TOLEDO — The Tama County Historical Society will host Dr. Chad Timm for his presentation “Working with the Enemy: Japanese Prisoners of War in Iowa During World War II” on Wednesday, July 12, beginning at 7:00 p.m. at the Wieting Theatre, 101 S. Church St., Toledo.

As part of a relatively quiet and under-publicized 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 a POW camp in the southwest Iowa town of Clarinda. Camp Clarinda was one of only two camps in the country to house Japanese soldiers. 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. The story of POW internment 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 also challenged them to find their humanity.

Dr. Timm is an associate professor of education at Simpson College in Indianola. He taught high school history for 15 years and has also been teaching future social studies teachers since 2010. His master’s degree in agricultural history and rural studies and his PhD in education are both from Iowa State University. The historical society last hosted Dr. Timm in 2019, when he gave a presentation on German POWs in Iowa.

“Working with the Enemy: Japanese Prisoners of War in Iowa During World War II” is made possible in part by support from Humanities Iowa. This program is free and open to the public. For more information about upcoming historical society programming, visit www.tamacountyhistory.org.