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Category: Asian American History

Smiling woman dressed in outdoor winter clothes holds a large, old-style camera

Adding Context: Photographs of Japanese Americans Imprisoned During World War II

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

The following is a guest post by Mitsuko Brooks, an Archives, History and Heritage Advanced (AHHA) intern at the Library of Congress. Brooks is in her final semester as a student at Queens College (CUNY) working towards a Master of Library Science degree with a certificate in Archives and Preservation of Cultural Materials. This fall …

Smiling woman dressed in outdoor winter clothes holds a large, old-style camera

Speaking through Images: Asian American Photographers and Printmakers at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Kristi Finefield

The following is a guest post by Adam Silvia, Curator of Photography, and Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints in the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division. In honor of this year’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (May 1-31) the Prints & Photographs Division would like to share with you a selection …

San Francisco, Calif., Apr. 1942 - residents of Japanese ancestry registering for evacuation and housing, later, in War Relocation Authority centers for duration of the war. Photo of Shizuko Ina and others by Dorothea Lange, 1942.

“Her Name is Shizuko”—A Mother’s Influence

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

The following is a guest post by Karen “Kara” Chittenden, Senior Cataloging Specialist, Prints and Photographs Division. On April 25, 1942, a U.S. War Relocation Authority photographer documented a young Japanese American woman who was waiting in line for an appointment to receive a family registration number before being removed to the Tanforan Assembly Center …

Smiling woman dressed in outdoor winter clothes holds a large, old-style camera

Day of Remembrance: Photographs of Japanese American Internment During World War II

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The following is a guest post by Karen Chittenden, Cataloger, Prints and Photographs Division. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which led to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The Executive Order applied to all people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom were American citizens, forcing nearly …