Photo Essay: Manzanar From the Inside
Interned Photographer Jack Iwata's Experience at Manzanar Relocation Center
In addition to being one of the 11,070 Japanese-Americans incarcerated at Manzanar Relocation Center, acclaimed photographer Jack Iwata worked for better-known Toyo Miyatake before going on to photograph the likes of Elvis Presley, Bette Davis, and Elizabeth Taylor for Kyodo News Service.
Born in Seattle but raised in Japan, Iwata was gifted his first camera from his father and by 1937 began working in Miyatake’s studio. However, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Iwata, like thousands of other Japanese-Americans, was forcibly removed with his wife to Manzanar Relocation Center.
While at the center Iwata continued to take photos, chronicling his time spent at both Manzanar and Tule Lake. With the assistance of the Japanese American National Museum’s Jack Iwata Collection, we have compiled a series of Iwata’s photographs from his time at the relocation center.
photo by: Japanese American National Museum
Families arrive to Manzanar with luggage and children in tow.
photo by: Japanese American National Museum
A woman with an umbrella stands with people and luggage.
photo by: Japanese American National Museum
U.S. Army military police survey a caravan of cars arriving at Manzanar.
photo by: Japanese American National Museum
A group stands outside barracks at Manzanar Relocation Center.
photo by: Japanese American National Museum
Women sit in a field of flowers with Manzanar barracks in the background.
photo by: Japanese American National Museum
A group of men gather to assess accounting ledgers.
photo by: Japanese American National Museum
Young men play basketball.
photo by: Japanese American National Museum
Women in the Fiscal Department look over a paycheck and large sheet of paper.
photo by: Japanese American National Museum
Manzanar High School graduation ceremony.
photo by: Japanese American National Museum
A man speaks into a microphone with an orchestra seated behind him.
photo by: Japanese American National Museum
A large group of women look on as group of boys play drums at Manzanar.
photo by: Japanese American National Museum
A group of musicians play their instruments.
photo by: Japanese American National Museum
Men work to construct a barrack building at Manzanar Relocation Center.
photo by: Japanese American National Museum
Women work the field.
Photo Essay: Manzanar Relocation Center through Dorothea Lange's Lens
Best known for her iconic Depression-era image "Migrant Mother," photographer Dorothea Lange—on assignment for the War Relocation Authority—spent months chronicling the forced removal and internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
Photo Essay: Ansel Adams at the Manzanar War Relocation Center
In 1943, at the invitation of his friend, camp director Ralph Merritt, Ansel Adams came to Manzanar War Relocation Center to document the camp and the people interned there.
