During World War II, Camp Livingston was a bustling US Army base located near Alexandria, Louisiana. It’s mostly remembered for its use during the Louisiana Maneuvers and housing German, Italian, and Japanese POWs, who provided manual labor to area industries, like sugar cane farming and logging. The internment of almost 1,100 men of Japanese ancestry is erased from the history of the army installation, except for passing references.

Hayley Johnson and Sarah Simms will deliver a presentation on May 23 at 3:00 p.m. in the Hill Memorial Library lecture hall to begin to address the gap in information regarding the history of internment at Camp Livingston. They will approach the topic through the lens of one extended family’s experience: the Kohara and Miyamoto families. Their histories (examined through historical documents, oral histories, and historical photographs) will highlight the wildly varied experiences of Japanese Americans during World War II.