“Provocative and noteworthy.” — Publishers Weekly
Colors of Confinement:
Rare Kodachrome Photographs of Japanese American Incarceration in World War II
Winner, 2013 Joan Patterson Kerr Award, Western History Association
In 1942, Bill Manbo (1908-1992) and his family were forced from their Hollywood home into the Japanese American internment camp at Heart Mountain in Wyoming. While there, Manbo documented both the bleakness and beauty of his surroundings, using Kodachrome film, a technology then just seven years old, to capture community celebrations and to record his family's struggle to maintain a normal life under the harsh conditions of racial imprisonment. Colors of Confinement showcases sixty-five stunning images from this extremely rare collection of color photographs, presented along with three interpretive essays by leading scholars and a reflective personal essay by a former Heart Mountain internee.
The subjects of these haunting photos are the routine fare of an amateur photographer: parades, cultural events, people at play, Manbo's son. But the images are set against the backdrop of the barbed-wire enclosure surrounding the Heart Mountain Relocation Center and the dramatic expanse of Wyoming sky and landscape. The accompanying essays illuminate these scenes as they trace a tumultuous history unfolding just beyond the camera’s lens, giving readers insight into Japanese American cultural life and the stark realities of life in the camps.
“The color photographs of Bill Manbo are at once beautiful, poignant, and stinging with irony. . . .These are pictures of resilience and fortitude from a dark chapter of American history.”
“This is a testament to the incredible power of photography. Even one frame can change the tide of public opinion because photography has the power to add layers to our understanding of how events transpired and how people were affected.”
“I was imprisoned at Heart Mountain when I was twelve, so my memories of camp life are still vivid. Colors of Confinement brings back these memories in living color and gives them new life. It was almost scary to be able to relive the experience while reading this book.”
Injustice, in Kodachrome.
I first came across the images that are the core of this book when curating the primary exhibition at a new museum at the site of one of the Japanese American concentration camps of World War II. I knew immediately that this collection was a rarity because it depicted in color a world we are accustomed to imagining in black and white. In time I came to see both the artistry of the amateur photographer who made the photographs and the subtly critical lens he managed to bring to the experience of imprisonment. The brief video below presents a number of the photographs and a few comments from me about the project.
