These images of Japanese American incarceration were embargoed for almost 30 years

[KamaAina]

http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-04-29/these-images-japanese-american-internment-were-embargoed-almost-30-years

By April and May of 1942, Franklin D. Roosevelt's infamous Executive Order 9066 had begun to transform the West Coast. Lives were upended for the sole offense of having Japanese ancestry. Thousands were forced to pack up their belongings, board up their homes and businesses, abandon harvests and leave behind all that was familiar....

Our collective memory of this terrible moment in American history is informed by the incriminating visual record created by one woman: Dorothea Lange.

Famous for her forlorn images of Dust Bowl America, this pioneering female photographer was hired by the War Relocation Authority in 1942 to document the removal and imprisonment of Japanese Americans.

The federal government, quickly realizing that images of “enemy” infants and grief-stricken grandmothers would be bad PR, embargoed Lange's photos for decades.

[kimbutgar]

1. My Dad had an American born Japanese friend he went to school with in SF K-12

One day he was there and then he was gone. After the war he came back and looked up my Dad. They remained friends until my Dad passed away.

[Android3.14]

2. Website won't load

If the government embargoed the images for 30 years, haven't they been available for about 40 years? The incarceration was horrible, but I'm unsure if emphasizing an embargo that ended in the '70s is effective.

I'd recommend going with the impact of the incarceration on the current generation of Japanese Americans.

[KamaAina]

3. Loads fine here.

The point is that such embargoes really aren't supposed to happen in the Land of the Free.

[Android3.14]

5. Still no response for me

I wonder what the deal is.

Regarding the embargo, there were many others who took photos, so the government suppressing images of the photographer they hired is notable, but hardly seems to be suppression of free speech across the Land of the Free.

The suppression of the images was definitely significant, especially when the embargo ended 40 years ago. But that specific issue just seems a little dated today.

[Brother Buzz]

4. Photograph of Lange herself, photographing the internment in SF

[haikugal]

6. Such a sad episode in our history. I'm so sorry that was done.

[leftyladyfrommo]

7. They are all dressed up. So sad. nt

[ReRe]

10. Yes...

... they were such dignified people. And our government hid the truth, not just from our foes, but from us, the citizens of the USA.

[Victor_c3]

8. i am glad that at least we acknowledge it

We can learn from our past disgraceful moments if we admit that they actually happened. Not everything we do as Americans is automatically great.

[fierywoman]

9. german internment

Americans seem to be unaware that as Japanese nationals were being interned in the US during WW II, so were German nationals -- my grandmother, aunt and uncle among them, and a cousin (son of the aunt and uncle) was born in an internment camp in Texas.

[gladium et scutum]

11. German and Italian Nationals

and German and Italian American citizens were interned. In the cases of these groups of people. They were suspected as having some connections with politically suspect organizations such as the American Nazi party, the German American Bund, or the Fascist political groups. They were not interned solely based on their nationality or ethnicity as the Japanese were.

[CanSocDem]

12. k & r (eom)