Heart Mountain Relocation Center: From the Perspective of the WRA Photos

Licensing

The Heart Mountain Relocation Center was one of the ten American concentration camps for Japanese Americans during World War II. The center was located 12 miles northwest of Cody, Wyoming. It was opened in August 11, 1942 by the War Relocation Authority. Sixty two percent of the inmates were American Citizens. 

The following photos were downloaded from the National Archives. The photos were taken by War Relocation Authority (WRA) photographers who were constrained by WRA rules. The photos could not be sad or too happy. A sad photo would make the camp image suffer. A too happy photo would make the administrators look like coddlers.

An example of images being too sad are photos taken by Dorothea Lange which were impounded by the Army. Lange was subsequently fired from her job. Ref. Dinitia Smith, NY Times, Nov. 2006, Photographs of an Episode That Lives in Infamy Retrieved March 17, 2011.

Click below for more photos: (The photos are sorted by date in two albums) 

Heart Mountain Relocation Center Photo Album 1 >>

Heart Mountain Relocation Center Photo Album 2 >>

For those who would like more details about these images, go to the National Archives website at http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/BasicSearchForm.  Hit "Digital Copies" and set limit to 1000. Type in "Heart Mountain Relocation Center" and hit search.

Slides in this album 

Heart Mountain 08/28/1942


Symbolic Heart Mountain towers at the end of F" Street, the main thoroughfare of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center."

Heart Mountain 08/28/1942
País: RoyKakuda

Farming at Heart Mountain 03/10/1944

Land cleared of sagebrush last fall and corrugated against wind erosion. Assistant Farm Superintendent, Eiichi Sakauye, checking the moisture for early spring crop planting.

Farming at Heart Mountain 03/10/1944
País: RoyKakuda

Bath House 10/23/1943


Priorities need be no bar to personal cleanliness. Tak Sugiyama, Heart Mountain resident, is here shown scrubbing up in one of the imporvised bath tubs made of sawed off pickle barrels.

Bath House 10/23/1943
País: RoyKakuda

Going to an uncertain home 07/1945

Reversing the scenes of nearly three years ago when train after train brought more than 11,000 evacuees from the West coast, Heart Mountain residents now are bidding goodbye to friends and neigbors as they return to their homes or depart for new homes and work throughtout the nation. …

Going to an uncertain home 07/1945
País: RoyKakuda

Album Type

online exhibition

RoyKakuda — Atualizado em Jun 28 2021 1:49 a.m.


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