'DIGGING AMACHE' PROGRAM TO HIGHLIGHT ARCHAEOLOGY WORK OF UNIVERSITY OF DENVER ON FORMER WW II CAMP SITE

Dr. Bonnie Clark, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Denver (DU), will provide insight into the archaeological research done at the historic site of the World War II government-run detention camp known as Amache, which unconstitutionally detained thousands of Japanese Americans in southeast Colorado. The program, "Digging Amache: Revealing a Confined Community", highlights the work being done to preserve the original site and what has been discovered since the project began in 2006.

On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the government to forcibly remove people of Japanese ancestry from their homes on the West Coast and parts of Hawai`i. Over 120,000 Nikkei, two-thirds U.S. citizens, were falsely imprisoned in domestic concentration camps and other detention camps. Amache, known formally as the Granada Relocation Center, was one of 10 major camps run by the government’s War Relocation Authority (WRA). Amache at its peak held over 7,300 people. Closed in October of 1945, the site was largely abandoned.

In 2003, a team of archaeologists surveyed the camp site, located near the town of Granada, and discovered that among the former WRA camp sites, Amache was one of the best for tangible remains, including the original foundations of buildings and scattered surface artifacts. Officially a National Historic Landmark, the site became the focus of a long-term project by the University of Denver’s Department of Anthropology and Dr. Clark. While many colleges refused to admit Japanese Americans as students, the University of Denver welcomed them during World War II. This project is a continuation of that relationship.

An important element of DU’s 2008 archaeological research at Amache was the investigation of different types of gardens at the camp: ornamental, vegetable, and entry gardens. Graduate students have studied how the inmates changed their environment by the creation of the gardens and how, due to the lack of materials, they were forced to innovate to do so. The 2008 garden research was funded by a Heritage Partnerships Program grant from the National Park Service, Intermountain Region.

Dr. Clark will discuss how archaeology is revealing the rich material resources of the site. Research on these remains yields surprising details about daily life in the camp, especially strategies inmates employed to transform the stark environment of the camp. By working with former inmates and their families, DU students and professors have aligned with the communities engaged in remembering and preserving this nationally significant site.

One former inmate, Carlene Tanigoshi Tinker, was only three when she was in Amache. But, coming back to the site as a volunteer, she was able to activate her youthful memories. "Walking to my barrack/room--Block 11G-4C—and standing in the very room where I lived with my parents, I could visualize and recall a lot about my early years," Tinker wrote. "Imagine this, I was able to 'see' where my parents’ cots were, where the pot belly stove was located, where I slept behind the blanket that was strung over a clothes line to give my parents privacy. This was a very emotional moment as visions were forming."

This program is free to National Museum members or with admission. It is presented in collaboration with The George and Sakaye Aratani Endowed Chair, Asian American Studies Center, UCLA, and the Japanese American National Museum.