1942

This week in 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the rounding up of Japanese Americans to protect the country “against espionage and against sabotage.” Ten War Relocation Camps were built; ultimately, more than 100,000 people were interned in them. One of the camps was at Manzanar, and when Ansel Adams arrived with his cameras, he saw “a little city, well-governed and alive” in the shadow of Mt. Williamson. His photographs were published in “Born Free and Equal” in 1944. The war was still raging, but Adams wrote that he was worried about the future of internees “when peace is established and the crisis of feeling is reduced.”

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(PRINTED BY PERMISSION OF THE ANSEL ADAMS PUBLISHING RIGHTS TRUST)

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What then? Will the vicious campaign of the jingo press reap its harvest in prolonged racial antagonisms? Will narrow, economically selfish groups maintain constant active opposition . . . ? Are perfectly loyal American citizens to be hounded by the specter of social insecurity for the rest of their lives?

We have the chance now—and never has a better chance been offered us—to establish the true American structure of life. The treatment of Japanese-Americans will be a symbol of our treatment of all minorities. . . . It is our task to retain the individual as the foundation of society, irrespective of his race, color, or religion. It is a problem we must face and solve. . . .

What is the true enemy the democratic peoples are fighting? Collectively, the enemy is every nation and every individual of predatory instincts and actions. We fight to assure a cooperative civilization in opposition to the predatory Nazi-Fascist-Militarist methods and ideologies of government. We must prosecute this war with all the ruthless efficiency, stern realism, and clarity of purpose that is at our command. We must not compromise or appease. We must assure our people that there will be no further human catastrophes such as the destruction of Rotterdam, the annihilation of Lidice, the rape of Nanking, or the decimation of the Jews.

We must be certain that, as the rights of the individual are the most sacred elements of our society, we will not allow passion, vengeance, hatred, and racial antagonism to cloud the principles of universal justice and mercy.