iOakland Museum of California (OMCA)Downtown Oakland
BeHere / 1942: A New Lens on the Japanese American Incarceration
Artist Masaki Fujihata uses enlarged 1942 photographs and augmented reality to look closely at the moments just before Japanese American incarceration.
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At the entrance, Dorothea Lange's 1942 photograph of Mae Yanagi, a young girl in a plaid peacoat with a paper ID tag on her lapel, is enlarged until her eyes fill the wall. Up close, you can see shadowy reflections of the photographer and officials in them.
Tokyo-based artist Masaki Fujihata went through Lange's 1942 photographs of San Francisco and Oakland and Russell Lee's of Los Angeles, and blew them up to look at the people in them and at who held the camera. You can borrow a replica Graflex camera and watch a Little Tokyo train departure through its viewfinder, and a three-screen video features local residents.
It's in the Great Hall, included with general admission. Outside, collect an iPad from staff on Oak Street Plaza and the plaza fills with people and suitcases beside buses, recreating the 7 May 1942 departure for Tanforan. Devices are limited, so there's a virtual queue and you look round the galleries while you wait.
Editor's pick
Dorothea Lange's 1942 photograph of a girl with an ID tag on her lapel fills the wall; up close, the photographer and officials are reflected in her eyes. Outside, iPads restage a 1942 departure for the Tanforan camp.
Look for
Mae Yanagi's eyes
Look for Lange's photo of a girl and her mother with ID tags on their lapels, blown up until her eyes span the entrance wall and reflect the photographer and officials.
The replica Graflex camera
Look through the viewfinder of a large-format camera to see a Little Tokyo train departure in AR, then press the button and your photo appears on a nearby wall.
The "I AM AN AMERICAN" store
A Japanese American-owned shop at 8th and Franklin in Oakland, photographed on 8 December 1941 with the sign in its window, at the corner where a Chase bank stands now.
Suitcases on Oak Street
Lange's photographs of packed luggage stacked on the Oak Street sidewalks in front of Victorian houses.
Oak Street Plaza in AR
Through a borrowed iPad, the plaza fills with figures carrying suitcases beside waiting buses, played by actors, elders who were incarcerated, descendants and Fujihata himself.
Good for
- Nerding Out
- Teenagers
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Image credits
5
- BeHere / 1942: A New Lens on the Japanese American IncarcerationOakland Museum of California
- Rex RayCourtesy of Minnesota Street Project
- 20 Years - Anniversary ExhibitionCourtesy of Minnesota Street Project
- Oakland Museum of California (OMCA)mk30 from USA, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO)Oakland Public Library / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0