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Documentary Arts and Culture
Colors of Confinement: Rare Kodachrome Photographs of Japanese American Incarceration in World War II
In 1942, Bill Manbo (1908-1992) and his family were forced from their Hollywood home into the Japanese American internment camp at Heart Mountain in Wyoming. While there, Manbo documented his surroundings using Kodachrome film, a technology then just seven years old, to capture community celebrations and to record his family's struggle to maintain a normal life under the harsh conditions of racial imprisonment. Colors of Confinement showcases sixty-five stunning images from this extremely rare collection of color photographs, presented along with three interpretive essays by leading scholars and a reflective, personal essay by a former Heart Mountain internee.
136 pages, Hardcover
First published August 13, 2012
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145 people want to read
About the author
Eric L. Muller
9 books3 followersEric L. Muller is Dan K. Moore Distinguished Professor in Jurisprudence and Ethics at the University of North Carolina School of Law and director of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for Faculty Excellence. He is editor of Colors of Confinement: Rare Kodachrome Photographs of Japanese American Incarceration in World War II and author of Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 13, 2021
A boy scout with a flag at the head of a parade is a pretty stock image of the good ol' U.S.A. But it becomes troubling when that scout has been forced from his home on the west coast, shipped to a remote and barren section of mountains in northern Wyoming, and kept under guard behind barbed wire along with his family and neighbors and other Japanese Americans out of a paranoid fear that he is an agent of espionage hiding behind badges, patches, and a blue kerchief.
This book presents a treasure trove of color photographs you could find in any family photograph: landscapes, posed family shots, and candid moments from daily life and special events and celebrations. But in the background of many are the guard towers, fences, and tarpaper barracks of the Heart Mountain World War II internment camp -- a looming presence that belies the smiles and frolics.
These photos are set toward the end of the interment because cameras were considered contraband for the prisoners at the start. A special decree had to be made to allow families to capture basic memories we all take for granted today.
The photographer has passed away, so the book is filled out with dry academic essays by various scholars and a short memoir by a man who stayed at the same camp as a child at the same time. One essay is an unpersuasive attempt to say that the interment wasn't so bad especially compared to what happened in other countries and that it was run by administrators whose racism was a bit offset because they generally had a progressive agenda in other areas. This comes after commentary about the civil disobedience stances taken by many of the internees and their subsequent punishment. Sorry, but I see people making the best of a bad situation, not thriving as they were before being torn from their homes, possessions, and careers.
Definitely still worth looking through the photos though.
This book presents a treasure trove of color photographs you could find in any family photograph: landscapes, posed family shots, and candid moments from daily life and special events and celebrations. But in the background of many are the guard towers, fences, and tarpaper barracks of the Heart Mountain World War II internment camp -- a looming presence that belies the smiles and frolics.
These photos are set toward the end of the interment because cameras were considered contraband for the prisoners at the start. A special decree had to be made to allow families to capture basic memories we all take for granted today.
The photographer has passed away, so the book is filled out with dry academic essays by various scholars and a short memoir by a man who stayed at the same camp as a child at the same time. One essay is an unpersuasive attempt to say that the interment wasn't so bad especially compared to what happened in other countries and that it was run by administrators whose racism was a bit offset because they generally had a progressive agenda in other areas. This comes after commentary about the civil disobedience stances taken by many of the internees and their subsequent punishment. Sorry, but I see people making the best of a bad situation, not thriving as they were before being torn from their homes, possessions, and careers.
Definitely still worth looking through the photos though.
March 11, 2017
I'm not sure it occurred to me that the WWII Internees wouldn't have any pictures but this book shows how rare those photographs were. It also provides inside looks to life inside the camps, what their activities were, how they bridged the gap between the Japanese society the parents had grown up in and the American that their children embraced, despite being behind barbed wires.
The pictures are excellent.
The pictures are excellent.
August 27, 2014
"The collection of photographs featured in this book allows us to view the internment in full, living color....the widely diverse colors of internee experience..."
I wanted this book because I have never seen the camp experience in anything but black and white. In color I could experience the camp more accurately as internees, like my grandfather, most likely remember. The essays that accompany the beautiful pictures are stimulating and original. They help readers examine the camp in more empathetic ways and not from a cynical standpoint. Perhaps good did come from their confinement, this book certainly proves that culture and beauty existed there.
I wanted this book because I have never seen the camp experience in anything but black and white. In color I could experience the camp more accurately as internees, like my grandfather, most likely remember. The essays that accompany the beautiful pictures are stimulating and original. They help readers examine the camp in more empathetic ways and not from a cynical standpoint. Perhaps good did come from their confinement, this book certainly proves that culture and beauty existed there.
April 8, 2016
A historical window to interment camps. Japanese Americans trying to live a "normal" life. The photos and writing are powerful. A sad period (choice) of our great country. Just another layer of the complex era of WWII. Thank you all involved in this.
"I'm an American,but I've got a Japanese face-what am I going to do?"
"I'm an American,but I've got a Japanese face-what am I going to do?"
October 18, 2021
Phenomenal collection of photographs and excellent collection of essays to accompany them.
August 6, 2016
I got this book for the photographs and at first, I wasn't planning to read the included essays. I am so glad I did read them. One essay gave background on the photographer, Bill Manbo. One was written by a man interned in Heart Mountain as a teenager. The two essays I found most interesting were the last two: one discussed cameras and the others discussed social histories and perspectives on the internment. Originally, cameras were confiscated as one of a number of contraband or dangerous items. It explained that as the military relinquished control of the camps and the WRA took control, many of these rules were changed. Nissei internees, like Mambo, could apply to get their cameras returned.
The article that I found most fascinating was "Unexpected Views of the Internment" by Lon Kurashige which details the rather complex view that must be taken when studying the internment. I think of it as a horrible crime committed against the Japanese Americans, and it was. But Kurashige points out that many other countries treated enemy aliens much worse, that internees did have some freedom to leave the camps, that schooling was provided (most internees went on to get a college education and performed on par or above their peers), cultural pluralism was allowed and that attempts were made to help them resettle afterwards. By no means does Kurashige take the view that internment camps were positive or justified...but explains that to really understand the camps the utilitarian mode of study (seeing the camps as oppressive, racist, and entirely negative) isn't sufficient. Other studies have taken a diversity perspective that recognizes both the good and bad. I liked this essay because it challenged some of my views and also gave some insights into a couple of things I had been pondering and questioning since reading other books.
In addition, the color photographs give a glimpse into life in the camps.
The article that I found most fascinating was "Unexpected Views of the Internment" by Lon Kurashige which details the rather complex view that must be taken when studying the internment. I think of it as a horrible crime committed against the Japanese Americans, and it was. But Kurashige points out that many other countries treated enemy aliens much worse, that internees did have some freedom to leave the camps, that schooling was provided (most internees went on to get a college education and performed on par or above their peers), cultural pluralism was allowed and that attempts were made to help them resettle afterwards. By no means does Kurashige take the view that internment camps were positive or justified...but explains that to really understand the camps the utilitarian mode of study (seeing the camps as oppressive, racist, and entirely negative) isn't sufficient. Other studies have taken a diversity perspective that recognizes both the good and bad. I liked this essay because it challenged some of my views and also gave some insights into a couple of things I had been pondering and questioning since reading other books.
In addition, the color photographs give a glimpse into life in the camps.
May 4, 2017
Also heard Eric L. Muller speak at NYPL.
"Muller's most recent book, "Colors of Confinement: Rare Kodachrome Photographs of Japanese American Incarceration in World War II", published by the University of North Carolina Press in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, was profiled in the New York Times in June of 2012. It won the Joan Patterson Kerr Book Award from the Western History Association in 2013.
In 1942, Bill Manbo (1908-1992) and his family were forced from their Hollywood home into the Japanese American internment camp at Heart Mountain in Wyoming. While there, Manbo documented both the bleakness and beauty of his surroundings, using Kodachrome film, a technology then just seven years old, to capture community celebrations and to record his family's struggle to maintain a normal life under the harsh conditions of racial imprisonment. Colors of Confinement showcases sixty-five stunning images from this extremely rare collection of color photographs, presented along with three interpretive essays by leading scholars and a reflective, personal essay by a former Heart Mountain internee.
The subjects of these haunting photos are the routine fare of an amateur photographer: parades, cultural events, people at play, Manbo's son. But the images are set against the backdrop of the barbed-wire enclosure surrounding the Heart Mountain Relocation Center and the dramatic expanse of Wyoming sky and landscape. The accompanying essays illuminate these scenes as they trace a tumultuous history unfolding just beyond the camera's lens, giving readers insight into Japanese American cultural life and the stark realities of life in the camps. " http://expertfile.com/experts/ericl.m...
"Muller's most recent book, "Colors of Confinement: Rare Kodachrome Photographs of Japanese American Incarceration in World War II", published by the University of North Carolina Press in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, was profiled in the New York Times in June of 2012. It won the Joan Patterson Kerr Book Award from the Western History Association in 2013.
In 1942, Bill Manbo (1908-1992) and his family were forced from their Hollywood home into the Japanese American internment camp at Heart Mountain in Wyoming. While there, Manbo documented both the bleakness and beauty of his surroundings, using Kodachrome film, a technology then just seven years old, to capture community celebrations and to record his family's struggle to maintain a normal life under the harsh conditions of racial imprisonment. Colors of Confinement showcases sixty-five stunning images from this extremely rare collection of color photographs, presented along with three interpretive essays by leading scholars and a reflective, personal essay by a former Heart Mountain internee.
The subjects of these haunting photos are the routine fare of an amateur photographer: parades, cultural events, people at play, Manbo's son. But the images are set against the backdrop of the barbed-wire enclosure surrounding the Heart Mountain Relocation Center and the dramatic expanse of Wyoming sky and landscape. The accompanying essays illuminate these scenes as they trace a tumultuous history unfolding just beyond the camera's lens, giving readers insight into Japanese American cultural life and the stark realities of life in the camps. " http://expertfile.com/experts/ericl.m...
November 7, 2018
This is like 80% essays. I thought there would be way more photos but the essays were still enjoyable to read for the most part (fuck the last essay tbh nobody needs that sort of rhetoric that goes “okay it wasn’t good but they didn’t beat these people!! They didn’t starve them or kill them! There were some white people in charge who weren’t like Those Other Racists! They were well intentioned!” Congrats the people in camps weren’t beat but they also were rounded up like nothing more than cattle and swept off the entire west coast and forced into camps where the threat of their entire RACE could be neutralized so don’t come at me with a “Not All Whites were racist” or a “they weren’t treated like Jews were in Europe so was it Really That Bad” argument)
BUT ANYWAYS the photos were nice and it’s good to learn about America’s treatment of Japanese Americans in light of trump’s/ICE’s treatment of Latin American migrants and asylum seekers
BUT ANYWAYS the photos were nice and it’s good to learn about America’s treatment of Japanese Americans in light of trump’s/ICE’s treatment of Latin American migrants and asylum seekers
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October 3, 2024I really liked reading the essays and seeing the photographs in this collection! What I appreciated most was its depiction of "everyday life" in the camps. Manbo wasn't a professional photographer in the way that Miyatake or Lange was, so his photos are more raw and unpolished - but in a way I kind of prefer that. The memories captured here remind me so much of the photos my parents post on Facebook.
August 20, 2023
Very good discussion of life in the WWII Heart Mtn Relocation Center shown through pictures of one family’s daily life. Photographs are proof of this chapter of American WWII politics and discrimination. This book consists of four essays - three from the academic world and one from a pre-teen/teenager who lived interned in the camp.
May 18, 2017
Beautiful photos and interesting inside perspectives on living within the Japanese American concentration camp community.
October 8, 2021
Beautiful photographs and powerful accompanying reflections. Wish we had more voices of people who spent time at heart mountain represented.
February 1, 2025
Fascinating book about a subject I knew little about. The photos are from one of the detainees, they're more "snapshot" type, showing glimpses of real life during the internment. There's a fair amount of accompanying text, which provides detail and context.
November 30, 2012
Raddest pilot outfit I've ever seen. Empty yet fulfilling-feeling photos.
June 22, 2013
This is an impressive collection made poignant by the very normal-type pictures taken at the "containment camps".
October 13, 2014
Most interesting!
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September 27, 2017Learned a lot more details - rules about incarcerees having cameras, what happened to those who gave conditional answers to the loyalty questionnaires (previous reading seemed to indicate that conditional answers were treated as "No-No" as well) - and saw more than official photographs for the first time. Much more poignant to see them in color.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews