Jun Fujita

gr82bart · Sep 24, 2017

Two interesting articles with pics from this relatively unknown Japanese American photographer

http://www.chicagotribune.com/enter...ographer-sidewalks-kogan-20170202-column.html

http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2017/02/01/remembering-forgotten-photographer-chicago-history

Regards, Art

pentaxuser · Sep 24, 2017

Interesting. There appears to be a contradiction between the video and the article in terms of his U.S. citiizenship. The article claim that decades before 1940 he had been granted U.S. citizenship but the video claims that his assets were frozen as an alien after war broke out between the U.S. and Japan.

What are the facts here? Thanks

pentaxuser

David A. Goldfarb · Sep 24, 2017

pentaxuser said:
Interesting. There appears to be a contradiction between the video and the article in terms of his U.S. citiizenship. The article claim that decades before 1940 he had been granted U.S. citizenship but the video claims that his assets were frozen as an alien after war broke out between the U.S. and Japan.

What are the facts here? Thanks

pentaxuser

Unfortunately, it's not a contradition. Japanese-Americans with citizenship were sent to internment camps and had their assets frozen during the war.

pentaxuser · Sep 24, 2017

David A. Goldfarb said:
Unfortunately, it's not a contradition. Japanese-Americans with citizenship were sent to internment camps and had their assets frozen during the war.

Thanks for that. Does that mean that Japanese parents were interned but their offspring born in the U.S. and thus, presumably, U.S. citizens could enlist or were drafted into the armed forces? Was the status of the latter any different from say a Japanese- American born in the U. S. but in this case was born of a Japanese father and U.S. mother? Finally was the situation any different for a Japanese-American born in the U.S. but this time had a U.S. father and Japanese mother?

Thanks

pentaxuser

David A. Goldfarb · Sep 24, 2017

Here's an introduction to the subject--

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/japanese-american-relocation

CMoore · Sep 26, 2017

Wow....."Famous" or not, this guy shot A LOT of great frames.
Very inspiring.
Thanks for posting him. We do not have a "Thumbs-Up" icon.....so i will just give you one of these in its place.

Richard Man · Sep 26, 2017

pentaxuser said:
Thanks for that. Does that mean that Japanese parents were interned but their offspring born in the U.S. and thus, presumably, U.S. citizens could enlist or were drafted into the armed forces? Was the status of the latter any different from say a Japanese- American born in the U. S. but in this case was born of a Japanese father and U.S. mother? Finally was the situation any different for a Japanese-American born in the U.S. but this time had a U.S. father and Japanese mother?

Thanks

pentaxuser

Not sure about interracial kids, but all Japanese-American, even the ones born here, were affected by the order. Some of the Japanese-American did indeed enlist to prove their loyalty.

George Takei's short run Broadway show Allegiance is a fictional account based on real history on the subject.

Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange and Hikaru Iwasaki all had done excellent photo works. I particularly like this one a lot, from Mr. Iwasaki. This is one of the trains that took 450 Americans back from Arkansas to California after they spent three years in the Internment camp.

CMoore · Sep 27, 2017

I wonder what most of them, went back to.?.......

Richard Man · Sep 27, 2017

CMoore said:
I wonder what most of them, went back to.?.......

Are you referring to the Japanese Americans? Most/all of them had to re-make their lives as they were forced to sell their belongings and shops that they owned. I know a number of children of parents who went to the "Internment" camps and the universal story is that the parents would not talk about the experience as they feel such shame.

p.s. thanks for the original link to Jun Fujita's work. I was aware of this photographer (and poet!) before. Sad that Mr. Fujita and Florence Car didn't get married until late in life due to discrimination law. As progressive as California is, 60 years ago when the house was built, I could not have bought the house I am in now, just because I am Chinese-American. Probably would not be able to marry my wife at that time either as she is Caucasian.

CMoore · Sep 27, 2017

Richard Man said:
Are you referring to the Japanese Americans? .

Pardon me for asking, but.....are we talking about anybody else.?

Richard Man · Sep 27, 2017

CMoore said:
Pardon me for asking, but.....are we talking about anybody else.?

Just don't want to make mistakes ;-)

pbromaghin · Sep 27, 2017

My wife's entire family on her mother's side was interned at Minidoka in Idaho. Her father and his 2 brothers along with his brother's wives loaded everything they could into 2 Model A's and drove from Oakland, CA to Minnesota where another brother was living. They were able to eke out a living there, relatively unbothered.

Her uncle was 15-17 while in camp, too young for military service. With all the 18-20 year old men in the service, he never got so many dates in his life. He always thought that having barbed wire and armed guards was a bit stupid. The way he put it to me, "So you get through fence without getting shot, and walk across 50 miles of sage brush to the nearest town. Then guess what, you're still a Jap."

Just as you hear from so many others, her family never talked about it much. I remember when my wife first became aware of what "going to camp' really meant. She is still deeply affected by the enormity of it, every day.

Here, for me, is the saddest photo of the evacuation. Photographer unknown.

Andrew O'Neill · Sep 27, 2017

The same crap happened up here in Canada. I know many, many who were affected by it.

pentaxuser · Sep 27, 2017

I may have misunderstood what your law said but it would seem that even children of Japanese citizens were subject to internment and yet could enlist? There is a contradiction here surely. If you are subject to internment, presumably it was because you were, in time of war, considered to be at best a potential danger to the state in which you live or were born in. If that was the judgement being applied, how could you enlist? If you were a danger as a a civilian how could you not be a danger or even greater danger as an enlisted person?

pentaxuser

Richard Man · Sep 27, 2017

pentaxuser said:
I may have misunderstood what your law said but it would seem that even children of Japanese citizens were subject to internment and yet could enlist? There is a contradiction here surely. If you are subject to internment, presumably it was because you were, in time of war, considered to be at best a potential danger to the state in which you live or were born in. If that was the judgement being applied, how could you enlist? If you were a danger as a a civilian how could you not be a danger or even greater danger as an enlisted person?
pentaxuser

The Executive Order makes no sense and is probably unconstitutional, but during the time of war...

pentaxuser · Sep 27, 2017

Richard Man said:
The Executive Order makes no sense and is probably unconstitutional, but during the time of war...

Thank you for that. So it would seem that the children of enlistment age could either opt for internment or enlistment. If they opted for enlistment were there any checks/tests applied to judge whether they were of "good intent" towards the U.S. which, if they failed, presumably meant that internment was the fallback decision?

pentaxuser

pbromaghin · Sep 27, 2017

Pentaxuser, At the time, the FBI was America's sole counter-intelligence agency. Believing there was a high probability of war with Japan, in the 1930's they infiltrated and spied on the west coast Japanese. Even before Pearl Harbor they had good intelligence on nearly every Japanese person "suspected of disloyalty" and could have swept them up at a moment's notice. The order to do this never came. Obviously, they could not make this information public. Meanwhile, hysteria built, the executive order was issued, and those who could not leave the west coast in the time allotted were sent to the camps. Those on the FBI list mostly ended up at Tule Lake. This camp later also became a sort of dumping ground for those that made trouble in the other camps. Other than this group, the government knew damn well that the rest of the people were no danger to anybody.

In 1944 my mother-in-law (a natural born citizen) was allowed to leave camp and finish college in St Paul, MN. The rest of her family was later allowed to follow her. Her younger brother (who got all the dates) was drafted just after the war's end but was sent home within a few weeks.

pentaxuser · Sep 27, 2017

A sad period, pbromaghin and yes I agree with your sentiments about the photo of the little girl. I have a grand-daughter of the same age and this shot really got to me.

pentaxuser

CMoore · Sep 27, 2017

It was a complex and horrible situation.
The Pearl Harbor Attack was an immediate victory for Japan, but it was ultimately their undoing as well.
In war, in ALL countries, there are ALL KINDS of crazy Theories/Weapons/Tactics that are dreamed up.
The usa had been reading the Japanese Diplomatic codes, and soon after most of the Japan Navy/Military codes as well.
There WAS a plan(s), on paper, to enlist the help of Japanese Americans with different schemes of Invasion/Sabotage on the usa west coast.
This was One Reason for the round-up of The Japanese. Japan had just pulled off a rather brilliant attack at Pearl Harbor...can you imagine what people like Hoover would do with info that "Proved" The Japs were planning to attack the West Coast with the aid of Japanese Americans.?
I think the much bigger crime, than the Japanese being imprisoned, was the way their Property/Business/Homes were often part of a money grab by White America. These people were Stoic/Staunch supporters of The USA...they served with distinction during WWII, were model prisoners, hardly raised a stink about the way they were treated, and we rewarded them by stealing their livelihood from them.
The usa spends WAY Too Much time on The Sins of other Countries/People, and almost NONE on our own.

darkprints · Sep 29, 2017

Richard Man said:
Not sure about interracial kids, but all Japanese-American, even the ones born here, were affected by the order.

Anyone with 1/16 Japanese blood was eligible for incarceration. Kids in orphanages and old people in hospital beds were also imprisoned.

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