‘In 1943, Ansel Adams documented the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California and the Japanese Americans interned there during World War II.’
- ‘Suffering under a Great Injustice’: Library of Congress
‘Suffering under a Great Injustice’, 1943, by Ansel Adams
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Boy, people would kill for a view like that now.
It was very unfair to transport these people away from the west coast in Canada and the U.S. By all accounts though, it was a lot worse if you were interned by the Japanese.
“By all accounts though, it was a lot worse if you were interned by the Japanese.” This comparison sounds like a justification…
I love the way Ansel Adams mixes drama and grandeur with the humble and humanistic aspect here.
This is a truly great collection. I remember visiting LACMA and viewing the display of the Camp? Internment Center? a few years ago, a very humbling experience. America is a country of opposites, on one hand we interfere overseas and on the other hand we can’t really tell who is an American. A troubling dichotomy? We had one in Featherston New Zealand and we have never come to terms with it.
“Boy, people would kill for a view like that now.
It was very unfair to transport these people away from the west coast in Canada and the U.S. By all accounts though, it was a lot worse if you were interned by the Japanese.”
Hopefully one day you’ll know enough to be ashamed of this comment.
I was born in a Japanese POW camp in the Philippines in 1942.
My mother and I were in a civilian camp, my father in a military camp.
You can have no idea how infinitely better these people were treated here, right or wrong. And may you never know.
My father did not survive his camp (ours was very bad but the military was treated much worse), he never got to see me, but we know he did know I was born.
And, the Japanese government does not like to admit to the conditions, to this day. At least here, we can look at it and discuss it.
So what? These are Americans of Japanese ancestry ya moron. They were as Japanese as Eisenhower was German, you jackass.
Wonderful! All of you who are so indignant in 2011: how would you have felt in 1942? I was a high school student in So. Cal. at the time and had friends who were interned. I thought it an injustice and said so, at first. I soon learned to shut up. I found NO sympathetic listeners. You cannot imagine the spirit of the times if you weren’t there. It is a testimony to Americans that there were no lynchings or other personal outrages that I know of. There were spys among the group; I knew one and went to school with his children. I remember telling them how sad I was that their father had been arrested.
The government panicked. The entire West Coast was defended by a few pre-Civil War forts. They had single soldiers with dogs patrolling the beaches. Our great Pacific fleet, around which our defenses had been built, was in ruins, sunk. The Japanese could have walked in. Our newly drafted army was in Louisiana traing with brooms for rifles and trucks carrying “TANK” signs.
We have acknowledged our mistake, paid an indemnity and apologized ad nauseum. Let it rest!
Eric,m it i too bad ;that you do not have the opportunity to chat with your grandpa Fred, but you can chat with me, your grand uncle. I too was old enough to know what was going on and why regarding the actions of our goverment in 1943. What was the country of origin that sunk most of our naval fleet and many lives were lost. This went on by way, while Japanese ambassadors were in the White House with President Roosevelt talking of peaceful activities. What would be in your mind to immediately protect your population and country ? and so on *******
I was there a couple of weeks ago. It felt lonely.
If only American and Canadian Indians were treated so well.
No smiles in Europe…
You know, there are probably a lot of Americans today who wouldn’t mind “suffering under a great injustice” like this. Our evil government housed, fed, clothed, and trained detainees for a variety of skills while educating their children. Prisoners were free to entertain, worship, work, exercise, publish, gather, plan, create, purchase, barter, and communicate with each other. Where can we sign up for such assistance today? The irony in the title that Ansel Adams gave this series speaks volumes.
Wow….Great set of photos of Manzanar…. Very different looking from when I was a kid fishing the streams of the Eastern Sierra. Both of my neighbors were in their teens at internment centers. One in Eastern Washington and the other at Manazanar. I think the injustice that the internees felt was not so much of being moved to these centers as it was in loosing their businesses and livlihoods. I know that many of them understood the situation and took it as a patriotic duty. In turn many of the young men volunteered for military duty and made up some of the fiercest units to be deployed. They were of course only deployed to Europe and proved to be the most decorated units of the war…I imagine because of a multitude of motivations…..
Obviously taking an entire group of people and moving them away from their homes is not a step to be taken lightly. But here are some facts
1) there was an extensive network of Japanese spies and sympathizers among the much larger Japanese and Japanese American community
2) at the very first opportunity, a pair of US citizen Nissei aided the Japanese military — namely a downed Japanese pilot on the Hawaiian island of Niihau.
3) the war relocation board was often able to lease the Japanese/Japanese American farms during the war, with the result that, for example, in my county of Orange California, many (maybe even most) were able to return to their previous farms.
4) those who were financially hurt by the situation were able to get restitution immediately after the war.
All this thanks to FDR’s Executive Order 9066
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9066
Awesome collection yeah a lot of opposites and double mind I guess…
Truly a great injustice. Some where found to be spies and Japanese sympathizers. Most were not. There were also similar camps in the midwest that held German-Americans and Italian-Americans that were thought to be spies. We don’t hear much about them. My father was a u.s.army officer at one the camps that had Americans of German heritage as suspects.
Yes, America has come a long way with growing acceptance of African Americans, Muslims, and East Indians, yet there still remains a large amount of hate towards the Japanese. I suppose as long as it’s easy on the eyes and not anything Oriental it’s trust worthy. I’m pretty sure if Orientals were behind 9/11 they’d be rounded up once again, oh hell, the way it is now most of you all would love to see the Chinese rounded up and deported if not their Country decimated to a smaller world population. Current American views towards Chinese Americans aren’t too far off from those 1943 feelings the Nazis had towards Jews?
Doomed to repeat history.
@TerryJ – perhaps you should start with yourself, what have you done to make up for your own injustices.