Looking back on Ansel Adams' photographs of Japanese American internment 75 years ago, the attack on Pearl Harbor led to some of the darkest days in American history

Looking back on Ansel Adams' photographs of Japanese American internment Read more about the famous photographer's controversial photos here. Looking back on Ansel Adams' photographs of Japanese American internment Read more about the famous photographer's controversial photos here. Photo: Ansel Adams/Library Of Congress Photo: Ansel Adams/Library Of Congress Image 1 of / 75 Caption Close Looking back on Ansel Adams' photographs of Japanese American internment 1 / 75 Back to Gallery

Editors note: This essay was originally published in 2015, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the closing of internment camps.





The defining moment for many Japanese Americans of my parents' generation was the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The dominoes of that event continue to fall to this day. My mother, born Helen Kaneichi, is one of those dominoes. I believe she was forever scarred by that event.

At 13, she was taken from her family farm in Biola (just outside of Fresno) to a swamp in Arkansas. Presidential Executive Order 9066 ordered Japanese Americans living on the West Coast to evacuate to hastily constructed internment camps across the United States for their own protection. At least, that was the rationale.

There was no privacy. Barbed wire and gun towers surrounded the camp. My grandfather (on my dad’s side), Tokio Shirakawa, was taken away and was not seen by his family for months. No one knew where he was.

My mom’s brother, Takeo, volunteered for the U.S. Army and died fighting the Germans in France. He died fighting for the country that had put his family into these camps. If that isn’t irony, what is?

It is through this lens that we view the internment photographs by Ansel Adams today.

I respect Adams. As a high school kid, I grew up admiring his work. It’s one of the reasons why I picked up camera and went on to become a professional photographer. My favorite photographer is Adams.

It’s easy to look at his internment photos and judge them harshly. They’re well-composed and sometimes they’re pretty. They are everything Adams was as a photographer. Compared to Toyo Miyatake’s photographs, they sometimes seem dishonest.

Miyatake was a Los Angeles-based professional who was interned in Manzanar, the same camp Adams’ pictures were taken. His are more documentary in nature. They tell a different story than Adams.

The two photographers met at the camp and in 1979, Adams and Miyatake produced a book, 'Two Views of Manzanar.'

In some respects, Adams made photographs that he would rarely attempt again. His tight portraits in the blazing sun were not taken under ideal circumstances. But in doing so, we have a handful of the best portraits taken in the camps. His photograph of Japanese Americans packing their suitcases atop a car was not his style. He rarely photographed people in motion. Shot from the back, it represents “going away” as well as any photograph from this time.

Then there is the ironic photo of Toyo Miyatake’s family in their barrack, smiling for an obvious set up photo. The happy group sits on their “living room” couches near a Christmas tree and a stack of magazines. What could be more American? How bad could it be for those damned Japanese?

This is the kind of picture Adams is sometimes criticized for. It’s too neat, too perfect.

Yes, a photo like this could be used for public relations purposes, to show the rest of the country how nicely the enemy was being treated.

But when you talk to the Japanese who lived through this, it is exactly what they wanted out of life. To be American, to be happy in their home with their family. It wasn’t true at the moment, but it was their dream.

Photo: Ansel Adams/Library Of Congress Tōyō Miyatake family, Manzanar Relocation Center, California, 1943.

Thankfully, the war ended and my mother and father’s families returned to the Central Valley. My dad’s farm was still there, taken care of by the African American family across the street.

The same was true for my mom’s ranch; the neighbors kept it going. That wasn’t true for every family returning to their homes, however. Many lost everything. Racism was still rampant.

I believe Adams thought of Manzanar as an assignment. He made the best images he could, without concern for later implications. He told his subjects to smile. They didn’t refuse.

Irony surrounds the incarceration of the Japanese Americans during World War II. Oddly, Adams' photographs represent that irony better than anyone's.

Brad Shirakawa is a Bay Area photographer, he has taught photojournalism at San José State University.

The author's uncle Takeo Kaneichi, left, and mother Helen Kaneichi,...

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