News Blog

December 10, 2016
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Dorothea Lange’s Censored Photographs of FDR’s Japanese Concentration Camps

Read about the history of Dorothea Lange’s photos taken during the internment of Japanese American citizens in WWII.  She was hired by the government to document the process of moving these citizens out of their homes and businesses for relocation to remote guarded camps. Her work revealed more than the government intended; she was fired and her most revealing photos were impounded.  You can still download many of Lange’s photos of the internment from the Library of Congress but her impounded images, like those that appear in Grab a Hunk of Lightning are harder to find. Learn more >>

Original caption: Hayward, California. Members of the Mochida family awaiting evacuation bus. Identification tags are used to aid in keeping the family unit intact during all phases of evacuation. Mochida operated a nursery and five greenhouses on a two-acre site in Eden Township. He raised snapdragons and sweet peas. Evacuees of Japanese ancestry will be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration.