Go directly to the collection, "Suffering
Under a Great Injustice": Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American
Internment at Manzanar, in American Memory, or view a Summary
of Resources related to the collection. History topics include:
The Early Japanese-American Experience |
Executive Order 9066: Evacuation and Segregation | Life
at Manzanar | Japanese-American Participation
in World War II | Relocation
Relocation
About a month after President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066,
an agency called the War Relocation Authority (WRA) was created to manage
the evacuation of Japanese Americans to internment camps. In September
1943 the WRA began efforts to depopulate the internment camps by relocating
residents with good records to the interior United States. Adams quotes
the President’s announcement
of the new policy:
'With the segregation of the disloyal evacuees
in a separate center, the War Relocation Authority proposes
now to redouble its efforts to accomplish the relocation into
normal homes and jobs in communities throughout the United
States, but outside the evacuated area, of those Americans
of Japanese ancestry whose loyalty to this country has remained
unshaken through the hardships of the evacuation which military
necessity made unavoidable.'
Job
Board |
|
The WRA began by granting students, linguists, and
agricultural workers temporary leave from internment camps.
They also placed field agents in certain cities to locate
job opportunities for Japanese-American evacuees. When these
field agents discovered an opportunity for employment in
a community that seemed friendly towards Japanese Americans,
they forwarded information to the internment camps. Residents
who followed up on these leads and negotiated a job with
an employer were granted permanent leave to relocate if
their behavior records were approved.
Adams photographed job
boards at Manzanar. He also photographed Manzanar residents
preparing
to leave for relocation and makes reference throughout Born
Free and Equal to relocated residents such as Yuichi
and Fumiko Hirata. |
- What does the caption of the photograph of the departing residents suggest about relocation?
- What do you think would have been the pros and cons of relocating from an internment camp? How do you think you would have felt about relocating if you were an evacuee?
- How do you think the relocation of evacuees might have contributed to the
culture of Manzanar?
Adams reports on the progress of relocation in a section called
"The
Problem." |
|
Departure
Is the Great Adventure |
Certain areas of the Midwest have been especially
tolerant toward the relocating people. Early in 1944 Illinois
had absorbed more than 4,000. There has been practically no
opposition in that state. However, in more westerly states,
opposition has been intense; petitions, press campaigns, and
legislation, mostly unconstitutional, have combined to create
a truly regrettable stain on the record of our democracy.
Read the rest of this section in which Adams explores the
question of "What is going to happen to these people
when the war is over and the stress and turmoil of relocation
is a thing of the past?"
- What does Adams mean when he writes
that "The spirit of Jim Crow walks in almost every section of our
land?"
- What reasons does Adams give for intolerance of Japanese Americans
in certain areas of the U.S.?
- Why does Adams think that "the scattering of the loyal Japanese-Americans
throughout the country is far better for them than re-concentration
into racial districts and groups"? Do you agree with him?
- Why doesn’t Adams put much hope in political means of protecting Japanese
Americans from injustice?
- What does Adams suggest should be done in order to insure justice
and equality for Japanese Americans?
- Do you think that the relocation process adequately provided for the
117,000 people that had been forced to evacuate their homes?
The Early Japanese-American Experience |
Executive Order 9066: Evacuation and Segregation | Life
at Manzanar | Japanese-American Participation
in World War II | Relocation |
