief, and in many ways unrepresentative, slice of the Nikkei experience. This article leverages the results of six years of field research at one of those sites—Amache, Colorado—to create working hypotheses for linking Nikkei experiences before, during, and after incarceration. To do so the Amache data set is framed by findings from earlier sites, other confinement camps, and an informal survey of Amache survivors. Keywords Japanese American incarceration . Amache . garden archaeology . ofuro .
collaborative research
Introduction Archaeological understandings of the lived experiences of US Nikkei (Japanese emigrants and their descendants living outside Japan) are strongly shaped by investigations of WWII Japanese incarceration sites. This oftentimes powerful research has not only given us a better understanding of this experience but has helped give voice to those who lived it. In these studies, researchers (including the authors of this article) often
* Bonnie J. Clark [email protected] Dana Ogo Shew [email protected]
1
Department of Anthropology, University of Denver, 2000 E. Asbury Avenue, Sturm 142, Denver, CO 80208, USA
2
Anthropological Studies Center, Sonoma State University, 1801 E. Cotati Ave., Building 29, Rohnert Park, CA 94928, USA
International Journal of Historical Archaeology
speak to the community’s resilience, resistance, adaptation, and agency relative to this event. Syntheses of this body of work include Camp (2013), (Casella 2007), Farrell and Burton (2003), Moshenska and Myers (2011). Mytum and Carr (2013), and other studies cited in the introduction to this volume. Yet as important as this work is, a deeper temporal look at the Nikkei experience can paint a more meaningful and accurate picture of both the precedents for what is seen in the camps, as well as the lasting effects of confinement on the community of survivors and their descendants. In this article we begin with presenting the patterns that have emerged over a decade of study at Amache, Colorado’s WWII incarceration camp, framed with available data from other War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps. These patterns are then contextualized by questions posed to the Amache community through a voluntary written survey. The questions in the community survey focused primarily on practices evident in the camps, but with deep roots in the Nikkei community. Questions also addressed innovations deriving from the camp experience. We end by proposing hypotheses for future work that builds on both the tangible and intangible heritage of this community.
Archaeological Research at Sites of Confinement There are many reasons why
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