Un-American: The Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II

by Richard Cahan, Michael Williams, Dorothea Lange (Photographer)

It is the shame of America.

In the spring of 1942, the United States rounded up 120,000 residents of Japanese ancestry living along the West Coast and sent them to interment camps for the duration of World War II. Many abandoned their land. Many gave up their personal property. Each one of them lost a part of their lives.

Amazingly, the government hired famed photographers Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, and others to document the expulsion—from assembling Japanese Americans at racetracks to confining them in ten camps spread across the country. Their photographs, exactly seventy-five years after the evacuation began, give an emotional, unflinching portrait of a nation concerned more about security than human rights. These photographs are more important than ever.

Authors Richard Cahan and Michael Williams—noted photo historians—took a slow, careful look at each of these images as they put together a powerful history of one of America’s defining moments. Their book consists of photographs that have never been seen, many of them impounded by the U.S. Army. It also uses primary source government documents to explain and place the pictures in context. And it relies on firsthand recollections of Japanese Americans survivors to offer a complete perspective.

The result is one of the first visual looks at the Japanese-American internment. The story is told with brilliant pictures that help us better understand this important chapter in U.S. history.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Photography, American History, World War II, War, Race

240 pages, Hardcover

First published November 16, 2016

Reviews

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sad and terrible and completely possible that it would happen again. I read every caption on every photo and felt so much for those poor people.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Take the incredible photography skills of Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams and others of their era, combine it with the disgraceful topic of the Japanese-American incarcerations during World War II and the sparse, honest text from those who were present, and you have an evocative look back at one of our own dark moments in this country. Richard Cahan and Michael Williams put together a retrospective that documents those years in stark simplicity.

I found this book fascinating. I find I am drawn to some of the histories of different peoples and different countries, therefore this book was a good fit. Since it is our own country's shame that is brought to light here makes this not only a good choice for me, but for every person living in the United States. In light of our current political climate of bigotry and fear, it is a good reminder of what can happen again.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning photographs by Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, and others employed by the War Relocation Authority during the Second World War to take images of Japanese Americans incarcerated in internment camps in the US. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the military to relocate Japanese Americans to camps for the duration of the war. The authors located and interviewed many internees or descendants of internees to tell the story of the photographs.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every American should read this book and make sure this never happens again. The photos are stunning.

[Geoffrey Notkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exquisite work about a dismal period in American history. Authors Cahan and Michaels sift through 7,000 black and white photographs in the National Archives that document the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II, then set out to identify and interview survivors. It is a powerful, beautiful, and moving work, and more pertinent today than ever. I had the pleasure of speaking with Richard Cahan at the 2017 Tucson Festival of Books and his commitment to this project was inspiring. Highly recommended for those interested photography, history, military history, civil rights, and high quality fine art books.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several American photographers of note including Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams were hired by the U.S. Government to document the relocation and incarceration of Japanese-Americans during WWII. The photographs contained in this book, some banned by the War Department and hidden away in the National Archives are at turns sad, stark and stunningly beautiful. Documentation of a moment in our nation's history that should never be forgotten or repeated.

[Pippin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first of all would like to state that the number of pages is wrong, it's 240.

That being said this simply a beautiful book. If I taught a class on WWII this would be a book I would assign. It's a nice mix of pictures and information. It tells a story most Americans have never heard of it a part of history they choose to ignore.

[Hayley DeRoche · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so immensely accessible for people young and old. Highly recommend for all readers, starting with higher-level elementary school students, and including the adults who it was technically written for.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing photography--I had no idea that this archive of images existed.

[Natalie]

Shameful time in American History

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent narrative and pictorial history of a shameful time of our history, the incarceration of Japanese Americans.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beautiful while highlighting a very disturbing part of our history. Unfortunately, we have learned nothing...as the travel ban is effectively the same.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would you like to cry at a book while at the park on the first truly nice day of the spring? Yes? Let me recommend this book!
I'm not a historian, or a writer, or a sociologist. I'm a ding dong who likes to read nonfiction about lakes and romance novels, so my review of this book won't do the contents and the photos justice. I was really moved by this book, and if it's available to you, I would really strongly recommend looking through it.
The entire Japanese relocation idea was so monumentally cruel, I cannot believe people ever truly thought it was a good idea. (Ok, that's maybe not entirely true, there are some really evil people out there)
But seeing how dignified so many of the people in these photos were, in the face of being ripped from their homes with many or all of their belongings destroyed while they were gone, it was just heartbreaking. I can't imagine what those people felt, and the fact that any of them stayed in the country is amazing to me. And it all happened 80 short years ago?? Oh my god.
I picked this up because of certain current events, and it is my biggest fear to see something similar happen again. I really think that this should have been a bigger lesson in American history in high school.

[Yasmin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The photographs are a very powerful testament to the horrible nature of the concentration camps the Japanese Americans experienced during the Second World War. Although the title of the book says that the procedure was "un-american" history has proved the exact opposite. The First Nations peoples were forced into poor conditions and as the book states itself these conditions can be replicated at any time, but without the excuse of war.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This powerful visual follow-up to my recent read, Midnight in broad daylight : a Japanese American family caught between two worlds by Pamela Rotner Sakamoto, left me in tears. These beautiful people and the lives they had made through their sacrifice, perseverance, and hard work, only to have it torn away by their own government. Ugh. The slurs, the arguments made then have not gone away; they have just found new people to demonize. Will we ever learn?

[Flesha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful photo book concerning the time that many Japanese spent in my incarceration camps. The images taken by photographers working for the government including Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams. This book is powerful on its own, but could be even more powerful paired with many of the fiction titles about Japanese Incarceration such as We Are Not Free by Traci Chee.

[Jbondandrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gentle, understated, and piercing.

[Diane Madlon-Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Just wow. What a shameful chapter in the history of the U.S. A testament to the depth of character of Japanese-Americans.