Archaeologists Unearth Artifacts, Creating Fuller Picture Of WWII

Allied invasion force landing on the beaches of Saipan in the Mariana Islands in the summer of 1944. (credit: Laudansky/NARA FILE # 111-SC-191475 War and Conflict Book # 1168)

Wednesday marks the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. And with all the books, documentaries and archival material on World War II, it might feel like we know everything there is to know about that conflict.

But in recent years, archaeologists have been excavating material remains that tell us even more about the period.

Samir S. Patel, deputy editor of Archaeology Magazine, told Here and Now’s Robin Young, “Archaeology of this sort tells us a great deal about the way most of the people in the world — most of whom weren’t soldiers — experienced this conflict in terms of their everyday lives.”

Patel tells us about the air raid shelters in London and internment camps in Colorado, as well as battle sites in the Pacific and off the coast of the Carolinas.

• Archaeology Magazine: Archaeology Of World War II

Guest:

• Samir S. Patel, Archaeology Magazine deputy editor