Interviews

1. Introduction to Photography

2. Joining WRA Photographic Section

3. No WRA Censorship

4. Visiting Deep South

5. Returning to San Jose

6. Career as a professional

Iwasaki,Hikaru “Carl”

(1923 - 2016) WRA photographer

Returning to San Jose

I was the first one to return to the West Coast after the thing was lifted. I was sent to San Jose, California. Great reception because there were more Japanese Americans returning to San Jose than before the war. Great reception. And right after that, I was out in California for about three, four weeks. And there were certain areas...and I just can’t remember the town, but there was a town where there was some shooting going on. Shooting towards evacuees homes. And I just can’t remember the name of the town, but I think it was around Stockton. But I just can’t remember. But there were a few moments where there were some problems.

California postwar resettlements San Jose United States World War II

Date: December 3, 2009

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Hikaru Carl Iwasaki (b. 1923) grew up in San Jose, California, developing his interest in photography while working on his high school newspaper and yearbook. With Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, the Iwasaki Family was sent to the Santa Anita Assembly Center and then to a concentration camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming—where he was forbidden to have a camera. He was given a job as an X-ray technician in the hospital where the head of the camp newspaper took notice of his abilities and recommended him for work as a photographic darkroom technician with the War Relocation Authority photo unit in Denver, Colorado. Within a year, Iwasaki had become a WRA photographer, traveling freely around the country, assigned to document hundreds of Japanese Americans who had left camp and begun resettlement in various regions of the U.S. After the War, Carl began a long career as a photographer for Life, Time, Sports Illustrated, People, and many other national publications.

He passed away on September 2016 at age 93. (September 2016)