What do we do with the prison camps buried in our backyard?
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Historic Photo of Prison Camp #10/ Catalina Federal Honor Camp outside Tucson, Arizona. Photo Courtesy of Coronado National Forest.
View of Prison Camp #10/ Catalina Federal Honor Camp remains outside Tucson, Arizona, 2020. Photo Courtesy of Bill Gillespie.
Landscapes of Japanese American Incarceration.
Landscapes of Japanese American Incarceration.
About
Seeing Memory looks and listens to the landscapes of Japanese American incarceration during World War II.
Building on the work of archaeologists, historians, community members, and descendants of former inmates, Seeing Memory explores understudied sites of Japanese American Incarceration. These sites offer lessons about how absence can be its own form of evidence; what were once the foundations of prison barracks are now campgrounds, active military bases, hiking trails, or soccer fields. Even so, much remains, if we can learn where and how to look.
Seeing Memory brings together drone imagery, photography, audio interviews, and community archives from sites of Japanese American incarceration.
Our sites include Department of Justice, Immigration & Naturalization Services, and U.S. Army internment camps that stretch across Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, and Idaho.
The memories imbued in these landscapes cross racial, historical, and geographic lines. They demonstrate the limits of citizenship and show that injustice does not occur in a vacuum.
It is time to reckon with the past in order to better listen to its echoes in the present. Join Us.
Enter the archives
Ready to virtually visit the Seeing Memory site? Select a site below to begin.
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![Mountain landscape with housing structures in the valley]()
Catalina Federal Honor Camp
Tucson, AZ
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![Four Japanese American children stand in front of wooden structure carrying baskets and wearing formal attire]()
Baca Camp
Lincoln, New Mexico
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![Sign at entrance of camp in Kooskia that reads "US Department of Justice: Kooskia Internment Camp Reservation. For next 3 miles. No Admission except on official business."]()
Kooskia
Kooskia, Idaho
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![Tent structures on wooden platform surrounded by snow.]()
Fort Richardson
Anchorage, AK
Forthcoming -
![People lined up next to a field with a structure behind them that says Fort Missoula and a mountain in the background]()
Fort Missoula
Missoula, MT
Forthcoming
Japanese American Incarceration In Context
This map shows the Seeing Memory sites within the larger context of Japanese American wartime detention (you can click on a site to enter its archive!). What do you notice about this map? To learn more about other wartime detention sites and to follow the journeys of several families, visit Densho’s Sites of Shame project. We are grateful to Densho for sharing their data with us! We are also deeply grateful for the work of Native Land Digital. Learn more about their work and how you can use their map at native-land.ca.
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Seeing Memory, 2022.
Lesson Plans
Teach with these Histories
Are you an educator or community member interested in teaching with the Seeing Memory website or materials? Check out the following lesson plans.
Take Action
Learn More & Get involved
Curious about existing organizing work that addresses ongoing injustices in the U.S. immigration system and prison systems? Learn more about some of the organizations that inspire the project of Seeing Memory and get involved.