Henry Welsh, a member of the Mojave tribe, poses with his horse in Parker, AZ. Welsh was chairman of the Colorado River Indian Community‚'s Tribal Council when the U.S. government undermined Indigenous sovereignty by planning to build the Poston War Relocation Center on tribal lands without first securing permission and despite tribal objections. Photograph by Clem Albers, April 10, 1942. Library of Congress 2021641693.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i, initiated U.S. participation in World War II, stoked a wave of fear and anti-immigrant sentiment, and led to the incarceration of 125,000 Japanese Americans. Here, the battleship USS ARIZONA sinks after being hit by a Japanese air attack on December 7, 1941.
Courtesy U.S. Naval Service.
Toyo Miyatake captured the uncertainties and lack of freedom characteristic of life in camp in this well-known photograph. The first-generation Japanese American photographer fashioned his own camera in camp to document the experience. Initially barring him from taking photos, the camp administration eventually permitted him to do so. He became the official camp photographer at Manzanar. Photograph by Toyo Miyatake, Three Boys Behind Barbed Wire, c. 1944. Courtesy Toyo Miyatake Studio.
