Archaeology of Japanese Internment Camps

From 1942 to 1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt established Japanese internment camps with Executive Order 9066. This policy stated that people of Japanese descent, including those who were U.S. citizens, would be held in isolated camps. This act was a result of the government's reaction to the Pearl Harbor attacks and World War II. To this day, this incarceration of Japanese Americans and immigrants is considered one of the worst violations of American civil rights in the 20th century. Although there are a significant number of primary sources and documents pertaining to these internment camps, archaeology still can provide a unique, nonbiased, evidence-based look into how those forced to reside at these camps lived and survived. 

The Granada Relocation Center, otherwise known as Camp Amache, has extensive documented archival sources, but archaeology has still provided a unique look at how Japanese families worked to maintain their traditional values. Over 7,000 individuals were forcibly relocated to Camp Amache, and over two thirds of them were legal U.S. citizens. The families lived in their own quarters but typically ate in a cafeteria setting. Children, who would usually eat with family, started to form relationships and eat with each other rather than their family, thus challenging traditional Japanese culture. Archaeologists recovered tableware in residential areas, thus suggesting that parents were serving food in their quarters to try to maintain traditional Japanese cultural values. 

Granada Relocation Center, or Camp Amache, circa 1942. (Photo
courtesy of National Park Service)

In American neighborhoods children usually played outside in the street or other communal areas. Archaeologists discovered a variety of children's toys in pathways and other common areas in Japanese internment camps such as Amanche. Marbles were the most common, and although the parents were under financial hardship, they made a point of ordering toys for their children from American mail order catalogs as a way to assimilate into American culture. Parents played a balancing act between maintaining traditional Japanese family values, while ensuring their children assimilated into American culture. The archaeology at Camp Amanche shows tangible evidence of how parents managed that intricate balancing act while under hardship.

Many World War II Japanese relocation centers are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including Manzanar, Ninidoka and Amanche. However, overall there are not many other U.S. Asian sites listed except  a few mining sites, cemeteries and a few Chinatown and Japanese military administrative centers. This discrepancy fails to capture the wide range of Asian heritage in the United States. Furthermore, there is a discrepancy in the number of archaeological sites that have been studied on the west coast compared to that of the eastern seaboard, and there are fewer studies of Japantowns compared to Chinatowns. Hopefully, as community archaeology and other research continues to increase in the study of Asian American communities these discrepancies can be fixed and we can better understand Asian heritage in the United States.

 

Porcelain: Beauty and Strength that has Withstood the Test of Time

To celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage Month, this week we are going to talk about one of our favorite ceramics, porcelain! Porcelain is a white bodied, fine-grained ceramic that originates from China. It is fired at an extremely high temperature, which makes it almost glass-like, or vitrified. In China it is defined as pottery that is resonant when struck, while in the west it is defined as pottery that is translucent when held up to light. However, there are so many different types of porcelain, especially these days, that neither of these definitions work all of the time when describing it. 

Portrait of Italian Explorer, Marco Pollo 
(Courtesy of Britannica)

Early forms of porcelain appeared in China during the Tang Dynasty (618 to 907), but the form similar to what we see today was first made during the Yuan Dynasty (1279 to 1368). It got its name from Marco Pollo, an Italian explorer, who referred to it as porcellana, which is the Italian word for cowrie shell. He called it this because it appeared to have a similar color and texture. Chinese porcelain is made from petuntse, otherwise called China stone, which is feldpathic rock, which is ground into a powder and mixed with kaolin. It is fired at extreme temperatures, reaching 2,650 degrees Fahrenheit!  The petuntse and the high temperature is what makes the ceramic glass-like, and the kaolin helps to retain the vessels shape. 

True porcelain cannot be cut with a file and dirt can be easily washed off the vessel even if it is unglazed. Ceramic glaze is a substance that is applied to the vessel and when fired, becomes hard and glass-like. Many porcelain vessels are glazed, but this is purely for decorative purposes, as hard porcelain is already vitrified. Other types of pottery require a glaze in order to be impermeable to water and to resist staining. 

As far as porcelain we find at archaeological sites in the U.S., we can divide it up into two broad

Celadon porcelain bowl, with gold lacquer repair,
Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) (courtesy of
The Metropolitan Museum of Art).

categories, export and domestic porcelain. Export porcelain was made specifically for export out of China. A large portion of it was blue and white, but it can also be found with more colorful patterns, and much of it was made in more European forms (think gravy boats, English-style tea pots and tea cups). Domestic porcelain was made for Chinese use, but it can be found outside China in places like U.S. railroad camps out west (which heavily relied on Chinese labor), or in Chinatowns across the country. Popular patterns and decoration for domestic porcelain include Bamboo, Double Happiness, and Celadon. 

Chinese porcelain, as well as porcelains made in 

Europe and other parts of Asia, continue to be a popular collectors item today. This ceramic has stood the test of time and seems to have won some popularity contest. From fine antique china to china dolls, porcelain remains one of the most collected ceramics. And here is a fun fact for you, porcelain is the only ceramic that won't stick to your tongue! Yes, archaeologists have been known to press a ceramic sherd to their tongue to determine if it is porcelain or not. Because it is so vitreous, it is non porous and therefore won't absorb moisture and stick to your tongue! And now you know!

San Jose Chinatown and the Market Street Chinatown Archaeological Project

 May is Asian Pacific Heritage Month, a month dedicated to celebrating people and cultures from Asia and the Pacific Islands. To kick things off we wanted to talk about an amazing site all the way across the country, in San Jose, California. First, as Asian Pacific is a very broad term, that encompasses many cultures, let us define it a bit. Asian Pacific refers to those from the Asian continent and the Pacific Islands. The Pacific Islands are numerous, and include Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island).

Market Street Chinatown circa 1880, photograph by 
Andrew P. Hill (Courtesy of the Market Street Chinatown
Archaeological Project)

Today we will be focusing on Chinese immigrants that moved to San Jose in the 1860s and settled in  Market Street Chinatown. Today you would never know that once one of the largest thriving Chinatowns in California existed in this area, but in the 1880s over 1,000 Chinese immigrants called this place home. There were about 20 apartment buildings, numerous stores, restaurants, barbers, butchers, pharmacies, gambling establishments, workshops, and even a Chinese opera house. 

However, in the 1880s there was a strong anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States and in fact, in 1886, the first California Anti-Chinese Convention was held in San Jose. The following year city officials declared the community a public nuisance and shortly there after it burned to the ground. The cause was suspected arson. It remained buried under the city of San Jose for nearly 100 years until archaeologists discovered a trash pit during construction of a hotel and financial center. Archaeological Resource Services (a contract archaeological firm) was contacted by the city to monitor construction. This is a wonderful example of how Cultural Resource Management plays a vital role in ensuring archaeological sites are documented during development projects.

A Chinese medicine bottle recovered from the Market Street Chinatown archaeological project. Chemical analysis shows it contained cinnabar, known in Chinese as Zhu Sha. In Chinese medicine it was used to treat numerous ailments, from anxiety to snakebites. We now know that cinnabar contains mercury, which is toxic in large amounts or extended exposure. (photograph courtesy of the "There Was a Chinatown Here" digital exhibit)

This significant archaeological discovery blossomed into Sanford's Market Street Chinatown Archaeological Project, which is a community archaeology partnership between Stanford's Department of Anthropology, History San Jose, and the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project. After the initial excavation in the 1980s, the numerous artifacts recovered from the site were boxed and put in storage. The Market Street Chinatown Archaeological Project has been working to catalog these objects so that they can be used for research and educational purposes. This project has resulted in numerous publications, art installations, and exhibits. One such exhibit is the digital exhibit, There Was a Chinatown Here. Be sure to check it out to learn more about this fascinating site and the people that called it home!