Executive Order 9066
Japanese Internment Camp
Perceptual View
Photo taken by Ansel Adams
The Daunting Reality
The woman's desperate stare of fear was especially contradictory to the widespread belief that the Japanese was content with their situation. Unlike the previous image, the young children also appeared to be upset and uncertain about what was happening. Many Japanese felt that they were treated unfairly because the US did not relocate the German or the Italian population. What the Japanese Americans were facing was an abject future of suffering at the concentration camps (which was more accurately described as prisons) They did not move willingly. Rather, they were ejected from their homes and had to pack up in an unreasonably short period of time. Their cooperation during the relocation was not voluntary. The government stated otherwise to sugarcoat their mistreatments to the Japanese Americans.
This photo was taken from "Evacuation Order 9066" by Maisie & Richard Conrat.