Wednesday at the Skirball Cultural Center and Ansel Adams Photography

I enjoyed a return visit to the Skirball Cultural Center at the top of the Sepulveda Pass on Wednesday. The Jewish cultural center's mission  is "exploring the connections between 4000 years of Jewish heritage and the vitality of American democratic ideals."  "Manzanar:  The Wartime Photographs of Ansel Adams features fifty photographs that depict the treatment of Japanese Americans at the incarceration camp in Manzanar, California, during World War II."  Adams is best known for his black and white photos of Yosemite and the beautiful nature scenes in the West.  He was invited in 1943 to visit the Manzanar camp and to document the life of the Japanese-Americans who were forced to leave their homes on the West coast and to move to this high desert and the base of the Sierra Mountains.

Upon entering the exhibit, a movie made in the early 1940's attempts to justify the arrest and interment of the 120,000 Japanese-Americans and makes a positive spin on the "wonderful opportunity" that this experience provided.  Adams published a book of his photos entitled "Born Free and Equal," (1944), protesting the injustices brought upon these people.  Other photos by Dorothea Lang and Toyo Miyatake are also on view.

Photography was not allowed.  Here are photos on the Skirball web site:

The Japanese-Americans were given only a few days notice before they were rounded up and taken to temporary camps at Santa Anita Race Track and the Fair Grounds in Pomona.  They were allowed to bring one suit case and forced to leave everything else behind.   They set up schools and churches in the camp.

 Some worked in near by beet fields.

 Standing in line for meals.

 Adams was told not to photograph the barbed wire and watch towers, however, this photo made it.

Many young men signed up to served in the war where they were assigned to Europe.