Images of Internment

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course will explore the history of Japanese American incarceration through images produced before, during, and after World War II. Film, photography, and other forms of visual representation were integral to the U.S. federal government's attempts at justifying the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese American residents on the West Coast between 1942 and 1946. At the same time, visual media served as a tool for Japanese Americans themselves to narrate their own experiences, both during and in the wake of internment. Through these visual representations, we will explore how incarceration was conceived and carried out; how the process was understood by both its victims and its perpetrators; and how incarcerated Japanese Americans coped with their experiences in the camps and beyond.