When the foreign is not exotic: Ceramics at Colorado's WWII Japanese internment camp

Abstract

During World War II, the United States government interned approximately 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans in relocation camps. Archaeological survey at Amache, Colorado, reveals that in this time and place where Japanese identity was under siege, Japanese ceramics were very common. Their presence is all the more notable given the limitations on personal goods internees were allowed to bring to camp, financial strain, and the severing of trade relations with Japan. This chapter presents recent research about the camp as a way to examine a situation where imported goods were perhaps the least foreign element of a people's way of life. © 2010 Springer-Verlag New York.