Colors of Confinement

July 16, 2012
In this provocative and noteworthy collection, published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, legal scholar Muller (American Inquisition: The Hunt for Japanese American Disloyalty in World War II) presents 65 photographs made from slides he discovered that were taken by photographer Manbo, a Japanese-American interned at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming during WWII. Manbo was active in the camp’s photo club and operated in the vernacular style, shooting color slide film, a recently developed technology and one that was rarely used to document the internment camps. Manbo shot not just the traditional camp views of bleakly uniform buildings, but parades, pastimes, cultural rituals, and family portraits (many of his adorable young son, Billy). The vivid color enhances the pageantry of the events, and the family photos seem almost strangely normal, while another photo shows a toddler gripping the camp’s barbed wire. The book’s three accompanying essays and one memoir of the camp, each by a different author, provide context, and while the photos could mostly be classified as snapshots, their subject matter and the use of Kodachrome film solidifies their unquestionable cultural and historical significance. Photos.

Starred review from August 1, 2012

In 1942, Manbo (1908-1992) and his family were uprooted from their home in Hollywood and moved into a Japanese-American internment camp at Heart Mountain in Wyoming. While living there, Manbo made a series of photographs in Kodachrome, which was then a relatively new and little-used color slide film. In muted colors, he captured the beauty, resilience, and vitality of people--family and friends--forced to make a new life for themselves in that bleak place. Muller (Dan K. Moore Distinguished Professor of Law in Jurisprudence and Ethics, Univ. of North Carolina Sch. of Law; American Inquisition: The Hunt for Japanese American Disloyalty in World War II) selected the 65 images included in the book and the four essays, one of which he contributed. VERDICT The strength of this title is the photography: Manbo documents a people who rose above persecution and injustice to carry on traditions and form a community in a barren landscape. Anyone interested in documentary photography and American social and cultural history will appreciate this book. Highly recommended.--Raymond Bial, First Light Photography, Urbana, IL

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