10 Social Networks and the Development of Neighborhood Identities in Amache, a WWII Japanese American Internment Camp

Abstract

In 1942 Japanese Americans from the west coast of the United States were forcibly relocated to incarceration camps scattered across the interior of the country. Constructed by the Army Corp of Engineers and designed to house around 10,000 individuals, these centers followed a rigid, gridded layout that allowed for the rapid construction of what were ostensibly cities. Residential sections were laid out in blocks, each containing barracks buildings to which internees were assigned on arrival. Five seasons of intensive pedestrian survey at the Granada Relocation Center National Historic Landmark, Colorado (also known as Amache), accompanied by extensive oral histories, has determined that these residential blocks became neighborhoods with individual character and personalities. Archaeological and archival data are used to examine the development of neighborhood identities and examine the relative utility of different data sets in identifying social interaction as a proxy for neighborhood identities. Archaeological research at Amache reveals the physical modifications and artifacts found in residential blocks. Distinct differences in densities and types of artifacts along with the development of coordinated blockwide landscaping and centrally located communal features show that internees were developing neighborhood-based communities. These indicate the role that new social relationships, developed within the confines of camp, along with the influences of existing social ties and sets of behavioral traits, had on the formation of neighborhoods. This chapter uses social network data drawn from historic newspapers to examine the levels of interaction occurring between residents of the same residential block and between different areas of the camp. Social network data will be used to explore the role that social interaction had in the creation and maintenance of neighborhood identities. These different lines of data converge to highlight how neighborhoods defined by distinct sets of activities and residential traits were being formed within the institutional setting of Amache.