Photojournalist Paul Kitagaki Jr.’s family was among those who were incarcerated, with some 120,000 other Japanese Americans. They were forcibly removed from their homes at the beginning of World War II and transported to desolate detention centers in California, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Arkansas after Executive Order 9066 took effect. Many were gone for years.
Kitagaki's parents and grandparents were among those taken away, but they never talked about the experience. Kitagaki wanted to understand what happened to his family members. To do that, he sought out the people in some 60 photographs he had found, taken by Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams and other photographers. His book, "Behind Barbed Wire," documents Kitagaki’s 13 year journey around the United States, looking for survivors and their families and taking their pictures.
Learn more about Kitagaki's project via KCET.
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