three elderly men standing outside saluting, shot on black and white

Scenes from the Japanese Internment Resonate Today

When the U.S. government held more than 120,000 civilians captive during World War II, it left an enduring stain on the nation.

In 2013 photographer Paul Kitagaki, Jr., tracked down Junzo Jake Ohara, Takeshi Motoyasu, and Edward Tetsuji Kato, who had been incarcerated as teenagers at Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming in the 1940s. They posed outside Kato’s home in Monterey Park, California, to reenact a photo (below) taken of them as boys in 1943.
PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL KITAGAKI, JR.
This story appears in the October 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine.
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