pages of history
Reclaim History
Researchers who have uncovered artifacts from a World War II internment camp in Idaho hope to detail the day-to-day lives of those who lived there and bring awareness to the camp’s location.
Researchers from the University of Idaho are digging deep to reclaim the history of one of the state’s darkest secrets — the Kooskia Internment Camp, which housed more than 250 Americans and others of Japanese heritage from 1943 through the end of World War II.
Almost all surface evidence of the camp has disappeared since the end of the war. However, archeologists under the direction of Dr. Stacey Camp, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Idaho, have uncovered numerous artifacts related to camp activities, including broken porcelain, old medicine bottles, dental tools, gambling pieces, and even artwork created by individuals living there.
Unlike larger coed internment facilities, the Kooskia Internment Camp housed only men. It was also one of the first camps to be used by the government for manual labor. In fact, many of the camp’s detainees volunteered to go there so they could stay and earn extra money. Workers made between $50 and $60 a month and were responsible for the construction of U.S. Highway 12, which connects Lewiston, Idaho, with Missoula, Mont.
The Kooskia Internment Camp also is notable for housing people of Japanese decent who were detained in South American countries, primarily Peru, says Camp.
Camp expects her research into the Kooskia Internment Camp to last several years. Her goal is to gather enough data to accurately detail the day-to-day lives of the men imprisoned there and to erect signs informing the public of the camp’s location.
Pacific Aviation Museum Collection Grows
The Pacific Aviation Museum at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, added to its already impressive collection one of military aviation’s most famous aircraft — the Lockheed F-104A Starfighter.
The plane is the 43rd aircraft to be included in the museum’s fleet of historic aircraft.
The Starfighter, which debuted in the Air Force in 1958, is notable for being the first plane to achieve sustained Mach 2 flight, the first to hold simultaneous speed and altitude records, and the first to reach an altitude of 100,000 feet. The latter accomplishment was achieved during the test flight of a modified NF-104 in December 1963, with Air Force Brig Gen. Chuck Yeager (then a colonel) at the controls. Yeager managed to climb to the very edge of space before the plane tumbled out of control, forcing Yeager to bail out.
MO
— Don Vaughan, a North Carolina-based freelance writer, authors this monthly column.
History Lesson On Nov. 20, 1962, the Cuban missile crisis ended as President John F. Kennedy announced he had lifted the U.S. Naval blockade of Cuba.
NOVEMBER 2013 MILITARY OFFICER 91
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