A Moment in History

A Moment in History - Page Text Content

S: By John and Michael

BC: Created by: K. Kliegman Picturing America Project December 2010 | Works Cited: xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx

FC: A Moment in History Digital Scrapbook

1: Meeting Ansel Adams | Today I visited the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. I learned that American photographer, Ansel Adams, took several photographs at the Manzanar Japanese Internment Camp. When he offered the collection to the Library in 1965, Adams wrote, " The purpose of my work was to show how these people, suffering under a great injustice, and loss of property, businesses and professions, had overcome the sense of defeat and dispair [sic] by building for themselves a vital community in an arid (but magnificent) environmentAll in all, I think this Manzanar Collection is an important historical document, and I trust it can be put to good use."

2: Ansel & Manzanar | In late October 1943, Ansel Adams arrived at Manzanar War Relocation Center, where nearly 10,000 Japanese Americans were interned during World War II under Executive Order 9066. He wanted to show the loyal American faces of these internees, two-thirds of them citizens by birth whose constitutional rights had been violated by the internment. From October 1943 to July 1944, he made four visits to Manzanar at his own expense and without recompense, talking to the internees and photographing them in activities that especially emphasized their Americanness. The internment camps were scheduled to close at the end of 1944, while the war in the Pacific still raged, and Adams believed ordinary Americans would be more tolerant of the return of the internees to the cities and towns if they were perceived to be as American as anyone else.

4: Dear Auntie, I write this to you from the one small room I share with my brother, parents, and grandparents. It is so hot in here, and we are sleeping on the hard, dirty floor. Auntie, they took away our beautiful wildflower farm as if we were not even humans and shipped us here! Father is heartbroken. All the work, all the years - for nothing. I try not to cry as I don't want to burden Mother. Mother hardly talks anymore. I sit outside under the hot sun and stare at the beautiful Sierra Mountains. They give me strength and hope. Oh, I hope we get out of here soon, Auntie. I worry about Mother so much. She worked so hard all of her life in California. How could the American people do this to us? We have never done anything wrong! We were also upset about Pearl Harbor! I miss my friend Sally from school. I will write again soon. Love, Sukimo

5: Why have they done this to us?