CREATING COMMERCE
Economic Initiatives by Amache Inmates
PRINT AND PURPOSE
Some Amache inmates were employed in the camp’s silkscreen print shop, where they made advertisements for local events, church programs, and flyers for the cooperative stores. The main purpose of the silkscreen shop, however, was to print propaganda posters for the U.S. military and government. "Loose Lips Sink Ships" was one, and in a twist of irony another that is currently displayed on the wall at the Amache Museum in Grenada displays hands in a spectrum of skin colors with the words, “We Are All American.” (Saiki 15, Shew 97)
Employees at the Silkscreen Shop. Image Source: Haruo, Kawase. North Bay Ethnic Digital Collection. Sonoma State University, Sonoma, California.
COOPERATIVE SUCCESS
The Amache Co-Op was one of the big success stories of the camp, showing the remarkable extent to which inmates were able to transform their environment and bring a sense of normalcy to their daily lives. A group of early Amache residents invested in the creation of the store in 1942, and within one year had over 2,500 members. The store expanded to include several locations, a photography lab, beauty salons, and a cobbler's shop. The venture was so successful that residents from nearby Granada would travel to the camp to shop at the cooperatives: for example, there was no other cobbler's shop within more than 50 miles of the camp. (Shew 40)
Business committee of the Amache Cooperative. Image Source: CSU Japanese American Digitization Project, California State University, Dominguez Hills.
PINS AND PASSES
These pins and patches to the right were worn by Amache inmates who were often granted day passes to either work or shop in the surrounding areas. In Amache: The Colorado Experience, Bruce Newman (a resident of Granada who was a child at the time of the war) describes shoppers at his family's store, indicating that neither himself nor his brother would be able to afford college had it not been for the influx of business in Granada caused by the Amache Camp. Business owners in Granada came to appreciate their new neighbors, rejecting the anti-Japanese signage found in towns like Lamar, 15 miles west.
Image Source: Author's own
Sources:
Amache: Colorado Experience. Denver: Rocky Mountain PBS, 2013.
Saiki, Mark K. Cooperation, Compliance, and Resistance at Amache. Master’s Thesis, University of Northern Colorado, 2006.
Shew, D. O. (2010). Feminine identity confined: The archaeology of japanese women at amache, a WWII internment camp (Order No. 1478259). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (635924005). Retrieved from https://colorado.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.colorado.idm.oclc.org/docview/635924005?accountid=14503