Behind Barbed Wire—Searching for Japanese Americans Incarcerated During World War II

Words and Photographs by Paul Kitagaki Jr.

For more than a decade, Paul Kitagaki Jr. has been reliving the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

More than 110,000 ethnic Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes at the start of World War II and transported to desolate detention centers after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in early 1942. Kitagaki’s parents and grandparents were part of that group, but they never talked about their experience.

To better understand, Kitagaki tracked down the subjects of more than 60 photographs taken by Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams and other photographers. He photographed and interviewed them or their children to discover who was in the pictures. Some wanted to forget; some wanted to remember. Some lost everything; some found new direction. He heard stories about heroic soldiers and those unwilling to fight for a country that put them behind barbed wire.

Each person has something to say. Each adds their unique personal history. They all are determined to make sure it never happens again.

Hardbound: 152 pp.