Conglomerate infrastructures: ordinary sites used for extraordinary regimes of power

Largescale programs require complex and integrated infrastructures to carry out the aims of power. In the case of the WWII mass removal and incarceration of all Japanese Americans living on the west coast of the US, scholars have focused their attention on incarceration camps and landscapes far removed from towns and cities. This article instead examines the wartime civil control stations which were erected for several weeks to several months in 1942 for the purpose of processing and then assembling Japanese Americans in their local areas before their transportation to detention facilities and ultimately incarceration camps. One hundred and twenty-three buildings, banks, theaters, schools, and a range of other facilities were briefly incorporated into a conglomerate infrastructure before returning to their previous uses. Recognizing the hidden and emergent nature of such infrastructures presents a challenge to archaeologists committed to understanding their use in the marginalization of populations.