Tag Archives: Education

Our World Yearbook, Manzanar War Relocation Center High School, 1943–1944 Glanced through quickly, the yearbook of Manzanar High School looks like that of any American high school from the 1940s. And yet, its editors chose to frame their title page much as Ansel Adams did in his iconic photos of the camp, juxtaposing the snow-capped Sierra Nevadas against serial rows of barracks. The following page describes the journey “from a dusty wasteland to a lively community,” the text set against a photo of a white obelisk with the black calligraphy “I Rei To”: a tower to console the departed, the focal point of the camp cemetery. The various yearbooks made in the internment camps are a study of contrasts, a marker of normalcy amidst the most abnormal of living conditions. Zc72.+944ou. WA, BRBL.

Manzanar War Relocation Center High School, 1943-1944

Junior Red Cross Scrapbook, Poston I Elementary School, 1944 On page ten of this Junior Red Cross scrapbook is a drawing of the fourth-grade citizenship program, in which a blonde student sits among her Japanese American classmates. This student was most likely the daughter of a Poston administrator or teacher. Some teachers worked in the camps as conscientious objectors and lived and worked alongside internees, albeit in higher-quality accommodations. United States War Relocation Authority Collection (MS 803), Box 2. MSSA.

Poston I Elementary School, 1944

Today We Follow, Tomorrow We Lead, Senior Edition yearbook, Tri-State High School, Tule Lake Relocation Center, 1943. Tule Lake was designated for “dissidents,” 5,000 of whom renounced their U.S. citizenship. Living conditions were poor and following protests, the center was placed under martial law. This yearbook chronicles the difficulties of life at Tule Lake where on “critical, discouraging days…our thoughts were filled with pessimistic ideas and doubts as to our future position in this world.” Zc73.943to. WA, BRBL.

1943 Senior edition yearbook, Tri-State High School, Tule Lake

Postcard from Ruth Watanabe to Elizabeth Page, September 30, 1942 Ruth Watanabe and Elizabeth Page bonded over their efforts to provide music programs in the camps, first at Santa Anita Racecourse and later at Granada. In this postcard, Watanabe offers her thanks and notes that she has been granted leave from Granada to attend the University of Rochester. "Radcliffe," the women's college affiliated with Harvard University "was not approved," perhaps because of its proximity to the ocean. Internees were prevented from attending Yale for similar reasons, with military security cited as the rationale. Elizabeth Page Harris Papers (MS 771), MSSA.