Museum Recalls Japanese-American Detention

L O S  A N G E L E S, Jan. 17 -- Archie Miyatake found out from his father that photography is more than just taking pictures — a lesson he learned 60 years ago when they were imprisoned by America during World War II.

"He said that as a photographer, he has a responsibility to record the camp life," Miyatake said.

The camp was the Manzanar War Relocation Center, east of California's Sierra Nevada range.

"It was a concentration camp," said Sue Kunitomi Embrey, a former detainee there.

"When you put someone before a camera, they're going to try to smile or at least look happy," she said. "They don't want you taking a picture of them crying."

‘It Just Didn’t Add Up’

At first, Miyatake wasn't even allowed to have a camera. He had to smuggle it in to chronicle the history of 10,000 people forced to live in a one-square mile camp.

Now, the National Parks Service is gathering what it can, reassembling various buildings, and recreating the camp, as a reminder of America at its less than best. The camp auditorium is undergoing a $5 million conversion into a visitor's center, and is scheduled to open later this year.

There will be old pictures on display. Some of them taken by famous, government-approved photographers like Ansel Adams. They show how normal life was — except, of course, it wasn't.

"They taught us the Constitution," Miyatake said. "But I thought, 'Gee.' We were thinking, 'It just doesn't add up — what they're teaching and what they're doing.'"

There is no single truth about life in the camp. There are many. For example, the day-to-day routine was not always intolerable.

"I think the older people tried to make things better for the younger ones, [to] keep them busy, [to] teach them how to dance," Embrey said.