Museum gotta see ‘um

Ansel Adams’ 1943 photograph of a dressmaking class at the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California is among his images on view at the San Francisco Airport Museum through Dec. 30.

ANSEL ADAMS: PHOTOGRAPHS FROM MANZANAR WAR RELOCATION CENTER, AT THE SAN FRANCISCO AIRPORT MUSEUM. Fear of espionage, coupled with escalating racial prejudice after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to sign Executive Order 9066 in 1942, forcing more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans to leave their homes in California, Arizona, Washington and Oregon. Japanese-Americans had only days to decide what to do with their properties and belongings before boarding military-guarded vehicles. Internees took with them only what they could carry to the makeshift centers. Internees were sent to 10 remote relocation camps, including the Manzanar War Relocation Center in Inyo County, California, on the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

At Manzanar, internees faced a severe desert climate where temperatures reached up to 110 ºF in the summer and often fell below freezing in the winter. Within the barbed-wire enclosed site, Japanese-Americans lived in cramped barracks with little privacy. Even under such dire circumstances, the internees persevered. They published a newspaper and established churches, temples and recreational clubs. Internees at Manzanar worked a variety of jobs, from tending crops and raising livestock to serving as doctors, nurses and teachers. Many of the internees lived at Manzanar for over three years. At its most crowded, in September of 1942, over 10,000 Japanese-Americans lived at the camp.

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