The Past Recaptured? The Photographic

Record of the Internment of Japanese-Americans

SYLVIA E. DANOVITCH Yo lo vf," wrote Goya on one of his paintings

work that was both graphic and moving. Still not satisfied, he inscribed, 'This I saw," to verify that the cruelty pictured had, in fact, oc- curred and that he was witness to it.

Photography distinguishes itself from paint- ing in the matter of verification. The medium implies that a three-dimensional event took place and that the photographer was witness to it. Even so, we know that photographs sometimes lie and often deceive. According to art aitic Harold Rosenberg, deception results ' from two factors. Photographs reveal people and events externally and hence tell only half a story. Photographs are also presumed to be representative. Yet once the shutter is tripped, action is frozen, and the reality of only an in- stant is captured. A child may laugh one mo- ment and cry the next. One view without the other is at best a half-truth.2 Lens and film record objective fact, but where the camera is aimed and when the shutter is tripped are subjective decisions. The choice of a represen- tative image reflects the creative observation and judgment of the person behind the lens. These factors notwithstanding, photographs

still carry an indisputable sense of the yo lo vi, and their increasing availability as evidence of historical events demands that they be recog- nized and evaluated as historical documents. As such, are they useful? What are their limitations?

@ 1983 by Sylvia E. Danovitch - lie author, a pmfessional photographer, is pursuing an

advanced degree in history at the Universtty of Maryland. This essay is part of a larger work in progmss. 'Ti N . Gidal, Modem Photo~oumaltsm: Ongfn and Evolu-

hon, 191G1933 (1973), p. 6. A 'Harold Rosenberg in Richard Avedon, Portrafts (1972). A

These questions come to mind when we look at the large colledion of photographs (appmxima&ly 12,500) in the National Ar- chives that the War Relocation Authority made in connection with the evacuation and internment of Japanese-Americans after the attack or rPa rH%b~e-p iages t eT little or nothing about the injustice inflicted upon this group of Americans. The people are generally well dressed and engaged in inno- cent activities: standing in line, posing in front of lovely homes or lush vineyards, playing checkers, chatting, settling their affairs, selling furniture, or advertising kittens. In some pho- tographs, haste and confusion are evident, while in others activity mimics that associated with moving-fairly common in American life -and seems to express anticipation.

What is the explanation? Had the impact of the evacuation order not been fully felt when the earliest photographs were shot? Is it pos- sible that cultural diffe~nces account for the discrepancy between the affective quality of the photos and the trauma that must have ac- companied this went? Had the photographers deliberately focused on the exceptional, not the representative, image? The quantity of pho- tographic evidence in this collection, supple- mented by another five hundred photographs made for the Farm Security Administration, the Office of War Information, and by noted photographer Ansel Adams working on his own, made it unlikely that alI the pictures were propaganda pieces. The large number of pho-

----- -- cllffluustrmeplau~mi'ty of this explanation. Diversity characterized their work, and two, Dorothea Lange (working for the WRA) and Russell Lee (&king fo; the Farm Secunity Administration), were skilled documentarians, sensitive to social injustice, and had done outstanding work publicizing rural poverty during the depression. Among the others we= campetent and wen very tal- ented internees. Moreover, it turned out that the government impounded and retained in its files photographs it did not wish made public. The written records of the WRA confirm this policy, and so confute the notion that such benign photographs were mere propaganda.

The WRr4 collection may be divided as fol- lows: (1) Preevacuation photographs document- ing the lives of Americans of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast in early 1942. (2)

92 PROLOGUE -SUMMER 1980

FI. 1. 'Well dressed . . . standing in I h e "

Fi. 2. "Posing in front of lovely homes"

Fig. 3.

Fig. 4. "Settling their affairs"

Fig. 5. "Selling furniture"

Fig. 6. "Advertising kittens"

Evacuation photographs of Japanese-Americans packing, storing, boarding trains, buses, trucks, or driving their vehicles to the assembly centers. (3) At~&tntlbl~ center photographs of way stations en mute to relocation camps. (4) Relocation camp photographs of agricultural, vocational, educational, mational , religious, and political activities at the camps. (5) Rebca- fion (resettlement) photographs depicting clo- sure of the camps, resettlement in other parts of the country, -repatriation to Japan, and re- turn to California. They also show property of Japanese-Americans that had been vandalized or was deserted or appropriated by others.

This study focuses on the preevacuation photographs, evacuation photographs, photo- graphs taken at the Manzanztr and Tule Lake camps, and the relocation or resettlement pho- tographs. Assembly center photographs were omitted because the quarters were makeshift and internees were sent to resettlement camps as soon as possible. Manzanar was selected be- cause it was photographed by Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams. Any shortcomings in their work would not likely result fmm lack of tech- nical skill. Both were critical of the govern- ment's policy and sympathetic to the plight of the Japanese-American~.~ The Manzanar camp pictures also offer an opportunity to analyze the impact of stylistic differences between Lange and Adams as they relate to the effective- ness of documentation and communication. Aesthetic considerations could influence the value of photographs as historical evidence. Supplementing the photographic record of Manzanar is much textual material, including government records and accounts written by intemees that detail life in the camp and a riot that occurred in late 1942. The major drawback to using the photo-

graphic file of Manzanar was that it was com- paratively 4. Thus, the Tule Lake camp pho- tographs were included. Among these axe photographs documenting friction between pro-Japan internees and camp authorities and shots of alleged incidents of arson, espionage, murder, and suicide. None of the photogra- phers who worked at Tule Lake acquired a na- tional reputation, but the skill displayed in their work was h i + xnmd.

Executive Order 9066 authorizing the s m -

S S e e Ansel M a n s , Born Free and Equal (1944); and Milton Meltzer, Dorothea Lange (1978), pp. 238-245.

JAPANESE-AMERICANS 93

h o ~ tary of war to establish military areas and ex- clude therefmm any or all persons signaled the +e@mhgof~e-CUaTiSni TTO,mAmeri- cans of Japanese ancestry fmm their homes on the West Coast and their internment in the interior. Seventy thousand of them were United States citizens. The record reveals that while the United States government ignored the constitutional rights of the Japanese- Americans it expended enormous amounts of energy ensuring their safety and well-being. In what way will photographs augment the written record? Can they stand alone; that is, would thev have much historical value in the absence oitextual material?

The purpose of photographing the WRA program, set forth in Administration Instruc- tion no. 74 of January 2,1993, was to document it by means of photographs as fully as possible. All significant phases of the relocation pro- gram were to be included, but not necessarily all activities at every place. Subjects satisfac- torily documented at one center were usually, in the interest of economy, not to be photo- graphed elsewhere. This was the government's intention, and the reason becomes apparent in both the omissions and the repetitions that the WRA objectives disdained. There are, for example, many photographs of meetings organized by block captains at Manzanar, Tule Lake, and several other camps. Where such photographs were categorized, the WRA liiber3hGG "politicalactivity." Yet, photo- graphs of political activity as we understand it- competition between groups, persons, and ideas and the response of the govemed to laws and to the people who govemed them- are omitted from all but the Tule Lake file and

Fig. 7. "Suicide"

94 PROLOGUE- SUMMER 1980

even there they are unsatisfactory. Perhaps political activity is ~ ~ o ~--

tograph. But why then was so much effort ex- pended to photograph block captains' meetings when the results communicate little or nothing about politics in the camps? Perhaps it was the government's wish to document the degree of self-rule afforded the internees and to counter allegations of racism.4 If so, it means that propaganda was one objective of the WRA's Photography Section. - - .

The same is true of photographs of living conditions. There are numerous photopphs of barracks. They are aude, tarpapered build- ings, but they do not shock us; they merely recall military housing. Since the evacuation was justified by military necessity, we are not uncomfortable. But no photograph exists in the National Archives of the toilets that are known to have been placed side by side and back to back. This detail, so easy to film, was very im- portant. It caused psychological stress among women, particularly teenage girls, and until modified was responsible for physical symp- toms attributable to that di~tress.~ The omis- sion of such a photograph would go unnoticed in the absence of extensive textual materials. Awareness of it makes one more sensitive to related photographs. In the Manzanar files, for example, is a photograph of a frame outhouse. Dated July 3, 1942, the photograph, by Doro- thea T a n 5 + c m i e s t h , p @ & trines, for patients between barracks which 'See Roger Daniels, Concentration Camps, U S A . (1971),

pp. xii, 71, 95, 102; and Daniels, 7he Politics of Prejudice (1977).

=Arthur A. Hamen and Betty E. Mitson, Voices Long Silent: An Oral Inquiy Into the Jnpanese-American Evacuation (1974), p. 36; Budd Fukei, The ]npnnese-American Sto y (1976), p. 54.

L m Fig. 8. "Meetings organized Uy UlOcK captains"

serve temporarily as wards. For the first 3 months of occupation medical facilities have been meagre but the new hospital filly equipped is ahnost ready for occupancy." It reads like a press release except that the photo- graph is marked " i m w e d , " hence the pho- tograph never s e d that purpose. Did Lange, if she wmte the legend, write it in an effort to slide the photograph past the censors? That such photographic evidence was impounded gives us an idea of the type of information the government wished kept secret. To its credit, the WRA did not des- the phobograph.

If propaganda and the conscious creation of a particular impression of the camps were the sale purpose of the photographic project, it is doubtful the pictures would have been im- pounded mther than desbyed. That they were kept suggests that documentation as documen- tation was indeed an important purpose.

Repetition is another matter. Medical and dental treatment are two subjects repeatedly photographed, documenting the government's considerable effort to pmvide adequate care. A crude hospital latrine contradicts this evi- dence, or at least counterbalances it. Shots of mess halls, barracks, work scenes, and recrea- tion activities indicate conditions of camp life the government was proud of and underscore an image of camps where internees were nei- ther pampered nor mistreated.

The numaom shots of internees participat- ing in characteristically American activities, such as baseball and Boy Scaut parades, am balanced by shots showing that internees were encouraged or at least permitted to pur- sue activities uniquely Japanese: flower ar- ranging, brush painking, and traditional drama.

Young and old were provided with educational opportunities, and the WRA was appamtly not embarrassed if initially the educational facilities were crude. The early shots under- score the importance the government and in- ternees alike placed upon making education available.

Repetition and sheer volume seem to imply veracity. It is difficult to imagine that so many photographs could have been staged. Repeti- tion also emphasizes quantity of evidence and suggests that an omnipresent witness, the camera, safeguarded the well-being of the in- ternees and documented their batrnent, their activities, and their living quarters.

The Preevanration Photographs The preevacuation photographs document

the acculturation of the Japanese-Americans. Their clothes are stylish, their teenage children, except for their Oriental features, would be in- terchangeable with any other group, and their houses bear no special stamp. If not for Japanese-language signs, their businesses too would be indistinguishable from others in any American town, except that the captions tell us that this is "Little Tokyo."

Figure 12, taken in front of the Japanese Independent Congregational ChuFch, is evi- dence that acculturation was reflected in their religious life as well. Other preevacuatim photographs doaunent representative homes of Japanese-Americans: some poor and rarn- shackle, some typical of middle-income fami- lies, some revealing wealth and a high stand- ard of living. Upon entering the United States,

the Japanese, like other ethnic groups, became parts of all strata of American society.

The preevacuation photographs tend to be rather matter-of-fad but not so their legends. The captions on the backs of Domthea Lange's photos have an affective quality that strength- ens her imagery and at times transcends it. Regardless of the biography they recount, how distant the connection to Japan, how benign the occupation, how American the offspring, the fact that all persons of Japanese ances- try were to be evacuated is repeated like an obbligato.

Compared with photographs of the camps, the preevacuation shots assume greater sig- nificance. Images begin to repeat and recall earlier ones. Rows of crops neatly cultivated in the camps remind us of rows of crops in West Coast fields wherr Japanese laborers worked and where Japanese-Americans owned pmp- erty. The people often appear tied to the earth, &ing their labor and love to cultivation of the soil. Faces juxtaposed against mountains and skies recall portraits and landscapes made be- fore evacuation. It is not the child who cried in the evacuation photos so much as the many earnest and often jovial children who later reappear in the camps.

Fig. 14. "Typical of middle-income"

tional Church"

standard of living"

camps"

shows a woman with a label tucked into her coat. It seems memabk to assume that she tried to hide it in protest because it offends us now, almost forty yeam later, as it doubtless offended her then.

But photographs such as these that can stand ahme are the exception; most require support- ing text or captions. Without the printed word, they bear closer similarity to an innocent move than they do to a foxed evacuation. The process appears orderly as people leave town

in trucks, trains, buses, or in their cars. Seldom is emotion glimpsed and the military is incon- spicuous. We have no appropriate reference for such images.

Just as the pmevacuation photographs com- plement those of the camps, the evacuation photographs supplement those taken in the camps. The early shots show primitive quar- ters. Later ones show how the intern6es im- proved the barracks. Remembering that they were allowed to take only what belongings they could cany, we wonder how they ob- tained the impmvements. Whatever the an- swers, the photographs show that the mloca-

Fig. 26. 'Work! War I veteran" I

Fig. 28. "Played card games"

OG him" Coat"

@. 3 1. "In thett am"

ng. 34. "Lookd lovingly at their land

100 PR0LXX;UE-SUMMER 1980 '

r 7 hg. 36. "Gardens appeared outside the barracks"

Photographs Made at the Camps The photographs made at Manzanar and

Tule Lake document life in the camps. The ini- tial starkness of the barracks was relieved by human resourcefulness, and within a year gardens appeared outside the barracks and im- pmvements within. The viewer delights in the progress, applauds the internees, and feels relieved that the emotions of the peopk re- main' hidden. We learn nothing af the psycho- logical costs of the lslck of privacy, the disrup- tion of family life that resulted from communal eating, or how it felt to walk two hundred yards through snow to an outh~use.~

Nor do we leam about the struggle for lead- ership in the camps between the Issei (born in Japan) and the Nisei (born in America). Only *e Wn ------- - - - -

accounts meal the stress of living together, the restlessness of the young men,

BLavell Chun-Hmn, "Jkxutive Order 9056," ApI"(19ia Journal 1 (Feb. 1972):57.

the efforts of the Japanese American Citizens League to cooperate with the government and the ensuing resentment felt by the Issei and the less acculturated Kibei (born in America and educated in Japan). Strained to the limit, the fabric of the &rununity at Ivlammm tore apart and exploded in v i o b on December 2,1342. There are no pictu~es of the riot. Did the gov- ernment wish to stifle evidence of &? Demonstrations by members of the pro-Japan gmups were photographed at W e Lake, how- eve, and although the results were impounded they were not destroyed. But Tule Lake was a camp when2 malcontents and criminal ele- aenk from other camps were eventually gathered so that such demonstrations may have served the government's purpose, and possibly such photographic documentation was desired. On the other hand, if censorshiv prevented photographing the Manzi?nar riot, why did it only apply to written records that analyze the3303 iiidiBEI, Or w e i ~ s o S O ~ ~ n ~ taneous that it was not possible or not safe to photograph it? Sine textual mcurds a ~ e gen- erally made after the fact, unexpected events need never go unrecorded. Other possibilities to explain the lack of photographs of the riot are that they were lost or were removed from the files later and not returned.

Even when political events are photo- graphed, the results are usually disappointing. Those of pro-Japan gmups demowtrating tell us only that there were people unhappy enough to shave the-& heads andlor engage in

Fig. 37. "Might as well lwgh as cry"

JAPANESE-AMEKICANS 101

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Fig. 39. "Reporlers freely entered the camps"

tempt those who chose not to resist.1° Jews of the Holocaust am alleged to have seattly de- sired their own &a& because they believed, as did the Japanese-Americans, that evacuation meant leaving their homes, not life itself, and that resettlement implied moving to another area, not that they would be exterminated.ll

Both groups had grown accustomed to har- assment, economic exploitation, political dis- crimination, and grudging acceptance by a hostile society. The Japanese-Americans sur- vived because they wpemted with an hys- terical but fundamentally decent gavemment that granted the caecurity they were entitled to. Thg Jews were not so fortunate. Whether they cooperated or resisted, they perished because annihilation, not temporary relocation, was the intent of the Nazis. American relocation camps were not Nazi concentration camps. The lan- guage of Executive Order 9066 was descriptive and not cruelly deceptive.

Arthur A. Hanaen and David A. Hacker, 'The Mammar Riot An Ethnic PeqmAive." Atnerasia jounull2 pall 1974): 112; Gary Okihim, "Japanese Resistance in America's Con- centration (=amps: A ~ u ~ t i o n , ' ' iWdc 1 (Fall lW3):2(1.3(L

l1 L q S. m a , 2% thc WO, 1933- e97t9, pp. ~r2-m.

Most Americans are ashamed of this episode, but the focus is praperky on the fail= of leadedtip and the role of journalists in dis- seminating hatred and suspicion. Accounts that accent the lack of amenities in the camps during wartime are ludimus. If the policy had been justified, its execrutian would have been admirable.

This is where photographs enhance written accounts and are faithful to history. We can look with =lief to these pictures, cognizant that, like other nations, we imprimed pe~ple who we believed might be dangerous in wartime, but, unlike other nations, we did not mistreat, dehumanize, or starve them. Re- portem freely entered the camps and internees were often allowed out. We committed a grave error, but we were civilized. The photographs are our witness.

As historical material, photographs are wb- jeet to the same psturhtims possible with written documen@. They m y be W d out of context, chosen as qre6entative when they are not, inaa-y labeled, placed out of se- qmce, croppedt and ,doctored, Like written docummts, what was not .&ed my have been more si@cant than what was; but, un- like written records, phatagraphs m o t be made after the event.

Photographs fecapture m e of the past t h g h n x o ~ d d ~ b g e s and a scab that is familiar. With their aid, we may b l something of the human impact of an went. Such affwtive informam v d H incram? OW izWellt?ctual un- di3Wmhgdb@mtomaks-&ght- ened fEistorbd j-b.