UNC Photo Night confronts long-standing impacts of Japanese concentration camps

On Tuesday night, aspiring photographers gathered in Carroll Hall to hear from Haruka Sakaguchi, a documentary photographer whose work has been featured in The New York Times, Time Magazine, National Geographic and more. 

The photo night was hosted by the UNC Student Chapter of the National Press Photographers Association. Co-president of the NPPA and event organizer Quincy Marks said she was already familiar with Sakaguchi’s work and the insight she could give attendees regarding creating historically dense projects. 

“I had been following Haruka's work for a while now and I thought it was super interesting how she does these long-form photography projects that have such a historical focus,” Marks said. “So I thought she would be a good fit for Photo Night.”

Sakaguchi presented her newest project, “The Camps America Built," which consists of a website and short film released in February. It tells the stories of incarcerated members and their descendants who went on pilgrimages to Japanese concentration camps established by the United States during World War II.

Following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order calling for the displacement of Japanese Americans from their homes into military-occupied areas. This order impacted over 120,000 people, with nearly two thirds of those affected being American citizens.

The lives of incarcerated families were forever affected by their time in concentration camps. Many formerly incarcerated rarely discussed their experiences with their families, and if they did, little attention was given to the emotional impact their incarceration had, Sakaguchi said.

“I felt people were a lot more, especially former incarceries, were a lot more comfortable speaking about the broader historical trajectory in the narrative versus how it actually affected them,” she said.

Sakaguchi’s website, in addition to photos, also features handwritten letters and audio recordings written and performed by a formerly incarcerated member to their younger self, or a descendant to their affected family members. 

These letters could offer a moment of closure or catharsis for family members as they write down feelings about their loved ones’ traumatic experiences they had never wanted to express out loud. These emotional and intimate letters were the most compelling section of the project, UNC first-year journalism major Benjamin Eggleston said.

“I thought that was the most captivating part of the presentation,” he said. 

Upon arriving at the concentration camps, adults were asked to fill out a loyalty questionnaire asking if they would be willing to serve for the U.S. military at any moment, as well as forgo all allegiance to Japan. Those who refused to comply with both questions were imprisoned, labeled as traitors and given the nickname “no-no boys.” 

Sakaguchi’s short film tells the story of Henry Kaku’s pilgrimage back to his father Keige’s site eighty years later. Keige was enlisted in the U.S. Army at the time of the executive order but refused to answer yes to the two key loyalty questionnaire questions. 

When taken to a concentration camp in Tule Wake, Keige walked in wearing his Army uniform in protest. The film asks the viewer a question: What does it mean to be a loyal American?

“In a traditional sense loyalty is an alignment of principles,” Sakaguchi said. “You know it's the type of allegiance that you have toward a concept or a nation. But due to that loyalty questionnaire, loyalty now meant subservience, now meant a forfeiture of power.”

Sakaguchi and Henry have been presenting the short film in film festivals. If she gets the proper funding, Sakaguchi said she wishes to do a feature film on Henry and Keige’s story.

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