War disrupts and reconfigures attachments to cultural landscapes on an unprecedented scale. The process of mourning for the losses of war often involves memories of treasured places, and human connections within those places. Mourning also involves memories of hated or feared places such as the front line or the concentration camp. This essay explores the ways in which cultural landscape history can be used to frame the connections between places, memories, and public history. It looks at the possibilities of individual and community-based spatial histories for processes of collective remembrance. It focuses in particular on how spatial histories have been used in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, first, by former inmates of War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps as part of an exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum, and second, in historic preservation and public art for the First Street Historic District (of which the museum is part).

The production of space

Every society in history has produced a distinctive social space that meets its intertwined requirements for economic production and social reproduction. Space is a material product of the political economy. As Henri Lefebvre has written, ‘Space is permeated with social relations; it is not only supported by social relations but it is also producing and produced by social relations.’