Japanese Americans lives’ during WWII mass incarceration shown in rare Ansel Adams’ images

Sunday marks 81 years since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Executive Order  that led to the mass incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans.

A rare set of photographs taken by Ansel Adams, one of America’s most well-known photographers, documented those impacted by the order. Japanese immigrants who were legally forbidden from becoming citizens and people born in the U.S. living in California, southern Arizona, and western Washington were rounded up, according to the U.S. Library of Congress. 

“We lost everything, like I lost my heritage,” historian Hanako Wakatsuki told USA Today in a 2022 interview. “I had four generations of my family incarcerated at Manzanar,” one of 10 camps where Americans with at least 1/16th Japanese ancestry were confined.

Wakatsuki also had relatives incarcerated at Minidoka and Tule Lake.

During the fall of 1943, the renowned photographer visited Manzanar War Relocation Center in Inyo County, California, approximately 200 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

He mostly took portraits, but also captured people’s daily lives, agricultural scenes, sports and leisure activities. 

Her family couldn’t talk about it:Now she educates others about this dark point in US history

Adams presented a positive view of the incarcerated, a stark contrast to the actual upheaval of the evacuation and the bleak conditions of the camps.