Dorothea Lange Photos Depict World War II Japanese-American Internment

Just About to Step into the Bus
at the Assembly Center
Dorothea Lange, 1942
(photo from Sacramento Bee
and Oakland Museum of California collection)

In the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Federal officials organized the internment of Japanese-Americans. This episode, one of the most shameful in American history, has received its deserved share of notoriety. What's less well known is that the government commissioned photographer Dorothea Lange to document the event. She was a curious choice, given her Depression-era images of people struggling to survive that grim period. Lange was also known to have objected to the de facto imprisonment of those Americans of Japanese ancestry.

Nonetheless, Lange undertook the project. Unsurprisingly, her images were suppressed during the war years. They are available for viewing now. The San Jose Mercury News has collected sixty-five photographs from Lange's project, along with an interactive map identifying Bay Area photo locations that could be positively identified. Some of the photos are moving, some are beautiful, and all share a very scary context. Yes, it could -- and did -- happen here.

For a comprehensive look at Lange's work, the Oakland Museum of California is the place to visit. The photographer bequeathed 25,000 of her images to the institution; some of them are available to view online now.