Feb. 19 was the 70th anniversary of Executive Order 9066. Signed by Franklin Roosevelt a few months after U.S. entry into World War II, the document authorized the removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast.
The Bee observed this milestone with an article by Anita Creamer that examined the lasting psychological impact of the internment on the children of those who were evacuated to remote camps. Some researchers believe the wartime experience of parents have left scars of low-level depression and insecurity on the next generation.
The story is accompanied by two large photo slide shows.
Executive Order 9066: Legacy of Shame includes many historic images of interned Japanese by the renowned photographer Dorothea Lange. There are also contemporary pictures by the Bee's Paul Kitagaki, who has embarked on an ongoing project to photograph veterans of the camps and their descendents.
Unknown Japanese Internment Photographs contains over 200 historic pictures by Lange, Ansel Adams and others. Many of the people in these photographs are unidentified. If you recognize any of them, please contact Paul Kitagaki at The Bee.
PHOTO CREDIT: Nisei, second generation Japanese Americans of the Mochida family are Hiroko Mochida, 69, and seated Miyuki Hirano, 72, photographed May 21, 2006. The Mochida family operated a nursery and five greenhouses on a two-acre site in the Eden Township, now Fremont, Calif. Their father, Moriki Mochida raised snapdragons and sweet peas. They were interned at the Tanforan Assembly center and the Topaz Interment Camp during WWII and when they returned they had lost their business and had to start over. Copyright 2012 by Paul Kitagaki Jr.
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