Uprooted

Past Exhibition

Uprooted

Japanese American Farm Labor Camps During World War II

Uprooted Resources

James Tanaka from Uprooted Exhibit.

Visit the Uprooted project site for more life history interviews, photos, and information.

 

Related Resources on Discover Nikkei

blue Discover Nikkei logoDiscoverNikkei.org is a major online resource that brings together the voices and experiences of Nikkei (Japanese emigrants and their descendants), who have created communities throughout the world. The website documents Nikkei history and culture and provides learning and networking tools for Nikkei around the world.

See below for articles and video clips related to this exhibition.

September 27, 2016 - January 08, 2017

Japanese American Museum

100 N. Central Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90012

Between 1942 and 1944, thousands of incarcerated Japanese Americans were moved from assembly centers and concentration camps to farm labor camps as a way to mitigate the wartime labor shortage. Some 33,000 individual contracts were issued for seasonal farm labor, with many Japanese Americans assigned to work in the sugar beet industry, which played a vital role in producing munitions for the military. Under this seasonal leave program, Japanese Americans could earn better wages while contributing to the war effort.

In the summer of 1942, Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographer Russell Lee visited four Japanese American farm labor camps located near the towns of Nyssa, Oregon; and Rupert, Shelley, and Twin Falls, Idaho. He captured the laborers’ day-to-day lives in evocative detail, producing rare images of a little-documented episode of American history. Lee also recorded the forced removal of individuals and families in California, taking a total of nearly 600 photographs of the Japanese American wartime experience. According to his biographer, F. Jack Hurley, Lee abhorred the government’s treatment of Japanese Americans during the war and wanted to document what he described as a very dark period in American history.

Uprooted: Japanese American Farm Labor Camps During World War II showcases a selection of Lee’s farm labor camp photographs accompanied by his original captions. Many of these images have never before been exhibited. The exhibition also includes a short documentary film featuring firsthand accounts of life in the camps. An extensive website at uprootedexhibit.com provides materials for further study, including photographs not in the exhibition, historic documents, video clips, transcripts from oral history interviews, and lesson plans. Uprooted seeks to contextualize Lee’s images within the history of the FSA as well as Japanese American camp life in the two states.

From 1935 to 1944, the FSA’s renowned documentary photography program produced approximately 175,000 black-and-white film negatives and 1,600 color images. Trained as a chemical engineer, Russell Lee joined Roy Stryker’s staff of FSA photographers in 1936. He continued to work for the New Deal agency until 1943. Lee was by far the most prolific of the agency’s photographers, producing more than 5,000 images in less than seven years. Perhaps best known for his series on Pie Town, New Mexico, Lee photographed across the United States.

This exhibition was organized by the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission (OCHC) and funded, in part, by grants from the US Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program; the Idaho Humanities Council, a State-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities; Fred W. Fields Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation; the Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust; and the Malheur County Cultural Trust.

 

Media Sponsor: The Rafu Shimpo 

September 27, 2016 - January 08, 2017

Japanese American Museum

100 N. Central Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90012

Between 1942 and 1944, thousands of incarcerated Japanese Americans were moved from assembly centers and concentration camps to farm labor camps as a way to mitigate the wartime labor shortage. Some 33,000 individual contracts were issued for seasonal farm labor, with many Japanese Americans assigned to work in the sugar beet industry, which played a vital role in producing munitions for the military. Under this seasonal leave program, Japanese Americans could earn better wages while contributing to the war effort.

In the summer of 1942, Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographer Russell Lee visited four Japanese American farm labor camps located near the towns of Nyssa, Oregon; and Rupert, Shelley, and Twin Falls, Idaho. He captured the laborers’ day-to-day lives in evocative detail, producing rare images of a little-documented episode of American history. Lee also recorded the forced removal of individuals and families in California, taking a total of nearly 600 photographs of the Japanese American wartime experience. According to his biographer, F. Jack Hurley, Lee abhorred the government’s treatment of Japanese Americans during the war and wanted to document what he described as a very dark period in American history.

Uprooted: Japanese American Farm Labor Camps During World War II showcases a selection of Lee’s farm labor camp photographs accompanied by his original captions. Many of these images have never before been exhibited. The exhibition also includes a short documentary film featuring firsthand accounts of life in the camps. An extensive website at uprootedexhibit.com provides materials for further study, including photographs not in the exhibition, historic documents, video clips, transcripts from oral history interviews, and lesson plans. Uprooted seeks to contextualize Lee’s images within the history of the FSA as well as Japanese American camp life in the two states.

From 1935 to 1944, the FSA’s renowned documentary photography program produced approximately 175,000 black-and-white film negatives and 1,600 color images. Trained as a chemical engineer, Russell Lee joined Roy Stryker’s staff of FSA photographers in 1936. He continued to work for the New Deal agency until 1943. Lee was by far the most prolific of the agency’s photographers, producing more than 5,000 images in less than seven years. Perhaps best known for his series on Pie Town, New Mexico, Lee photographed across the United States.

This exhibition was organized by the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission (OCHC) and funded, in part, by grants from the US Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program; the Idaho Humanities Council, a State-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities; Fred W. Fields Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation; the Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust; and the Malheur County Cultural Trust.

 

Media Sponsor: The Rafu Shimpo 

Discover Nikkei

Black and white image of four farmers holding farming tools on the sugar beet farm

Q&A with Morgen Young, Curator of Uprooted Exhibition on WWII Nikkei Farm Laborers

An interview with the exhibition’s curator about the project, federal photographer Russell Lee, reactions to the exhibition, and video content.

READ NOW

Black and white image of single farmer with a tool working on the sugar beet farm

From Beets to the Battlefield: How WWII Farm Laborers Helped the War Effort

Thousands of Japanese Americans left concentration camps to perform hard manual labor in sugar beet fields to support war efforts in the United States.

Read Now

Jimmy Ko Fukuhara wearing a blue collared shirt and a tan sweater sits next to a plant and speaks of his experience in the sugar beet farms

Video Interview: Jimmy Ko Fukuhara

Jimmy Ko Fukuhara and his brothers left for the sugar beet camp in Shelley, Idaho in 1942. Watch clips about sugar beet farming from his interview.

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