Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment

by Linda Gordon (editor), Gary Y. Okihiro (Editor), Dorothea Lange (Photographs)

Censored by the U.S. Army, Dorothea Lange's unseen photographs are the extraordinary photographic record of the Japanese American internment saga. This indelible work of visual and social history confirms Dorothea Lange's stature as one of the twentieth century's greatest American photographers. Presenting 119 images originally censored by the U.S. Army―the majority of which have never been published― Impounded evokes the horror of a community uprooted in the early 1940s and the stark reality of the internment camps. With poignancy and sage insight, nationally known historians Linda Gordon and Gary Okihiro illuminate the saga of Japanese American internment: from life before Executive Order 9066 to the abrupt roundups and the marginal existence in the bleak, sandswept camps. In the tradition of Roman Vishniac's A Vanished World, Impounded , with the immediacy of its photographs, tells the story of the thousands of lives unalterably shattered by racial hatred brought on by the passions of war.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Photography, World War II, Art, Historical, War

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2006

About the author

Linda Gordon is the Florence Kelley Professor of History at New York University. She is the author of numerous books and won the Bancroft Prize for The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction. She lives in New York. "

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of course we know Dorothea Lange’s work best through her incredible photographs of the Great Depression:

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedsta...

What I did not know until I read this book, Impounded, is that she had taken an equal number of photographs of African Americans during that time, but in public exhibitions and publications that these photographs had been largely suppressed. I was not surprised to hear this, given our history, but I was dismayed that it had happened. I wondered how Lange would have resisted this misrepresentation of the scope of her work, and will read more (or hear from those of you who know more).

Impounded contains many of Dorothea Lange’s photographs of Japanese internment along with a terrific essay on Lange’s work by Linda Gordon and another essay on the internment and Japanese-American history by Gary Okhiro. The photographs are now in the public domain but they were impounded—as with above, another example of racist suppression in American history--through the duration of the war and only released decades later. I recognize several of the more famous images from books I had previously read about the internment (and why use the softer and more “neutral” word “internment” instead of concentration camp?), but many of the pictures were new to me.

I read this book because many of us are reading more books again about WWII, and since I have a friend who was interned in California as a young boy, I wanted to read Citizen 13360, by Mine Okubo and this book and talk about his experiences with him as we looked at images from these books.

Here is my review of Citizen 13360, not photographs (photography was denied as a means of documentation to those imprisoned there, but Okubo compiled a book from more than 2,000 drawings she made while there):

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/06/ar...

Another review with more images from Lange’s internment work:

https://theliteratelens.com/2017/01/1...

[Leslie Shimotakahara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had archive fever. I’ve been reading a pile of history books on the Japanese Internment. I’m looking to gain insight into what my grandparents experienced as internees as part of my attempt to write an historical novel, centred on a secret romance in one of the camps. The idea is loosely based on snippets of stories and half-disclosures that my grandmother let slip over the years, giving me certain ideas (fantasies, really) about how she met my grandfather. The beginning of their strange, turbulent marriage.

But the problem with reading history books, I’ve come to realize, is that “facts” only get you so far as a writer. They’re full of quotations by politicians and statistical data, whereas I’m interested in accessing the taste (or lack of taste) of the camp food, the sounds and smells of the barracks, the feel of the floorboards against our heroine’s bare feet as she sneaks out at night.

So I decided to read something different. Or not read at all. The other day, I came across this collection of photographs by Dorothea Lange, who is best known for her portraits of U.S. migrant farmworkers and sharecroppers during the Depression.... The rest of my review can be read at: www.the-reading-list.com

[sdw · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains many of Dorothea Lange’s photographs of Japanese internment along with an essay contextualizing Lange’s work by Linda Gordon and an essay contextualizing internment and Japanese American history by Gary Y. Okhiro. The photographs are through the WSA and are in the public domain but they were impounded through the duration of the war. I recognized several of the more famous images from the books I have read about internment but many of the pictures were new to me.

Very few of the liberals and radicals of the 1930s and early 1940s critiqued the internment of Japanese Americans in internment camps. Radicals affiliated with the Communist Party wanted to prioritize a united front against fascism abroad rather than make waves about racism at home. The ACLU remained silent. Dorothea Lange and her husband Paul Taylor were outraged. They were able to arrange for Lange to photograph the internment process. As Linda Gordon suggests, the government agreed in part because Lange’s earlier photographs promoted their programs. Did they expect Lange’s work would endorse internment? At this point, a documentary record was also just part of how the government did things. It was automatic that you would have a documentary record made, even if, as in the case of Lange’s work, the photos were immediately “impounded.” Her images were not released until after the war.

I particularly appreciated Gordon’s discussion of Lange’s relationship with Ansel Adam, who was able to photograph Manzanar a year later. Anyone who has seen the images side by side will be struck by the difference in their works’ cultural politics. I hadn’t realized though that Lange has pushed Adam’s to publish his photos quickly, despite her own work being impounded. She thought it was essential that photographs of the camps get out to the public as soon as possible. After seeing the work she was, of course, disappointed. Adam’s chose to emphasize the Americaness of individuals and break down ideas of the “inscrutable” oriental by presenting scrutable individual Americans, as Creef argues so beautifully in Imaging Japanese America. In contrast, Lange, without compromising the dignity of her subjects, emphasized the barren conditions and the hardship faced by internees. Adam’s story was triumph over adversity while Lange suggested the truly horrific nature of the government program. Lange later said, “That’s Ansel . . .He gave the regular line, you know, but he wasn’t vicious about it. He’s ignorant on these matters. He isn’t acutely aware of social change. It was far for him to go, far. He felt pretty proud of himself for being such a liberal . . .on that book . . .He doesn’t know how far short it is, not yet.”

The essay by Okhiro is expertly executed. The writing is beautiful and Okhiro’s ability to succinctly discuss the history of Japanese American immigration to the United States, the history of racism they faced, the leading causes of internment, the relationship between Japanese American populations in Hawaii with California, Oregon, and Washington, and the details of internment is impressive. Through stories of individuals and the use of moving quotations Okhiro brings this history to life for the reader. It is an essay I might use to provide students with a quick history of Japanese Americans in the United States in a class where we have little time to dwell on this but the context is important to provide. I particularly was engaged by the discussion of the internment of community leaders following Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as I knew comparatively little of this history. I had not read before about the treatment of those interned on Sand Island.


As is more commonly known, the mass internment of Japanese Americans that occurred along the West Coast did not occur in Hawaii where Japanese Americans were too significant of a population to remove. That does not mean the situation was one of racial harmony as community leaders there were picked up immediately following Pearl Harbor, as Okhiro describes it, “These ‘hostages,’ those responsible for the nation’s security believed, would ensure the docility of the masses, summon their loyalty, and coerce their productive labor toward the winning of the Pacific war and, as they depicted it, the clash of empires and civilizations and the final triumph of white supremacy” (54). The conditions on Sand Island were horrific, as with many of the detention centers for Issei. Throughout the war, Japanese Americans (especially elderly Issei) died from lack of medical care. I cried reading about pregnant women who gave birth on wooden tables in horse stalls and a father and newspaper man from San Francisco who died of a series of strokes while interned for the crime of being a community leader (never seeing his family again). I can only imagine how terrifying it is to be giving birth to your first child without proper medical care, midwives, or hospitals, with no idea how long you will be interned, whether you will be deported to Japan, or what type of life your child will have. And yet this seems among the least of indignities suffered (and that people continue to suffer with US detention policies). As Misuyo Nakamura stated upon leaving her house, “I was so worried about what the future held for my children! We had struggled for many years, but we could lose everything. I was so frightened I actually did not think we would come home alive” (66).


Okhiro also emphasized the legacy of resistance to internment and briefly touches upon Redress.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

In all honesty, I did not read all of the text...I skimmed some of it and then spent my time looking at the photographs taken by Dorothea Lange. It wasn't that the text wasn't interesting...just that too many books arrived at the library at about the same time, and this is a busy time of year for me as school is starting. But the photographs are spectacular. By spectacular, I mean that they impacted me. A few brought tears to my eyes (such as seeing the children kneeling on the ground, leaning to write on a bench for school because tables and chairs weren't provided or seeing the long line of people waiting to eat in the mess hall) and others struck me with wonder to see how so many of the Japanese Americans planted flowers or gardens, took art classes and did other things to make the best of a horrible situation. I saw a picture of an elderly woman and cringed to picture my grandma or grandpa interned through no fault of their own at a vulnerable point in their lives. Lange was magnificent at capturing images that conveyed a story and her captions helped as well.

[Louise Pare-Lobinske · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never been fond of this period in American history. As a child, I asked in class about the inconsistency of Americans freeing other people from concentration camps while maintaining camps for Japanese. I was informed, "[The Japanese camp] was an internment camp. There's a difference." This answer left me puzzled (what was the difference?), but I didn't push it. Well, this book is a good way to face that period and learn about it, and maybe even learn from it. It does not answer the question of HOW this could happen in the United States of America, but it most assuredly educates the reader that it DID happen, and could happen again. A very valuable book. Do not read if you want to be cheered up.

[Mariko - · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly powerful. My own grandparents were interned but they have very few pictures of that time, especially not of keenly critical points in daily life (poor living conditions, etc.). It was moving to see even a small glimpse of what things really would have been like for them.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read a brief biography of the photographer at an exhibition of Lange’s work in a local museum a few years ago the first chapter of Impounded provided a more comprehensive perspective of her life leading up to and during the months she took the 100+ photos displayed in the book. The author shared some interesting insights into Lange’s techniques. She also compared hers with those of another famous photographer who took some portraits of the detainees, Ansel Adams.

The second chapter focused on the events leading up to and including the internment of the Japanese Americans from 1942-1946. Through a highly descriptive narrative I learned some things about the government policy which inflicted such trauma on the ‘detainees.’ For example, in 1936 FDR was discussing with members of his administration ‘the obvious point’ that Japanese Americans living in Hawaii should be put into ‘concentration camps’ in the event of hostilities between Japan and the USA. Surveillance of Japanese American community leaders in Hawaii and on the West Coast had been going on for a few years before Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941.

This author also made some insightful comments about how racism has never really ended in the USA. Eg, the Patriot Act of 2001 allowed for indefinite detention of those suspected of terrorism without any due process. As Impounded was published in 2006 I wonder what the author would say about Trump’s so called Muslim ban, which was upheld by the US Supreme Court. Or the current spate of anti Asian violence taking place in the USA.

Both chapters had a large number of references to various sources. These are listed in a bibliography at the end of the book. Despite being scholarly in their approach the prose was direct and quite readable.

This would be a very good read for someone interested in Japanese American history. Or for someone who is a fan of Lange’s photography. Since both are true for me, I would rate Impounded at 5 stars.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I checked this book out of the library as a follow up after reading Learning to See, a novel about photographer Dorothea Lange, and a collection of her photography, Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning.

This book is a collection of Lange's photographs taken for the infamous War Relocation Authority (WRA), which was responsible for interning thousands of Japanese-Americans on the West Coast during World War II. Lange's photographs were impounded for decades after the war, and published for the first time in 2006 in this book. Lange's stark black and white photographs are accompanied by two essays written by editors Linda Gordon and Gary Okihiro. Okihiro's essay was especially horrifying, detailing the inhuman treatment of American citizens and permanent residents. A cautionary tale; this could happen again. This is a very important book. Highly recommended.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is straightforward, simple, and powerful. Gordon and Okihiro do an excellent job assigning context to Lange’s photographs without over-analyzing her work for the reader. They rightly let the images speak for themselves and allow the reader to be affected in whatever way their own history influences them. Okihiro gives a brief but nevertheless powerful treatment of the deep seated anti-Japanese racism that extended for decades before Pearl Harbor was ever attacked. Gordon gives a very interesting and detailed attempt to describe Lange’s conflicted conscience as she carried out her role. Lange fed her bosses what they wanted by keeping within their strict confines (no images of barbed wire, armed guards, dogs, etc. Not to mention mock executions) and tolerated at times their seemingly concerted efforts to block her from performing her work. Yet she still managed to produce images that seem to stand in defiance of what was being carried out. Gordon brings up the important question, if Lange was able to refrain from producing images illustrating injustice or mistreatment, why were these images of the concentration camps (to use President Roosevelt’s own words) impounded by the U.S. Army?

I think the answer to that question lies largely in the fact that Lange was a talented portrait artist as well as one who was skilled at portraying individuals in their environment. Pre-war anti-Japanese racism had been precisely that: directed at the Japanese. But the Japanese is not a person. Lange’s photographs and captions show individuals. They show farmers, medical students, children, teachers, laborers, families, soldiers, and businessmen. Lange’s images in effect show Americans, not the enemies of state the government and media would have the interior U.S. and East Coast believe. Moreover, these were people who were not given a trial and were not found guilty of any crimes. The astounding racist-laden logic behind the roundup and detention of U.S. citizens is summed up with General John L. De Witt’s words, “the Japanese race is an enemy race and while many second and third generation Japanese born on American soil, possessed of American citizenship, have become ‘Americanized’, the racial strains are undiluted… The very fact that no sabotage has taken place to date is a disturbing and confirming indication that such action will be taken.”

Lange’s captions further illustrate her subjects as having real lives: “Ryohitsu Shibuya, successful chrysanthemum grower…; A soldier and his mother in a strawberry field… He is the youngest of six children, two of them volunteers in the U.S. Army; These laborers earned from $750 to $1000 per year, plus living accommodations and their own little gardens; This farmer rearranges his personal effects as he awaits evacuation bus; Evacuees are leaving their homes and ranches, in a rich agricultural district, bound for Merced Assembly Center; Old Mr. Konda… has been a truck farmer and raised his family who are also farmers, in Centerville, Alameda County where his children were born; Mr. Sugiyama was accepted by the University of California Medical school prior to evacuation, but is now unable to attend…”

Despite all this history and drama, what I found most intriguing about the book was from a review of it reproduced on Amazon.com. A Publisher’s Weekly writer states, “The final image—of a grandfather in the desolate Manzanar Center looking down in anguish at the grandson between his knees—is worth the price of the book alone.” After reading that, I was naturally compelled to track the book down at the library. I went directly to the last photograph to find not a grandfather “in anguish”, but rather one beaming with pride as he holds the hands of his grandson. The thrust out chest, wide set feet, wrinkled brow, even the pouty lip and frown all indicated to me a typical look of Japanese thinly veiled pride. Doubting myself, I showed the picture to Becca without giving her any background and she immediately agreed that this was a touching and happy scene in spite of the backdrop of claptrap tar paper barracks. So given the Publisher’s Weekly reaction to this photograph, and the fact that it is reproduced three times in the book, I couldn’t help but feel so foolish for ever having thought “America knows better than this, how could this happen.” Instead I had the overwhelming feeling of, “no wonder this happened.” To be other than white in this country is to be a criminal because the status quo cannot accept into its in-group what it does not understand. The Japanese-Americans were the lucky few who bought their acceptance with their internment into concentration camps and with the blood of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and 100th Infantry Battalion (my great-uncle’s unit). What this book rightly brings to the forefront is not solely the hardships internees bore, but also the questions: Why do “others” have to buy their Americanness anyway? What about those who fought battles no less great and have yet to win a full victory? What about American Indians and African-Americans? What about Guantanamo?

[Bruce Cline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this book with considerable excitement and, while it was good, it was not nearly as powerful as I had anticipated, and not because of the text. The first 80 pages is an abbreviated history of Dorothea Lange and her photography that contains interesting information about her extensive photography of the Great Depression that made her famous: It also sets the scene for the racist policies leading to Japanese Americans being placed in concentration camps for the duration of the war. Although Lange was working for the U.S. Government, specifically hired to document the internment process, her revealing images were impounded, not seeing the light of day for decades afterwards. This result in this photography to be lesser known even at the time she was doing the work. My chief disappointment lies in the substandard quality of the printing, lessening the impact of the photos chosen for this larger than normal formatted book. Given the importance of the images in a book about photography (!), I am amazed that less attention was paid to the quality of the paper and printing. The scenes/subject matter she photographed were limited because of the strictures under which she worked---some officials fully cognizant of her progressive (and anti-racist) leanings---thus making it difficult for her to accomplish that for which she was paid: documentation of the internment process. Her work does, though, provide a glimpse into a world that has been a stain on Americans’ concepts of equality and fair play. This book is good but, for a variety of reasons extending beyond the images themselves, lacks the power and impact of her other work. This work, although flawed, should serve as a warning to current day Americans who want to intern or otherwise segregate other Americans because of their race, religion, or national origin.

[Mark Soone · Rating 3 out of 5]

In reality I found this to be a 2 star book (just OK), but since it dealt with such a lergely neglected area of our nation's history I felt compelled to give it 3 just for recognizing and addressing it.

During WW II, over 100,000 Japanese Americans, many of whom were citizens, were forced from thier homes and made to live out the remainder of the war under armed guard in concentration camps. The first 60+ pages only contained about 10 pictures (strange for a censored images book), and gave a brief synopsis of this time. I don't feel that it personalized very much, and it didn't stir feeling within me that should be consistant with this attrocity. I don't mean that I am unfeeling, but that it was a passionless (IMHO) synopsis. I was also disappointed w? the photographs....most were isolated prtraits, distance group shots and very few detailed photos. I understand that some may have been lost to history and other scenes were not allowed to be captured on film to begin with....But the overall quality and presentation of content left much to be desired....

I would recommend this to those interested in the neglected accounts of Japanese internment camps, or those wishing to understand it in more depth. It partly raised my understanding, and greatly increased my desire for more knowledge....It just left me unfulfilled in my quest for knowledge.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

book: Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment] by Dorothea Lange, Linda Gordon (Editor), Gary Okihiro (Editor) presents 119 images originally censored by the US military. Lange successfully and powerfully illuminates the complete saga of the Japanese Americans who experienced the windswept internment camps.

While the authors give a great deal of context and facts of the horrific conditions and the illegality, racism, and unfairness of the internment, for me their writing was not as emotional as I would have expected. Part of this may also be related to the small print size, making reading more of a chore than it should be.

The small size of the photographs also disappointed me. I may be spoiled after viewing picture books by Vivian Meier with large size reproductions. The content of the photos is moving, with real people being shown, which could have made the Japanese Americans look too sympathetic to other Americans.

For me this is a 3.5 overall, but with a larger format it would get a higher rating.

For Japanese Americans, World War II, Japanese American internment, racism, nonfiction, and American history.

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a series of photos by Dorothea Lange, photos that were held by the government for years and not published. A chapter goes over Lange's personal history and her involvement with the internment camps. She was personally strongly opposed to the camps.

Another chapter goes over the history of the interment. It's an extremely good chapter.

After those two written portions, then the pictures start. The first section is before the evacuation. It starts off with young elementary school Nisei children saying the Pledge of Allegiance, then goes on to show photos of farms and the evacuation notices.

Chapter 2 consists of photos of the roundup of the Japanese Americans. In these sections there is one photo per page, and an explanation dealing with what is going on in the photo.

Chapter 3 is photos of the evacuees at the assembly centers. Chapter 4 is photos from Manzanar.

It's an interesting series of very clear photos showing the conditions that the evacuees had to live in and some of their normal daily routines. An interesting book.

[Frederic · Rating 3 out of 5]

For anyone not very familiar with the history and photography of the Japanese-American internment camps this would be a great introduction, and for that audience I'd rate it considerably higher. But for those who already know the history, and the collections of photographs and other documentation, it doesn't offer a lot that will be new. It's great to have so many of the photographs together in one place, but they're printed fairly small; it's also nice to have the captions here being Lange's own. The two introductory essays, one biographical on Lange and one historical on the internment and its context, are solid but don't have much that will be unfamiliar to those who have some experience in the fields. So, great introduction to the subject, and nice collection of Lange photographs, but less than I had hoped for.

[Phoebe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two pithy essays on Lange and her work introduce this substantial book, which features 119 photographs Lange took in California internment camps. Many of the pictures were never published, since Lange was hired by the War Relocation Authority to document the process of internment. Her access was not carte blanche and so it is expected that some of the worst realities were never documented, but even so, her photographs are both fascinating and chilling. The photos are separated into sections, from packing and waiting to board buses, to moving into the stables and old barracks, to life in the camps. These pictures are one of the most powerful and unfiltered ways to "get" what the government put their citizens through and they stir powerful emotions.

[Mrs. Roy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Found this one at our school's library as I was walking out of 6th grade lab...wish I'd walked on by. I loved the photographs in this book (by famous depression-era photog Dorothea Lange), and I feel as though they educated me on the Internment, but the author was very opinionated in her description of it. One thing I've learned from my husband the journalist - some events are so horrible that they speak for themselves. The Japanese Internment definitely fits that description, and I don't need an opinionated history professor to tell me that. Shut up, sister, and let the photographs speak for themselves!

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book about Dorothea Lange's documentation of the Japanese-American internment evacuation and camp experience during World War II. This book includes both an excellent summary of Lange's background and work and a similarly compelling (and instructive) summary of Japanese American immigration and the events that led up to Executive Order 9066. I only wish there had been more discussion about the specific stories behind the pictures, both from Lange and the internees perspectives and their own words.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really simple, fascinating book. It's about 80 pages of text with background on Dorothea Lange and the history of Japanese internment, and then the rest is photographs. The info is concise and interesting, and the photographs are stunning.

I usually return books bought for school at the end of the class, but I think I'll keep this one. It's definitely worth checking out if you have any interest in American 20th century history or in Dorothea Lange and documentary photography.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a must-read for people like “J”, whom I encountered a couple of years ago at my local library and who claimed that the whole internment process was actually a good thing for Japanese-Canadians because it gave them a few years to sit back and enjoy life, like at a summer camp. My head nearly exploded when she said that. I hope my verbal attack gave her something to think about.

There are two essays included in the book but, as always, it’s Lange’s photos that take over the spotlight.

[RuthAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would recommend

Similar to when I read Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement, I paid more attention to the photos than the text, but the impact is powerful. The photos are beautiful and heartbreaking, and everyone should at least leaf through this book to remember that Americans put other Americans in camps out of racism and fear.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreakingly honest images of the Japanese Americans were interned starting in 1942. Lange couldn’t help but capture what the camps were truly like (leading to these photos being confiscated) and what these people suffered and lost, yet did the best they could in such circumstances. Their businesses, homes, cars, and belongings were not returned to them nor were they given compensation afterwards. It’s just hard to fathom!

[Magda · Rating 3 out of 5]

'The Depression gave rise to several programs of deporting or "repatriating" at least two of these "alien" groups, Mexicans and Filipinos. These policies were part of American populism too.'

'Lange did not make pictures of Japanese people who were unbeautiful or unconventional or down-and-out, and this self-censorship was characteristic of all her photography.'

[Gayle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book--probably because I enjoy her style of photography and the subject matter went along with a book club book I read (Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.) Not a lot of text--mostly images. I'd love to photograph people in the intriguing way she does one day!

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excerpt -- On Life During Internment
Dust. Mud. Ugliness. Terrible food -- definitely not Japanese -- doled onto plates from large garbage cans. Nothing to do. Lines for breakfast, lines for lunch, lines for supper, lines for mail, lines for the canteen, lines for laundry tubs, lines for toilets. The most common activity is waiting.

[Randy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an examination of some of the least known documentary photographs taken in 1942-43 by Dorothea Lange of the roundup and incarceration of more than 100,000 American citizens of Japanese descent. Wonderful, poignant images taken for the WRA and hidden away in the National Archives for the past 70 years or so. Great read and wonderfully telling images.

[Sandra VonniessenApplebee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the pictures were enlightening about the conditions in which they lived. There was not a whole lot of history about the event itself, nor follow up on what happened to those interned after their release - I had heard that many did not return to where they were before. The whole situation is another sad mark on our history of decisions based on fear and lack of understanding.

[Pat Carson · Rating 4 out of 5]

What did we do to American citizens in World War II? We put the Japanese Americans in concentration camps. Lange's images show part of the story of the Japanese American's confinement in the continental United States. Gary Okihiro's essay into the history of the confinement in the continental US and Hawaii will be an eye opener to many. I'd like to see high school students read this.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

YES YES YES
6 stars
this will/should make you as sick as when you've seen the guantanmo and andersonville photos. when anyone defends the imprisonment of Americans of Japanese anncestory during WW II show them this book. needs to be in high school and college libraries.

[Anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This largely photo-based book blew me away. Lange's images really taught me a lot about the internment of Japanese Americans in 1942. Heartbreaking, enraging, unbelievable. It includes text from the two authors that enhances one's understanding of the issues.

[Candy · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a lot of small print text at the beginning of the book, followed by pictures. I was interested in an adult take on the Japanese American Internment, since I enjoyed DEAR MISS BREED so much, and it is really a children's book.