In a world grappling with the complexities of civil liberties and government overreach, Elizabeth Partridge and Lauren Tamaki’s award-winning book, “Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams’s Photographs Reveal About the Japanese American Incarceration” (Chronicle Books, 2022), offers a timely and unsettling mirror to history. As a defense journalist, the echoes between the 1940s and today are stark, demanding our critical attention.

Following Imperial Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the mass incarceration of Japanese immigrants and Japanese American citizens, including children. The government’s Western Defense Command and Fourth Army Wartime Civil Control Administration systematically stripped families of their homes, property, and even their names, reducing them to mere numbers. Partridge vividly details how these individuals, many of them U.S. citizens, were treated as prisoners of war, forced into rudimentary camps like Manzanar in eastern California, often sleeping in foul-smelling horse stables.

The Power of the Lens: Three Photographers Bearing Witness

The book’s core strength lies in its exploration of three pivotal photographers whose work, augmented by Lauren Tamaki’s distinctive art, documented this profound injustice. Elizabeth Partridge, goddaughter of Dorothea Lange, brings an intimate perspective to the narrative. Her father, a WWII Navy veteran turned photographer, later assisted Lange, providing a unique lineage to this project.

Dorothea Lange: Unveiling the Truth Amidst Propaganda

Dorothea Lange, famous for her Great Depression-era work, was hired by the U.S. government to document the ‘internment.’ However, Lange sought to show the resilience and harsh reality of those imprisoned, leading to many of her photographs being impounded for depicting ‘captivity in a negative light.’ She was explicitly forbidden from capturing barbed wire, machine guns, or crowded conditions. Partridge quotes Lange: “This is what we did. How did it happen? How could we?” Her powerful image of farmer Torazo Sakawye with his grandson Walter, taken just ten months before Torazo’s death in the camp, stands as a testament to the human cost.

Toyo Miyatake: Capturing Life from Within Manzanar

Toyo Miyatake, a professional photographer incarcerated at Manzanar throughout the war, ingeniously used a disguised box camera to surreptitiously document life inside the camp. Eventually permitted to take photos, albeit with Caucasian helpers often required to press the shutter, Miyatake’s work offers an invaluable insider’s perspective on the daily struggles and spirit of the captives.

Ansel Adams: Seeking Empathy in the Desert Landscape

Ansel Adams, drawn to the stark beauty of the Manzanar surroundings, focused on portraying the “hardworking, cheerful, and resilient people.” While his photographs often depicted smiling faces, intending to convince Americans of their patriotism, as Manzanar prisoner Taira Fukushima noted, “Everything in a picture is not necessarily true.” Adams captured some of the departures in 1945, when prisoners were given a change ticket and a mere $25, a pittance compared to what they had lost. Decades later, the Civil Liberties Act awarded survivors $20,000 in reparations, a belated acknowledgment of a profound injustice.

Legal Battlegrounds: Korematsu and Enduring Precedent

The book delves into critical legal challenges, notably Korematsu v United States. In 1944, the Supreme Court sided with the government, a ruling overturned by a federal court a generation later when new evidence revealed military deception. Though the Supreme Court in 2018 denounced Korematsu as “gravely wrong,” its dicta means the ruling technically still stands, serving as a painful reminder of racial prejudice and the fragility of civil rights.

Unsettling Parallels: ‘Seen and Unseen’ in Our Time

“Seen and Unseen” chillingly highlights the enduring relevance of this historical chapter. The “ties to 1942” are undeniable:

• Migrants and immigrant families are still targeted by race.
• U.S. citizens continue to face unwarranted arrests and detention.
• Government officials employ propaganda to distort truth and justify mass operations.
• Demands to “show your papers” persist, infringing on privacy and freedom.
• Law enforcement uses chemical agents against protestors, often violating First Amendment rights.
• Fear remains a weapon of control.
• Families are separated, and information about loved ones withheld.
• Historical sites like Fort Sill, once used for Native American and Japanese American incarceration, now detain immigrants from Central America. Similarly, Fort Bliss and Terminal Center, former concentration camps, now hold Hispanic immigrants.
• White supremacists and Christian nationalists continue to back ‘law and order’ despite clear violations of the Constitution and civil liberties.
• Lack of accountability for illegal orders and actions persists for decades, leaving victims without justice.
• Officials cover up facts and obstruct investigations, perpetuating cycles of injustice.

As Joyce Yuki Nakamura Okazaki poignantly asks, “My question is always, why was I, a child, put into a concentration camp? I was a citizen. That’s against the Constitution.”

A Call to Action: Documenting Injustice Today

The book’s commentary, “Keeping Our Democracy Strong,” emphasizes that democracy depends on all of us. Unlike the cumbersome cameras of the 1940s, today’s cell phones empower every individual with a tool for social justice. We can capture injustice, share it instantly, and prevent images from being “impounded” and hidden. This book, a critical addition to any reading list, including Navy Reads after Rachel Maddow’s “Burn Order,” reinforces a vital lesson: each person has the opportunity, and indeed the responsibility, to make a difference. Learning from the past is our strongest defense against repeating its gravest mistakes.