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| Photographer |
A. Lien {K:141}
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| Project |
#49 Dramatic Portrait
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Camera Model |
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| Categories |
Journalism
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Film Format |
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| Portfolio |
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Lens |
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| Uploaded |
8/11/2005 |
Film / Memory Type |
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ISO / Film Speed |
0 |
| Views |
104 |
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| Favorites |
0
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f/ |
| Critiques |
0 |
Rating |
Pending
/ 0 Ratings
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| Location |
City -
State - WYOMING
Country - United States
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| About |
If they did this to their own, what would they do to me?
On this day (August 11) in 1942 the first detainees arrived at Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming. Heart Mountain was one of 10 centers specifically (and hastily) built to contain evacuees in isolated areas of at western states and Arkansas.
On March 21, 1942 the U.S. government began posting a series of "Civilian Exclusion Orders" in communities throughout the western U.S.A. These orders initially warned, then requested and finally required, that all residents of Japanese descent move out of their homes and report to registration centers. At the centers their names were replaced by a family number, and they were told to report a few days later, bringing with them only what they could carry by hand. People tried to dispose of their homes and businesses, but because of the anti-Japanese rage at the time (post-Pearl Harbor), the money they received (if any) was pennies on the dollar. Many were in agriculture, raising fruit, vegetables, nursery plants and specialty crops. They owned about 1/50th of the arable land in Washington, Oregon and California and they had worked wonders in the soil. In these 3 states in 1940, the average value per acre of all farms was $37.94. At the same time, a farm owned by a descendent of Japan was worth an average of $279.96. One farmer who grew strawberries asked the government for a deferral of a few days so he could harvest his crop. When his request was denied, he plowed the berries under. The next day the FBI charged him with an act of sabotage and jailed him.
These orders would ultimately deny liberty and property to more than 110,000 men, women and children of Japanese descent (70% of them U.S. citizens).
Life at one camp, Manzanar, was documented by a few photographers including Ansel Adams. His original publication, "Born Free and Equal" is a rare book today, in part because copies were publicly burned when it was released in 1944. His images were published in a 1988 book called "Manzanar" by John Armor and Peter Wright. The above information is taken from that book.
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