Japanese Internment Camp Captured In Stunning Kodachrome Photographs

During World War II, the United States incarcerated thousands of Japanese Americans -- some for up to 4 years -- in remote camps without due process. Two-thirds of the 120,000 people who were sent to the camps were American citizens.

Months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Bill Manbo of Riverside, CA, was sent to a camp in Wyoming with his family. Manbo, an amateur photographer, documented his time there in stunning Kodachrome pictures recently published in Colors of Confinement.

Manbo's photos capture daily life in the camp, including shots of his family, a Boy Scout parade, and prisoners queuing up to see a movie. Check out the pictures from Colors of Confinement below.

From COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II edited by Eric L. Muller. Copyright © 2012 by the University of North Carolina Press. Photographs by Bill Manbo copyright © 2012 by Takao Bill Manbo. Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu

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• COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II

  In a family portrait, Junzo Itaya's tie flips in the Wyoming wind. From left to right: Junzo Itaya, Riyo Itaya, Sammy Itaya, Mary Manbo, and Eunice Itaya. From COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II edited by Eric L. Muller. Copyright © 2012 by the University of North Carolina Press. Photographs by Bill Manbo copyright © 2012 by Takao Bill Manbo. Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu

• COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II

  Bill Manbo poses with the camera he used to take the photographs in this book. From COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II edited by Eric L. Muller. Copyright © 2012 by the University of North Carolina Press. Photographs by Bill Manbo copyright © 2012 by Takao Bill Manbo. Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu

• COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II

  Billy Manbo with his maternal grandparents, Junzo (left) and Riyo Itaya. From COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II edited by Eric L. Muller. Copyright © 2012 by the University of North Carolina Press. Photographs by Bill Manbo copyright © 2012 by Takao Bill Manbo. Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu

• COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II

  At midday on September 21, 1943, a crowd of about 4,000 gathers at the high school to send off 434 prisoners departing for the Tule Lake Segregation Center in California after the government deemed them "disloyal." From COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II edited by Eric L. Muller. Copyright © 2012 by the University of North Carolina Press. Photographs by Bill Manbo copyright © 2012 by Takao Bill Manbo. Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu

• COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II

  Two Boy Scouts guard the equipment of the Boy Scout drum and bugle corps. From COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II edited by Eric L. Muller. Copyright © 2012 by the University of North Carolina Press. Photographs by Bill Manbo copyright © 2012 by Takao Bill Manbo. Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu

• COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II

  The line for a matinee at one of the camp's two movie theaters. The blue sign to the right of the door announces the film How Green Was My Valley. From COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II edited by Eric L. Muller. Copyright © 2012 by the University of North Carolina Press. Photographs by Bill Manbo copyright © 2012 by Takao Bill Manbo. Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu

• COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II

  Billy Manbo walks westward along an avenue in the camp lined with piles of coal for the stoves in the barracks. From COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II edited by Eric L. Muller. Copyright © 2012 by the University of North Carolina Press. Photographs by Bill Manbo copyright © 2012 by Takao Bill Manbo. Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu

• COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II

  A group of children line up for a photo in front of a barrack wall. Billy Manbo is on the far right. From COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II edited by Eric L. Muller. Copyright © 2012 by the University of North Carolina Press. Photographs by Bill Manbo copyright © 2012 by Takao Bill Manbo. Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu

• COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II

  A Boy Scout, and behind him a drum majorette, at the head of a parade. From COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II edited by Eric L. Muller. Copyright © 2012 by the University of North Carolina Press. Photographs by Bill Manbo copyright © 2012 by Takao Bill Manbo. Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu

• COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II

  Young women chat at Bon Odori, a dance ritual performed during Obon, a summertime Buddhist festival commemorating one's ancestors. Bon Odori was held at Heart Mountain in July 1943 and July 1944; it is not known which of these two celebrations is pictured. From COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II edited by Eric L. Muller. Copyright © 2012 by the University of North Carolina Press. Photographs by Bill Manbo copyright © 2012 by Takao Bill Manbo. Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu

• COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II

  A light moment during a sumo match. From COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II edited by Eric L. Muller. Copyright © 2012 by the University of North Carolina Press. Photographs by Bill Manbo copyright © 2012 by Takao Bill Manbo. Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu

• COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II

  Billy Manbo clutches a barbed-wire fence. From COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II edited by Eric L. Muller. Copyright © 2012 by the University of North Carolina Press. Photographs by Bill Manbo copyright © 2012 by Takao Bill Manbo. Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu

• COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II

  At dawn, a light burns in a single barrack room's window From COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II edited by Eric L. Muller. Copyright © 2012 by the University of North Carolina Press. Photographs by Bill Manbo copyright © 2012 by Takao Bill Manbo. Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu

• COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II

  Billy Manbo, in pilot attire, plays with a model airplane Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2189057/Bill-Manbo-Colors-Confinement-Rare-Kodachrome-photographs-bleakness-beauty-life-Japanese-American-prison-camps-World-War-II.html#ixzz23pHEPc66 From COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II edited by Eric L. Muller. Copyright © 2012 by the University of North Carolina Press. Photographs by Bill Manbo copyright © 2012 by Takao Bill Manbo. Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu

Comments

[alarmcall]

01:34 PM on 11/20/2012

This time in our history is heartbreaking and yet very few people know that it happened and therefore aren't aware of the parallels one can draw to our fear/treatment of Arabic people.

[Geral Sosbee]

12:20 PM on 09/08/2012

A new, invisible internment camp courtesy of fbi/cia/nsa in the body and brain of the target/suspect himself:
See *my decades long reports on how the fbi/cia torture and kill dissidents globally with complete anonymity; today India and Thailand are actively using these techniques at the direction of fbi/cia/mi6/mossad.


fbi/cia methods to torture/kill w/complete anonymity


The fbi/cia now instruct intel groups of India & Thailand how to kill or incapacitate Targets with complete anonymity.

Here are a few such ways which many in India and Thailand (et al) are now discovering:

Synthetically Produced Kidney Stone Created By Chemical Combination In the Person Of The Target:


http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part16-updatefor.html


http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/end.2007.9854



http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/hightechassau.html


http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/tooth14.html


http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/tracking.html#finger


http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/mystory.html


http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/non-consensual.html


http://sosbeevfbi.ning.com/forum/topics/fbicia-methods-to-torture-and


Torture and forced suicide:

http://www.boell.org/downloads/Lingis_on_torture.pdf


"kill yourself" message:

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/hatemailpartsix.html


Viral Infection:

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/letterformthemed.html
*
http://barbarahartwellvscia.blogspot.com/2012/03/must-prosecute-fbicia-assassins-for.html

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part4-worldinabo.html

Italian seeks to discredit this reporter:

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/hatemail.html

Paolo Guzzanti

[JoeBoy254]

06:54 AM on 08/23/2012

People in the US better take note. You could see this again in your lifetime. Elect more right wing Republicans and you will see Muslims in the camps next.

[Hzero01]

02:43 AM on 08/23/2012

Damn. That looks more like a summer camp. Come on USA if you want to know how to really run a concentration camp look at the victims of the Nazi's , Israel are the experts of occupying and suppressing people who are different and who they dont like.

[Katherine Sayre]

02:21 AM on 08/23/2012

And this is different from nazi concentration camps ?

[Philbert De Zwart]

03:37 AM on 08/28/2012

It most definitely is.
In Nazi concentration camps, for starters the people unfit for hard physical labour were murdered at arrival.
The survivors were put under a brutish regime of hard labour, malnourishment and extremely cold conditions. Every week all workers were lined up and the ones that had weakened most were sent to the gas chambers.

Sure, these American camps were a bad thing, but they are utterly incomparable to the Nazi concentration camps.

[FredrikAndersson]

07:07 PM on 08/22/2012

As concentration camps go, this one looks great.

[jheatonjohn]

04:45 PM on 08/22/2012

One of the best decisions ever made by a liberal president.

[splenetic]

03:00 PM on 08/22/2012

The kind of people that I'd want for neighbors. They seem to hold up in an isolated drab surrounding better than I ever could. Years of that would break me. America is lucky to have these people and their descendants.

[TimFromLA]

02:19 PM on 08/22/2012

m1Jones, I advise you to do the same. How so? Pearl Harbor was an inside job. What Japan did to most of Asia is abhorrent. Japan were war criminals and deserved to be tried. But tell me, what Japan did any different what we did to Hawai'i? You see, Hawai'i was not part of the U.S. until 1954. Prior to 1941, back in 1893, during the Spanish American War, Americans overthrow Hawaiian monarchy: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/americans-overthrow-hawaiian-monarchy. The same way Japan overthrew most of Asia. But why did Japan attack an occupied nation? Because the U.S. was choking off the Straits of Malacca. The Straits where Japan was getting fuel for their war efforts...exactly what we're doing in the Straits of Hormuz.

Well Japan had no choice but to attack the occupiers and sue for peace: (http://tinyurl.com/8n362uy) Did you really think that Japan would want to go to war with the U.S.? And anyway, what do Nisei's and Sansei's (Second and third generation) have anything to do with Japan? Absolutely nothing. So why did Roosevelt sign Executive Order 9066? Racism. But was this an aberration on part of the U.S.?

[Gilmoure]

01:15 PM on 08/22/2012

Damn it! What part of Freedom do people not understand?!!!!

[m1jones]

01:06 PM on 08/22/2012

In retrospect, Japanese internment camps in America were unjust. But what about context? Americam, protected by oceans, was shocked by the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbon and the loss of 3,000 lives. Overnight we had to build an army, navy, and take action on two fronts - Europe and the Pacific Ocean. The Japanese were famous conquerers. They murdered and raped millions in Nanking, China - as large as the US! Communication systems, spying, and world views were primitive. The swift Japnese internments made sense at the time.

1940's America believed people owed allegiance to their own race - reflection in many laws at the time.Our former slave states separated African Americans and whites. America feared the unknown - it lacked intelligence - the FBI was nascent, - the CIA rose to power later during the cold war. Washington played it safe to protect California's mostly defenseless 2,000 mile long coast. We don't in fact know what we may have prevented.

These photos show so much joy and triumph. Under deplorable conditions, the resilient Japanese recreated homes, communities, and schools.. They celebrated Japanese and American holidays. They grew crops. The swallowed bitterness and gave their children love and education. Young Japanese from the camps joined our military.

Compare the American internment camps with Japanese in Asia - living hells, with starvation, torture, rape, death. Ditto German, Russian.

America must pay for taking Japanese American property. But even at America's worst, it respected self-determination, life, and the human spirit.

[Hakulanni]

01:54 PM on 08/22/2012

Your analysis is full of holes. Spoken like a true apologist and a delusional Ideologue, you so remind me of Michelle Malkin. You want to keep the rationalization on defensive terms, asking us to swallow the reasoning because of this and that... I love your patronizing sentence at the end, where you own your spoken mixture of disgust and awe, which serves to always justify the ends, no matter the means. Have you asked how a Japanese-American person from that Era still feels about the incarceration? And while you're at it, go then to an African American and a Native American. Tell them of your neatly packed rationalization for their past, present and future and let's see what they'll say. Be ready to get an earful...

[splenetic]

02:54 PM on 08/22/2012

America's isolation and prosperity made it easier to respect self-determination, life, and the human spirit. It's reaction to "just" 9/11 (the Patriot Act, Homeland Security, two wars, Guantanamo, etc.) makes one wonder what could have happened to those interned Japanese-AMERICANS, had the Japanese actually landed an invasion force on the Pacific coast.

[m1jones]

10:35 PM on 08/22/2012

I think we were a more optimistic, can-do people in 1941. Today, we have vast bureaucracies but an inability to solve complex problems quickly. Our party system has become counter productive, and our population is much more divided economically. We have an enormous concentration of wealth among the richest people, and a stagnant lower and middle class. We cannot deal with social or economic inequalities. We couldn't even provide temporary housing for the people in New Orleans who managed to survive Hurricane Katrina and the flood afterward. Our response to that emergency showed just how badly we respond to emergencies.

We built thousands of earthquake shacks following the 1905 earthquake in San Francisco in a year. Today, we can't get permits and financing to build such emergency housing in the city. In many ways our environment is much more devastated, we have more people to contend with, and fewer skilled people able to "just do it."

[Dancenownzen]

12:05 PM on 08/22/2012

If we ae not careful .....the GOP will be putting gays and Muslims and Hispanics in camps ....and women who want to have birth control, an abortion, to drive or to vote

[m1jones]

01:09 PM on 08/22/2012

You are wrong. Republicans don't believe in government services. So they will simply allow other gun-toting Tea Party enforcers to shoot gays, Muslims, and Hispanics. As for the women...they have other means - check their views on forcible rape.

[Dancenownzen]

01:26 PM on 08/22/2012

Forgive me ..... You re correct ..... They will privatize the camps .....just like they want to do with prisons

[concerned1985]

04:50 PM on 08/22/2012

Perhaps the most idiotic thing ever posted here....

[Dancenownzen]

06:14 PM on 08/22/2012

That is what the Jews said about Adolph ......before they knew better

[TimFromLA]

12:02 PM on 08/22/2012

Funny how progressives and liberals give praises to Roosevelt and then Truman for the New Deal and programs of that nature. My father was the unlucky one, he was not in camp. Why was he unlucky? Let Mike Malloy tell you:

01) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1PTza56bSU
02) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JDUD9zK0Dg&feature=relmfu

Yeah, so, this is the my family's New Deal. Also, even the segregated Japanese American military group, the war heroes, the most decorated in WWII with all the honor and glory? Well guess where many ended up after the concentration camps closed:

Both Fond, Bitter Memories : Post-War Trailer Park Refugees Plan Reunion
June 05, 1986|MARC IGLER | Times Staff Writer
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-06-05/news/we-9773_1_trailer-camps

This is the after-effects of racism my party, the Democratic Party tend to hide. Thank you Huffington Post.

[Donkan]

11:17 AM on 08/22/2012

Great photos of a tragic period in American history. For anyone who wants a better understanding of what it was like for these Japanese-Americans, I highly recommend the miniseries "99 Years of Love" ("99 Nen no Ai" in Japanese).

[mothernatureseven]

11:08 AM on 08/22/2012

a horrible time and actions by the American people and government.

[m1jones]

01:24 PM on 08/22/2012

I think it's much more complex than that. Look at the faces in the photos. It was wrong to imprison Japanese Americans but America was very different at the time, and Japanese had just conquered a large part of China and Korea.

We should pay damages and reparations for property seized without due process. But we were at World Wars in on many fronts in Asia, Africa, and the entire Pacific Rim! At a time when we didn't have much of an Army, Navy, or nuclear weapons.

Our camps supported the Japanese forming communities, schools, and homes. They had land to grow food. They had health care. I know many second and third generation Japanese-Americans who were children in the camps. They swallowed bitterness and grew up to be well-educated, property-owning, successful.loving family members.

We didn't know if the Japanese were going to attack Califorania's defenseless 2,000 mile coast. Our actions made sense at the time. We should pay fo damage or loss of property.

Even at their bleakness and isolation, the camps provided shelter and supported the Japanese communities, schools, and food gardens. American camps were humane in comparison with Russian, German, and Asian Japanese camps.

Look at the often smiling faces in the photographs. The Japanese-American photographer had a Kodak with excellent color film. What do you think Americans in Japanese internment camps in Asia experienced?

[mothernatureseven]

01:27 PM on 08/22/2012

too longi  

[gladlylearn]

02:28 PM on 08/22/2012

Read "Three Came Home" by Agnes Newton Keith. It recounts the experience of civilian prisoners of the Japanese during WW II. Nothing in it excuses the internment of American citizens of Japanese descent, but it does put the treatment they received while in custody into context.