Life Detained: Photographs from the George and Frank C. Hirahara Collection

JFK Lobby | April 17-28, 2023

This exhibit features sixteen photographs taken by George and Frank Hirahara during their detainment at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Park County, Wyoming. The Hiraharas were a Japanese American family living in Yakima at the outset of World War II and were subject to mass removal along with over 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry.

Their photograph collection, consisting of over 2000 images, provides a perspective of life in the Japanese American incarceration camps from the perspective of one detained family.

The photographs are on loan from Washington State University.

Produced in coordination with a campus panel discussion:

The Lens of Persecution: Filmed Experiences of Oppression and Resilience in the Pacific Northwest and in Nazi-Occupied Europe during WWII

April 20 | 2 p.m. – 3:30 pm 

(The event is free, but registration is required. For more information, please visit the website.) 

For more information, contact University Archivist Steven Bingo, sbingo@ewu.edu.