This extra credit opportunity will be worth up to 15 extra credit points. You will be required to attend the whole session, sign in with the librarian, and do a blog on what you learned from the speaker and your thoughts about it. No pictures are needed.
What: Working with the Enemy: German, Italian, and Japanese Prisoners of War in Iowa during the Second World War
Presenter: Chad W. Timm from Grand View University
When: Saturday, October 8, 2011 Time: 10:00 AM
Where: Harlan Community Library – Community Room
Sponsored by: Delta Kappa Gamma Harlan Community Library
Shelby County University Women Delphians
Harlan Literary Club
Funded from Humanities Iowa, a private non-profit state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. A cultural resource for Iowans since 1971, Humanities Iowa offers many cultural and historical programs and grants to Iowa’s communities. If you are a person with a disability who requires special assistance, please call 755-5934 in advance. This program is free and open to the public.
Chad W. Timm is an Assistant Professor of Education at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa. He taught high school history for 15 years and has also been an adjunct instructor in history at Simpson College and in Education at Iowa State University. His Master’s Degree is in Agricultural History and Rural Studies from Iowa State University, and his PhD. in Education is also from Iowa State.
Working with the enemy: German, Italian, and Japanese prisoners of war in Iowa during the Second World War
As part of a relatively quiet and underpublicized government program, thousands of enemy soldiers invaded Iowa in 1943. With the hugely successful 1942 Allied campaign against Adolf Hitler’s vaunted Afrika Corps in North Africa, the number of enemy prisoners of war (POW) needing interment grew dramatically. Great Britain, no longer able to accommodate the increasing number of POWs, looked to the United States for help. Helping with the detainment of enemy POWs made sense, as American cargo vessels were returning home after delivering war materials with empty hulls. What began as an experiment in isolated locations in the south and southwest eventually led to more than 500 camps and 400,000 enemy soldiers interned in the United States, including two camps in the state of Iowa. Due to a severe shortage of agricultural laborers coupled with increased War Food Administration quotas for farm goods, Iowa’s farmers needed help doing their part to assist the United States in winning the war. This talk will focus on the creation of two POW camps in Iowa during the Second World War: one in the Northern Iowa town of Algona and one in the Southwestern Iowa town of Clarinda. Some of the topics discussed will be life in a prisoner of war camp, community relations, the POW labor program, branch camps in more than 30 Iowa communities, and the arrival of Japanese prisoners at Camp Clarinda in early 1945. Camp Clarinda was one of only two camps in the country to house Japanese soldiers. The story of POW interment in Iowa is a fascinating story of Iowans being confronted by the enemy; an enemy they not only needed to help them meet their wartime goals, but that also challenged them to find the humanity in the eyes of the enemy.
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