forced internment of 1942

Here are more photos of war relocation -- the forced migration to rural internment camps of Americans of Japanese Ancestry from West Coast states of the US. My main source is the Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive of the University of California. There are lots of good images on this site and also in Linda Gordon's article on Worldpress.org: Internment Without Charges: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment and in an online exhibit of the Smithsonian Museum of American History: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution .

Unless otherwise noted, all the images I show here are by Dorothea Lange and are found in collections of the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Lange probably also wrote the captions that appear with her photos. As I explained in yesterday's post, she had taken a job with War Relocation Authority and was instructed to show the internment program in a positive light. Within the constraints placed upon her she succeeded in giving a much more balanced depiction of the program, including many of its injustices and the patient endurance of those who suffered under it.

To give a broader context, I've intermixed other images along with Lange's photos and put all in roughly chronological order.

{Caption: Henry Mitarai, age 36, successful large-scale farm operator with his family on their ranch about six weeks before evacuation. This family, along with other families of Japanese ancestry, will spend the duration at War Relocation Authority centers. -- Mountain View, California. 3/30/42}

{Caption: Wash-day 48 hours before evacuation of persons of Japanese ancestry from this farming community in Santa Clara County. Evacuees will be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration. -- San Lorenzo, California. 5/5/42}

{Caption: Florin, Calif.--Businesses are being sold by owners of Japanese ancestry. Evacuation of all residents of Japanese descent from this area is due in two days. -- Florin, California. 5/11/42}

{Caption: Yugoslavian farmer is taking over berry farm formerly operated by residents of Japanese ancestry, who are being sent to assembly points and later to be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration. -- Centerville, California. 4/18/42}

{Caption: Awaiting evacuation bus. Posters in background list names of families, buses to which they are assigned, and departure times. Evacuees of Japanese ancestry will be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration. -- Centerville, California. 5/9/42}

{Caption: Hayward, Calif.--A young member of an evacuee family awaiting evacuation bus. Evacuees of Japanese ancestry will be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration. -- Hayward, California. 5/8/42}

{Caption: This girl, who worked as a strawberry picker on an Alameda County farm, awaits evacuation bus. Evacuees of Japanese ancestry will be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration. -- Centerville, California. 5/9/42}

{Caption: Hayward, Calif. -- Grandfather and grandchildren awaiting evacuation bus. The grandfather conducted a dyeing and cleaning business. The family unit is preserved during the evacuation and at War Relocation Authority centers where evacuees of Japanese ancestry will be housed for the duration. -- Hayward, California. 5/8/42}

{Caption: US WWI veteran proudly wearing his uniform as staff member accounts for him at Santa Anita assembly center for persons of Japanese ancestry evacuated from West Coast, Arcadia, CA, US - April 05, 1942; this photo appeared in LIFE magazine and comes from the Life photo archive.}

{Caption: San Francisco, Calif., Apr. 1942--Residents, of Japanese ancestry, appearing at the Civil control station for registration in response to the Army's exclusion order No. 20--The evacuees will be housed in War relocation authority centers for the duration}

{Caption: San Pedro, Calif. Apr. 1942--Residents of Japanese ancestry being moved from Los Angeles harbor before their eventual resettlement in war relocation authority centers}

{Caption: Take Fresh Air? (Fresh Air Break on the Trip from Fresno to Jerome); painted in 1957 by Henry Sugimoto; source: Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)}

{Caption: Hayward, Calif.--Two children of the Mochida family who, with their parents, are awaiting evacuation bus. The youngster on the right holds a sandwich given her by one of a group of women who were present from a local church. The family unit is kept intact during evacuation and at War Relocation Authority centers where evacuees of Japanese ancestry will be housed for the duration. 5/8/42}

{Caption: Persons of Japanese ancestry arrive at the Santa Anita Assembly Center from San Pedro. Evacuees lived at this center at the former Santa Anita race track before being moved inland to relocation centers. Photographer: Clem Albers, Arcadia, CA, April 5, 1942. Source: National Archives, 210-G-3B-414.}

{Caption: Manzanar, Calif.--Newcomers move into Manzanar, a War Relocation Authority center for evacuees of Japanese ancestry. -- Photographer: Clem Albers. 4/2/42; source: Bancroft Library}

{Caption: Manzanar, Calif.--Grandfather of Japanese ancestry teaching his little grandson to walk at this War Relocation Authority center for evacuees. 7/3/42}

{Caption: Manzanar, Calif.--Far end of barrack row looking west to the desert beyond with the mountains in the background. Evacuees at this War Relocation Authority center are encountering the terrific desert heat. 7/2/42}

{Caption: Supper time! Meal times are the big events of the day within an assembly center. This is a line-up of evacuees waiting for the B shift at 5:45 P.M. They carry with them their own dishes and cutlery in bags to protect them from the dust. They, themselves, individually wash their own dishes after each meal, since dish washing facilities in the mess halls prove inadequate. Most of the residents prefer this second shift because they sometimes get second helpings, but the groups are rotated each week. There are eighteen mess halls in camp which, together, accommodate 8,000 persons three times each day. All food is prepared and served by evacuees. -- San Bruno, California. 6/16/42}

{Caption: Dinner is served cafeteria style to young and old in the mess halls at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center. -- Photographer: Tom Parker -- Heart Mountain, Wyoming. 9/23/42; source: Bancroft Library}

{Caption: One of the young Heart Mountain school children is enjoying a swing on the center's play ground. -- Photographer: Hikaru Iwasaki -- Heart Mountain, Wyoming. 11/24/43; source: Bancroft Library}

{Caption: T/4 Taniguchi visits his wife and daughter at the Minidoka Relocation Center before returning to his unit in the Pacific. Taniguchi volunteered for the Army in 1942 when he and his family were at Tule Lake before it became a segregation center. He served in the China-Burma-India theatre and served on loan to General Wingate's Chindits, a British unit fighting in the Burma Jungles often behind Japanese lines. -- Hunt, Idaho. March 1943}

{Caption: Send Off Husband at Jerome Camp painted in 1943 by Henry Sugimoto; source: Japanese American National Museum}

{Arcadia, California. Military police on duty in watch-tower at Santa Anita Park assembly center for evacuees of Japanese ancestry. Evacuees are transferred later to War Relocation Authority centers for the duration. 6 April 1942; Photo by Clem Albers; source: National Archives}

{Caption: Manzanar, Calif.--Karl Yoneda, Block Leader at this War Relocation Authority center for evacuees of Japanese ancestry. He is married to a Caucasian and they have a child four years old. The family are spending the duration at this center. Former occupation: Longshoreman. 7/3/42}

{Caption: At home at Heart Mountain, painted in December 1942 by Estelle Ishigo; source: Dept of Special Collections/UCLA Library}

{Caption: Reverend Yamazaki Was Beaten in Camp Jerome, painted in 1943 by Henry Sugimoto; source: Japanese American National Museum}

{Caption: Freedom Day Came painted in 1945 by Henry Sugimoto at Camp Jerome; source:
Japanese American National Museum }

{Mr. George Oni and his daughter Georgette Chize Oni biding farewell to brother Henry Oni. 7 February 1946; source: National Archives}

{Caption: Roaring into Sacramento Monday morning, July 30, a special train of seven cars brought some 450 Japanese American residents of California back to their homes after residences of over three years at the Rohwer Center of the War Relocation Authority, McGehee, Arkansas. Met by several officers of the WRA at Sacramento, Robert Allison, Assistant Relocation Officer at the Rohwer Center, who accompanied the returnees and all the passengers, reported a satisfactory and uneventful trip during the 2,000 miles, over lines of four railways and with equipment varying from a fairly modern cafe car to antiquated wooden coaches of the gaslight era. However, there were no complaints from the returnees, numbering young, old, and babies in arms, with a tourist sleeper reserved for the aged and a few who were ill. En route several crowded troop trains, in some cases bearing G.I.'s back from the South Pacific, were met by the Rohwer Special on sidings. All reported that hearty and cordial greetings were exchanged. Disembarking at various stations between Sacramento and Los Angeles, the returnees found many friends to greet them, both Caucasian and Japanese Americans. The unanimous verdict? We're glad to get home! -- Photographer: Hikaru Iwasaki -- Los Angeles, California. 7/30/45; source: Bancroft Library}

See also:

Relocation and Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II

Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive

Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution Smithsonian Museum of American History

Internment Without Charges: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment by Linda Gordon (Japan Focus, December 4, 2006)

The Preservation of a People: A Look at the Evacuation and Relocation of the People of Japanese Ancestry in the United States during World War II

Against the Tide

The Photographs of Dorothea Lange (1895-1965)

Japanese American internment

Dorothea Lange’s Images of the WWII Internment of People of Japanese Ancestry

War Relocation Authority

Dorothea Lange biography at Berkeley.edu

Dorothea Lange wikipedia article

Internment Without Charges: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment

Santa Anita Racetrack Assembly Center,(Arcadia) California

A Short Chronology of Japanese American History

The Japanese Internment

Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians

Addendum:

{Caption: [A sign, showing a drawing of a Japanese head and reading "Get in trim for fighting him. Swim at Sutro's," posted on a building, San Francisco, Calif.]}

war relocation

In the winter of 1941-42, Dorothea Lange abandoned a Guggenheim Fellowship and took an assignment with the US War Relocation Authority in order to document the evacuaton of Americans of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast. The wikpedia article on Japanese American internment during World War II treats this complex subject succinctly and without prejudice. Many Americans reacted hysterically to the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, as is evident from the first photo shown below (which is not one of Lange's).[1]

{Photographer is unknown; source: Japanese-American Internment Camps}

Many others refused to demonize Japanese-Americans and Americans of Japanese descent. One in particular deserves mention. General Delos Emmons, the military governor of Hawaii opposed efforts to intern Japanese Americans. In a radio address shortly after the Japanese attack, Emmons assured these residents: "There is no intention or desire on the part of the federal authorities to operate mass concentration camps. No person, be he citizen or alien, need worry, provided he is not connected with subversive elements."[2] As a result, the part of America with the greatest concentration of these people of Japanese ancestry did not participate in the internment program while on the West Coast of the US forcible removal was prompt and thorough. In March and April of 1942 more than 100,000 Americans were transported to inland camps.[3] Lange's photos documented the evacuation thoroughly. Because they dispassionately revealed an unpleasant side of life in the US, the Army impounded the whole collection for the duration of the war. As one source comments, she showed the diffiulty Americans of Japanese ancestry faced in having to leave their homes and create new lives in the camps. "Her images often juxtapose the human side and the courage of the people who were being moved, with their harsh living conditions and the inhumanity of living within barbed wire."[4]

{Caption: San Francisco, Calif., Mar. 1942. A large sign placed in the window of a store, at 13th and Franklin streets, on December 8, the day after Pearl Harbor. The store was closed following orders to persons of Japanese descent to evacuate from certain West Coast areas.}

{Caption: San Francisco, Apr. 1942; Civilian Exclusion Order #5, posted at First and Front streets, directing removal by April 7 of persons of Japanese ancestry}

{Caption: San Francisco (Calif.) evacuation - a family starts for the bus that will take them from the control station to the train depot}

{Caption: San Francisco, Calif. Apr. 1942. Part of the contingent [of] 664 residents of Japanese ancestry, first to be evacuated from San Francisco, under the US Army exclusion order No. 20, who will be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration of the war}

{Caption: Los Angeles, Calif., April 1942 - A shop just before Japanese were evacuated from "Little Tokyo"}

{Caption: San Francisco, Calif., April 1942. First-graders, some of Japanese ancestry, at the Weill public school pledging allegience to the United States flag. The evacuees of Japanese ancestry will be housed in War relocation authority centers for the duration of the war}

{Caption: Oakland, Calif. Apr. 1942. Members of the Japanese Independent congregational church attending Easter services prior to evacuation of persons of Japanese ancestry from certain West Coast areas, and housing in War relocation authority centers for the duration of the war}

Detail:

{Caption: San Francisco, Calif., Apr. 1942 - residents of Japanese ancestry, in response to the US Army's Exclusion order No. 20, appearing at the Civil control station and being registered for housing in War relocation authority centers for the duration of the war}

{Caption: San Pedro, Calif. Apr. 1942. The last Redondo Beach residents of Japanese ancestry leaving by truck for relocation}

Detail:

{Caption: Photographer is unknown. Persons of Japanese ancestry arrive at the Santa Anita Assembly center from San Pedro, California. Evacuees lived at this center at the Santa Anita race track before being moved inland to relocation centers; source: Japanese-American Internment Camps }

{Caption: Photographer is unknown. Evacuees of Japanese ancestry from San Pedro, California, arrive by special trains for Santa Anita assembly center. Evacuees are transferred later to War Relocation Authority centers for the duration. Same source.}

{Caption: Photographer is unknown. All baggage is inspected before newcomers enter Santa Anita assembly center for evacuees of Japanese ancestry. Evacuees are transferred later to War Relocation Authority centers for the duration. Same source.}

{Caption: Photographer is unknown. Military police patrol fence around Santa Anita park assembly center for evacuees of Japanese ancestry. Evacuees are later transferred to War Relocation Authority centers for the duration. Same source.}

{Caption: Photographer is unknown. Cafeteria style assures promptness in serving meals at Santa Anita assembly center for evacuees of Japanese ancestry. Passing into dining hall for lunch. In the smallest dining hall, more than 2000 meals are served in less than an hour. Evacuees are transferred later to War Relocation Authority centers for the duration. Same source.}

{Caption: Amer. Legion and Boy Scouts in Memorial Day services at Manzanar relocation center}

This photo is only indirectly about relocation to the camps.

{Caption: Photographer is unknown. Regimental Combat Team squad leader looks for German momvements in a French valley 200 yards away. Snow, rain and mud made life miserable for these Japanese-American front line troops in November 1944. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which was composed primarily of Japanese Americans, served with uncommon distinction in the European theatre of World War II. Many of the US soldiers serving in the unit had their families interned at home while they fought abroad. Source: Army Center for Military History file photo}

This photo shows Lange herself taking photos of evacuees on 6 April 1942.

{Caption: Japanese-Americans assemble at control station, 1701 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco, for evacuation to Santa Anita assembly center camp; Dorothea Lange is holding camera in background}

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See also:

The Preservation of a People: A Look at the Evacuation and Relocation of the People of Japanese Ancestry in the United States during World War II

Against the Tide

The Photographs of Dorothea Lange (1895-1965)

Japanese American internment

Dorothea Lange’s Images of the WWII Internment of People of Japanese Ancestry

Dorothea Lange wikipedia article

Internment Without Charges: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment

Santa Anita Racetrack Assembly Center,(Arcadia) California

A Short Chronology of Japanese American History

The Japanese Internment

Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians

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Notes:

[1] Unless otherwise noted, all images are by, or believed to be by Dorothea Lange and come from collections in the Library of Congress. Click to view full size. In some cases attribution to Dorothea Lange is uncertain. Even where I've put "photographer is unkown" the photos may well have been taken by her. They're of the same time frame and subject as the ones she's known to have taken and have the same qualities and point of view. Lange was born May 26, 1895, so, as it happens, yesterday was the 115th anniversary of her birth.

[2] Source: Japanese American internment during World War II: a history and reference guide by Wendy L. Ng (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002)

[3] Same source. In 1988, Congress passed and President Ronald Reagan signed legislation which apologized for the internment on behalf of the U.S. government. The legislation stated that government actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership".

[4] It's not relevant to my story, but, as it happens, the camps were set up and people moved into them just at the time I was born.