Japanese Internment Camp Drawings
Ansel Adams
These drawings are based on a series of portraits that Ansel Adams took while on location at the Manzanar Relocation Center in California during 1943. I made these drawings during the COVID lockdown in May of 2020. The parameters for the project were that I would finish one drawing per day for the month of May. I worked on these drawings before and after teaching, so the typical working time was from 5 am to 8:30 am and 4:30 pm to 1 am. The drawings began with a staining of the paper with liquid watercolor or ink, and then the drawings were completed using various markers. I didn't do any preliminary drawings, nor did I sketch in the lines with pencil. It was important for me to work without the ability to erase mistakes. Instead the mistakes became part of the drawing, and sometimes shaped the formal or psychological tone of the drawing.
Issued by President Franklin Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, executive order 9066 authorized the evacuation of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to relocation centers further inland. In the next 6 months, over 100,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry were moved to assembly centers. They were then evacuated to and confined in isolated, fenced, and guarded relocation centers, known as internment camps.
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Benji Iguchi, tractor driver (portrait) Manzanar Relocation Center, California, 1943. (Ansel Adams)
Private Kato, Manzanar Relocation Center. 1943.
(Ansel Adams)
Mrs. Yaeko Nakamura. Manzanar Relocation Center. (Ansel Adams) 1943.
Louise Tami Nakamura. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Terukio Kiyomura. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Mrs. May Ichide, Sunday school teacher. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Miss Tetsuko Murakami. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Miss Kay Fukuda, U.S.C.N. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Miss Yuri Yamazaki, (high school student). Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Catherine Natsuko Yamaguchi, Red Cross Instructor. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Joyce Yuki Nakamura, (eldest daughter) Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Fumiko Hirata. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Nurse Aiko Hamaguchi. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Mitsu Nakai and baby. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Private Margaret Fukuoka, W.A.C. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Bert K. Miura, clothing designer. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Sumiko Shigematsu, (foreman of power machines) Manzanar Relocation Center, California. 1943 (Ansel Adams).
Ryobe Nojima, farmer, Manzanar Relocation Center, California. (Ansel Adams) 1943.
Katsumi Yoshimura, Manzanar Relocation Center, California. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Corporal Jimmy (Jimmie) Shohara. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Yoshio Muramoto, electrician. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Kenji Sano. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Masao Nakazawa, chemistry teacher. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Hidemi Tayenaka. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Mitsuo Matsuro, fireman. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Mr. Kay Kageyama. Manzanar Relocation Center. 1943 (Adams, Ansel)
Bunkichi Hayashi. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Toyo Miyatake, (Photographer). Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Sadao Munemori, Private First Class, Company A 100th Infantry Battalion. 1942 (Source Photograph courtesy of the Wachtel, Yokohama, and Munemori families)
Kishio Matoba. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Michael Yonemetsu, [i.e., Yonemitsu] x-ray technician. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
Miri Nakashima. Manzanar War Relocation Center. 1943 (Ansel Adams)
