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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThese images of Japanese American incarceration were embargoed for almost 30 years
http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-04-29/these-images-japanese-american-internment-were-embargoed-almost-30-yearsOur 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
(21,162 posts)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
(5,402 posts)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
(78,249 posts)The point is that such embargoes really aren't supposed to happen in the Land of the Free.
Android3.14
(5,402 posts)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
(36,444 posts)haikugal
(6,476 posts)leftyladyfrommo
(18,868 posts)ReRe
(10,597 posts)... 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
(3,557 posts)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
(7,686 posts)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
(808 posts)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.