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Drone Images Will Allow People To Virtually Experience Camp Amache As It Was During WWII

HTTP://WWW.AMACHE.ORG/PHOTO-ARCHIVES/

A drone is being used to aid in a three-dimensional remake of the Camp Amache Japanese internment camp in southeast Colorado.

As The Denver Post reports, researchers used a drone from the Switzerland-based company senseFly last week to map the project for future restoration work at the camp, where over 7,000 Japanese-Americans and immigrants were imprisoned during World War II.

Concrete foundations, artifacts, a few restored buildings and a cemetery are all that remains of the camp now, but researchers will be able to use the images captured by the drone to recreate virtual and augmented reality apps so visitors can experience the camp as it was during the war.

For example, one could point a smartphone at what is now just weeds and see what was once at the camp, said Jim Casey, geographic information specialist with the University of Denver.

He said people who cannot physically visit the site will be able to visit virtually after drone data is processed.

Japanese Americans and immigrants were forcibly relocated to Camp Amache from 1942 to 1945 as part of a nationwide effort that forced 110,000 other Japanese into camps in other states.

The project is one example of work to preserve U.S. historical sites connected to people of color.