Japanese American Internment

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How the Photography of Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams Told the Story of Japanese American Internment

• by Akiko Ichikawa on September 1, 2015

Dorothea Lange, “Manzanar, California, Dust storm at this War Relocation Authority center where evacuees of Japanese ancestry are spending the duration” (July 3, 1942). The area was subject to extreme seasonal temperatures, with dust a constant presence due to the high winds. Incarcerees often awoke mornings covered in a layer of it. (photographed by Dorothea Lange for the WRA, courtesy the National Archives [Archives Identifier 539961])

Editor’s note: This is the second in a five-part series exploring the history of Japanese-American incarceration camps in the US during World War II and the artists who contributed to documenting that history and tried to help the people impacted. Part One can be found here.

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Dorothea Lange, “Manzanar Relocation Center, Manzanar, California. General view of this War Relocation Authority center located in Owens Valley looking east across the wide fire-break which separates blocks of barracks ” (June 29, 1942). The firebreak in the foreground doubled as a playfield, and Mount Williamson overlooks the camp. (photographed by Dorothea Lange for the WRA, courtesy the National Archives [National Archives Identifier 538122])

After photographing families and other residents being led into “assembly centers” in the central and coastal cities of California and the county seats of Salinas, Stockton, Turlock, and San Bruno, photographer Dorothea Lange turned her camera to southern California, towards the first concentration camp to open for residents of Japanese descent.

In 1942, the US Army opened Manzanar camp in the desert of east-central California, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, on land that they leased from the city of Los Angeles. Named after the agricultural settlement that was effectively quashed when the city’s mighty Department of Water and Power finished acquiring the area’s water and land rights, Manzanar had already been the site of the forced relocation 80 years before when the Owens Valley Paiute, the Native Americans who had been there for 1,400 years, were displaced.

Manzanar was, among the ten camps, in the middle population-wise with 10,046 incarcerees. Tule Lake incarceration camp, on the state’s northern border with Oregon had 18,790 at its height and it was the largest, while Amache, in southwest Colorado, had 7,320, which made it the smallest. Manzanar’s 814-acre main camp, ringed by a 5,700-acre fenced and guarded perimeter, contained 36 blocks, each made up of 14 residential barracks, none of which were insulated. Within each barrack 20-by-25 foot spaces were designated for families of four, but in practice held up to 11 people. Upon arrival, each person was assigned a cot, a few blankets, and a canvas bag that they had to fill with straw in order to create their own mattresses.

.........|| continue reading ||:::::::::::::»»»»»»»   http://hyperallergic.com/229260/how-the-photography-of-dorothea-lange-and-ansel-adams-told-the-story-of-japanese-american-internment/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Did+Cooper+Union+Just+Get+a+Second+Chance&utm_content=Did+Cooper+Union+Just+Get+a+Second+Chance+CID_603dfb7f7970d6d663e56a2553df693c&utm_source=HyperallergicNewsletter&utm_term=How%20the%20Photography%20of%20Dorothea%20Lange%20and%20Ansel%20Adams%20Told%20the%20Story%20of%20Japanese%20American%20Internment

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