During World War II, the United States incarcerated (interned) 120,000 people of Japanese descent, two thirds of them American citizens, into ten barrack camps, housing 8,000-19,000 residents. This forced migration left a lasting mark on the Japanese American community, removed from their homes and livelihoods on the West Coast, transplanted into camps guarded by military police, and then encouraged to disperse across the continent. Understanding how the Japanese American communities were literally dismantled, then often never reconstituted, is a major aspect of the destigmatization of Japanese Americans. The overarching aim of this project is to recreate the networks and migration routes of Japanese Americans after their release from incarceration camps. I will apply dynamic network modeling and geospatial mapping to historical data to explore their migration patterns and social change.

2023

2027