Sepia Saturday: Manzanar

The incarceration of people of Japanese heritage 

in prison camps during World War II, 

the plundering of their property,

and shunning of them as possibly traitorous "others"  

was a shameful event in American history. 

Ansel Adams took photographs memorializing

life at one of the "relocation centers," Manzanar.

It was, like other incarceration sites,

remote from people's homes and inhospitable

in many respects. 

Winters could be harsh;

summer heat could be brutal.

This summer view of the site was taken from the guard tower. 

I suspect most of the photos of people were staged 

to show life in the camps as tolerable and  

even beneficial, not because it was true

but rather to assuage the guilt

of government officials.

 This photo shows Mrs. Ryie Yoshizawa 

teaching a class in dressmaking and tailoring

 at Manzanar. A young woman stands 

at a dressmaker's form in the foreground, 

pretending to do a fitting. 

Here, Mrs. Yoshizawa is surrounded 

by students Satoka Ota, Chizuko Karnii, 

Takako Nakanishi, Kikiyo Yamasuchi, 

Masako Kimochita, Mitsugo Fugi, Mie Mio, 

Chiye Kawase, and Miyeko Hoshozike.

The round-up and incarceration of people of Japanese descent,

over 2/3 of them American citizens,

was ordered by President Franklin Roosevelt

under the guise of military necessity.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor,

key political leaders claimed --

without evidence --

that all people of Japanese heritage

posed a threat to U.S. security.

In 1983, however, 

the Congressional Commission 

on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians

reported it had uncovered evidence from the 1940s

proving that there had been no military necessity

for this harsh, humiliating, and racially-biased treatment.

The 1988 Civil Liberties Act

awarded $20,000 to each victim as reparations.

The President issued a written apology

for this systemic wrongdoing.

Yet the effects live on.

Health studies show a two-fold greater incident

heart disease and risk of premature death

of those Japanese -Americans who were incarcerated,

as compared to Japanese-Americans who were not.

(All photos in this piece are by Ansel Adams,

courtesy of the Library of Congress photo collection).

For more information on this tragic time in American history,

visit  

The Densho Japanese American Legacy Project

and

The PBS website "Children of the Camps."

For more Sepia Saturday words and images, click here.