Japanese Americans

Review of of an exhibit that tells the story of Japanese internment through the pictures of three photographers: Lange; Ansel Adams, and Toyo Miyatake, a Japanese-American photographer who was interned at Manzanar but smuggled in a camera.

The War Relocation Authority (WRA) records represent the official documentation of the United States agency created to assume jurisdiction over the Japanese and Japanese Americans evacuated from California, Oregon, and Washington by the Western Defense Command, the Fourth Army, and the Wartime Civilian Control Administration (WCCA) during January/February of 1942. During its existence from March 1942 to 1946, the WRA controlled the administration of the relocation centers, administered an extensive resettlement program, and oversaw the details of the registration and segregation programs. Included in their records are administrative files, official publications, reports and surveys, legal papers, correspondence, and photographs and scrapbooks. 6869 images available online.

CPC documents a wide range of the experiences of Canadians of Japanese descent in British Columbia. The resource is particularly strong in chronicling their treatment during World War II.

This pictorial essay by Ansel Adams challenges the derogatory portrayals of people of Japanese ancestry in U.S. war propaganda. Adams was invited by Manzanar director and fellow Sierra Club member Ralph Palmer Merritt; his images document loyal Japanese-Americans and their efforts to build a culture inside this relocation community. Digitized by the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdclccn.45002975/?st=gallery

Many of the images in the book can be found at https://www.google.com/search?q=Impounded+:+Dorothea+Lange+and+the+censored+images+of+Japanese+American+internment