issei

Japanese in California. Looks like it must have been 1913

please note, "Jap" is considered a derogatory, ethnic term for japanese.

4/21/13 is the date written. At this time, the California legislature was considering a large number of anti-Japanese measures. According to books.google.com/books?id=QZg6Ft_jvJ0C&pg=RA1-PA257&a... [Japanese American History By Brian Niiya] "word of the bill [that became the California Alien Land Law) reached Japan and segments of the population there called for War with the United States. On April 22, President [Woodrow] Wilson sent telegrams to Governor Johnson and the legislature calling for a non-discriminatory land bill that did not single out Japanese immigrants. Despite an eleventh hour trip to California by Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, the Alien Land Law was overwhelmingly passed by both halves of the legislature and signed by Johnson on May 17, 1913, to become effective on August 10."

Thanks for the comments. We'll make a note to adjust the title to match what appears on the negative and can take that opportunity to add the date, too. (The abbreviation in the title came from the caption card--the cards were the primary source for the data captured as the negatives were scanned.) Once our source data is adjusted, we'll reload it to Flickr.

Please reconsider retitling this photo to spell out Japanese. The abbreviation chosen is offensive to many and reverts to the dismissive terminology used during WWII and is out of place in this day and age. -- Found in a search. (?)

The camp is so large, the photographer can't get it all into the frame.

Wow it is huge. It looks like it could contain tens of thousands of people that happened to be the wrong race at the wrong time. What a shame.

Visited the site in 2007. I think this photo must have been taken from up on Castle Rock.

The invasion of the Western US was a very real threat at the time.. had we not relocated them and had the Japanese been able to land large numbers of sabotuer teams on the West coast the damage could have been immense.

I had no clue the internment camps were this massive, crazy shit

Thanks so much for sharing this photo. Our treatment of Japanese-Americans at this point in time was shameful. Those who don't remember history are condemned to repeat it.

I am really bothered by the the heading, "war emergency evacuation," as if Japanese Americans were rounded up and shipped off to the camps for their "own good." It shows that the U.S. government can say or do anything and justify it as a "war emergency."

They're preserving the titles of the photos as they were titled when they were taken. It's the Library of Congress historically documenting (and sharing with us) pieces of history. While that time period, and the subject matter is certainly sad and distasteful, I think it would be terrible if the LOC cleaned up the titles and other information to appeal to our modern sensibilities. It's much more important to get an accurate representation of history, imho. But I certainly understand where you're coming from- it was a terrible situation for the government to even conceive of internment camps, let alone put them into practice.

I agree with Jade. I appreciate the photo more because it has the original caption.

I agree with JadeEJF too. Doesn't change the fact that this is a shameful event in our history. -- Seen on your photo stream. (?)

Amazing that they were still smiling. :) -- Seen in your 1930s-40s in Color set. (?)

I am wondering/pondering the same thing. Why?

I love that they always kept their morale up even though they were being held in camps like prisoners. They managed to continue living as if they would outside of those camp walls.

Smiling politely at the camera, with a dignity all their own. What happened to the Japanese internees was really shameful.

If you see lots of internment photos and films, as I have, the incarcerees usually look happy. These were their family photos, not conscious documentation of the injustice they were living under. muI think the daily life they built in the camps, which was filled with a lot of pretty "normal" activities like employment and pastimes, didn't leave much time for sitting around and looking miserable over the hardships and fundamental betrayal dealt them by the U.S. government. Also, photography by incarcerees was officially banned in the camps though the restriction was eventually relaxed. This undoubtedly caused a lot of negative sights to be hidden from cameras. I've read that Dorothea Lange took a lot of photos that revealed the harsh realities of the internment camps, but I haven't found them online yet -- hopefully they'll be available soon.