The Japanese American experience in Lodi and California documented by Dorothea Lange

1942 photo by acclaimed photographer Dorothea Lange: Old vine Lodi vineyard and home forcibly taken from Japanese American family.

The single most famous photograph in the annals of Americana is undoubtedly that of the "Migrant Mother," taken in 1936 by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965). Not so famous are the few photos taken by Lange of Japanese American faces and farms in Lodi, for a brief time in 1942.

Dorothea Lange's famous portrait of "Migrant Mother"—a destitute mother (later identified as Florence Thompson) with her children at a pea pickers camp in Nipomo, San Luis Obispo County, taken in March 1936.

Lange was operating a portrait studio in San Francisco when the country was paralyzed by the Great Depression (1929-1939), exacerbated by the devastating succession of droughts unleashing the Dust Bowl (1934 through 1940). On behalf of the U.S. government's Resettlement Administration and Farm Security Administration (FSA), which wanted a record of its battle against rural poverty, Lange traveled from coast to coast taking thousands of photos.

In 1941, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government once again called upon Lange's acclaimed skills as a documentary photographer. She was engaged by the War Relocation Authority (WRA) to photograph the forced evacuation of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. 

In early 1942, a portrait of a Japanese American grape grower in Lodi taken by Dorothea Lange just before his evacuation to Rowher, Arkansas.

It has only been since 2006, however, that most of Lange's photos of the Japanese American evacuation, taken primarily in 1942, were made available to the public by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. "They wanted a record," Lange later wrote in a memoir, "but not a public record." 

As you can see for yourself in this post, the images are both devastating and inspiring. In respect to the latter impact, it is entirely because of the indomitable spirit, dignity and even positive attitude portrayed by the Japanese Americans themselves, throughout the entire ordeal. As a journalist at heart, Lange took pains to record names and circumstances of almost all her subjects.

Early 1942 in Lodi, a Japanese American father and son provide pre-evacuation information to social worker at the Civil Control Administration Station. Dorothea Lange.

Evacuation orders

On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order No. 9066 mandating the evacuation (the term used at the time) of approximately 127,000 people of Japanese ancestry living in the continental United States. They received immediate orders to register themselves and their entire families, and to report to local assembly centers from where they were transported by bus or train to 10 camps in California and elsewhere across the country (Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, Utah and Arkansas).

At the time, approximately 112,000 Japanese Americans lived on the West Coast, mostly in California. Out of that number, about 80,000 were Nisei (i.e., a second generation, born in the U.S.) or Sansei (children of Nisei), and thus full-fledged American citizens. The rest were Issei (first generation immigrants born in Japan). Without exception, they were all compelled by the U.S. War Relocation Authority to relocate into fenced, guarded, barrack-style camps, where they remained until after December 17, 1944, when the incarceration orders were finally rescinded.

Old vine Lodi block owned by Japanese American family. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

It is interesting to note that at the start of World War II more than 150,000 people of Japanese ancestry also lived in the Territory of Hawaii (which did not become a state until 1959)⏤more than a third of the Islands' population, thus essential to the Hawaii economy. Therefore, it is estimated that only between 1,200 to 1,800 Islanders of Japanese descent were forced into camps.

Notably, during or after World War II no Japanese Americans were ever charged or convicted of espionage or treason against the United States.

Japanese Americans in Lodi

The first immigrants from Japan arrived in the Lodi area in 1869 to work in Delta sugar beet fields, and by the 1890s a growing number were playing an active role in the rapid expansion of Lodi's vaunted agricultural industry, dominated by grapes. Accordingly, by the time Lodi was incorporated as a city in 1906, there was already a thriving Japantown established along Main St., just east of Downtown Lodi's Union Pacific Railroad depot. 

Japanese American farmhouse in Lodi. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Lodi's Japantown consisted of two full blocks of Japanese American owned or operated hotels, restaurants, fruit/vegetable icehouses and packing sheds, pool halls, bathhouses, a fish market, dry goods and drug stores, a Buddhist Church, social halls and services for the thousands of seasonal farm and vineyard laborers attracted to the region.

By 1940 Lodi had approximately 800 residents of Japanese heritage⏤amounting to just 7.2% of Lodi's total population (11,079) at the time, yet still a significant percentage compared to today (according to the most recent U.S. Census, just 1% of Lodi's current population is registered as "Japanese").

At the start of World War II, many of Lodi's Japanese Americans owned or leased farmland and homes in the area; most of them forced to sell before going into internment camps (very few, according to records, were able to retain property as absentee owners during the war). At that time, U.S. Census reports showed that 45% of Japanese Americans in California were working in agriculture.

Japanese American evacuees from Lodi assembling at San Joaquin County Fairgrounds in Stockton's Japanese War Relocation Center. May 1942, Dorothea Lange.

The experience of Lodi's Mikami family

Over the past ten years one of Lodi's most successful small, independent wine brands has been Mikami Vineyards, owned by third generation Japanese American grape grower Jason Mikami.

Mikami recalls conversations with his father Jim Mikami about the period leading up to his family's incarceration. "One of his saddest memories was how, in June 1941, he and his family had just purchased a new car, which represented a huge amount of money, only to have Executive Order 9066 issued in February 1942. With that, they had to sell the vehicle for pennies on the dollar, since they had no means of keeping it.  

"For the Japanese in Lodi, relocation meant being incarcerated in Rowher, Arkansas [over 2,000 miles from Lodi]. For context, prior to the war, my grandfather Teruichi Mikami [who first arrived in Lodi in 1896 at the age of 15] was a grape farmer, working for various ranchers in the Lodi area."

Lodi farmhouse belonging to Japanese American family. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Adds Mikami, "In addition, my Uncle Joe Mikami served in the 442nd Infantry Regiment, one of the most decorated units in U.S. history, which was comprised of Japanese Americans who willingly fought for their country despite the discriminatory acts of the relocation."

Despite hardships on the home front, an estimated 33,000 Japanese Americans served in the U.S. military during World War II; most of them young Nisei, some 20,000 of them volunteering for the Army. Both the 442nd and the 100th Infantry Battalion, in fact, were famed for being the most decorated units in all of U.S. military history, while Japanese Americans in the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion and Military Intelligence Service served with equal valor.. 

Says Mikami, "After the war. the entire family returned to Lodi to continue farming, and eventually purchased a vineyard on Turner Road. That vineyard is still owned by my Uncle Joe's family. My father purchased his own vineyards on Sargent Road, which is where I was raised and now source the fruit for the Mikami Vineyards wines."

In Lodi, another father and son providing pre-evacuation information at Civil Control Administration Station. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Mikami's late mother, Aiko Mikami, has an interesting story of her own. "My mother was born in Hiroshima and witnessed the first dropping of an atomic bomb. She suffered burns and the loss of a brother but eventually immigrated to the U.S. after marrying my father. 

"Despite the war and the fact that the U.S. had caused her family harm, my mom wanted to be an ambassador of Japanese culture. So during her time in Lodi she taught many of the Japanese arts to local communities, including tea ceremony, koto (a Japanese harp), and ikebana (flower arrangement). She also participated in many Obon festivals in Lodi and is remembered on one of the murals on the Buddhist Church annex [named "Japantown Memories" by local artist Tony Segale]. In the mural she is the lady on the far right, playing the Japanese shamisen guitar." 

In Oakland, March 1942, the sign at the Wanto Co. Grocery store making the Japanese American owner's allegiance loud and clear. Dorothea Lange.

The Lange documents

In March 1942, when Lange set out to document the evacuation process in California, she began in San Francisco where hundreds of Japanese Americans were forced to dissolve their businesses and abandon their homes. From there, she took a spin through Centerville , San Leandro and Hayward in Alameda County, as well as Stockton. 

After returning to the Bay Area to document the registration process in April 1942, Lange went out to Sacramento and Florin in Sacramento County to chronicle the emotional separation of Japanese-Americans from their farms, businesses, homes, longtime friends, colleagues, fellow students and church members in their communnities.

In subsequent months Lange would take her camera through Berkeley, Oakland, Byron (Contra Costa County), San Bruno (San Mateo County), Mountain View (Santa Clara County), San Jose, Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Salinas, Monterey, Paso Robles and Guadalupe (Santa Barbara County).

Students at Raphael Weill Public School in San Francisco pledging allegiance to the flag in March 1942. Dorothea Lange.

In the Central Valley, Lange logged hundreds of miles going through farming communities in Woodland (Yolo County), Lodi, Stockton, Tracy (San Joaquin County), Modesto, Turlock (Stanislaus County), Merced, and Fresno.

Once Japanese American families were on the move, Lange spent considerable time at the Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno where over 10,000 evacuees were temporarily housed before dispersal across the country. In spring/summer of 1942 she documented living conditions at the Manzanar Relocation Camp, where as many as 10,000 Japanese Americans at a time were interned on a barren plain east of Fresno, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada.

Dorothea Lange, 1935.

A further selection Lange's most iconic images of Japanese Americans before and during their evacuation, mostly from California's Bay Area and Central Valley...

Maurice Tsutomu Shinmoto on his Caterpillar in his 1,300-acre Stockton farm, photographed in April 1942 by Dorothea Lange just before being interned at relocation centers in Tule Lake, CA and Rohwer, Arkansas..

Notice posted in San Francisco ordering all persons of Japanese ancestry to register for "civilian exclusion." March 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Japanese American mother with her three daughters at their Mountain View farm just before their forced evacuation in April 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Sacramento's 21-year old Harvey Akio Itano, a University of California chemistry graduate, Phi beta Kappa and Sigman Xi, just before being ordered to evacuate. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Lunch hour at San Francisco's Raphael Weill Public School in April 1942. Dorothea Lange.

Nisei soldier and mother in their family's Florin (Sacramento County) strawberry field; according to Dorothea Lange's meticulous notes, the mother first arrived in California in 1905, and the son—who enlisted in  the Army in July 1941—was given leave in May 1942 to help his family prepare for internment.

Issei (first generation) Japanese American in her family's Mountain View, Santa Clara County garlic field before their incarceration. Dorothea Day.

Rachel Kuruma, age 11, San Francisco, shortly before her internment in April 1942. Dorothea Lange.

Japanese American cauliflower farmer, Centerville, Alameda County. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Store owners Dave Tatsuno with his father in front of their "1 Day to Go" sale sign at San Francisco's Post and Buchanan Streets, just before their evacuation in April 1942. Dorothea Lange.

Wife of Dave Tatsuno, a California-born University of California graduate, in their Buchanan Street, San Francisco home just before relocation in April 1942. Dorothea Lange

San Francisco's Dave Tatsuno with his son in  April 1942: According to Lange's notes, Tatsuno was a 1936 University of California graduate and was serving as president of the Japanese-American Citizens League when hre received orders from the War Relocation Authority to relocate.

Sign on window announcing pending new owners of the Nisei Grill, a Japanese American owned restaurant in San Francisco. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Reverend Naito in front of his Buddhist church in Florin, Sacramento County shortly before his internment in May 1942. Dorothea Lange.

The four daughters of the Miterai family, farmers in Mountain View, Santa Clara County. March 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Ryohitsu Shibuya, a Mountain View farmer known for his prize chrysantheumums. April 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Japanese Americans dutifully lining up to register for their evacuation from San Francisco. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

The Mochida family, nursery owners in Hayward, tagged and waiting to be transported to an assembly center. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Japanese American field workers waiting to register for evacuation in Byron, Contra Costa County. Dorothea Lange.

Centerville (Alameda County) farming family waiting to be bussed to assembly center. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Two Nisei sisters (second generation, American born) at their Mountain View, Santa Clara County home—according to Lange, Madoka Shibuya (right), 25, was a student at Stanford Medical School when her family was ordered to report for evacuation in March 1942.

Two old friends in San Francisco playing a final game before boarding a bus to an assembly center. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Kitagaki family wating at Oakland at Wartime Civil Control Administration station a few minutes before departure by bus for Tanforan Assembly center. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

This April 1942 photo in Hayward was entitled "Fragile Smile" by Dorothea Lange; a portrait of the acute uncertainty felt by a young American-born Japanese American girl before her family's internment.

Friends saying final farewells at Centerville assembly center. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Reverend Sui Hiro of San Lorenzo Holiness Church and his son, saying goodbye to fellow clergymen just before their evacuation from Hayward. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Like evacuees of all ages, this Japanese-American farm mother was compelled to wear an identification tag; waiting for a bus to the Tanforan Assembly Center in Centerville, Alameda County. May 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Proudly uniformed American-born boy of Japanese ancestry waiting to be bussed to assembly center. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Harry Futamachi (left) with ranch owner John B. MacKinley, discussing operations of the 1,300-acre  Stockton farm managed by Mr. Futamachi, just before he was scheduled to report to a War Relocation Center in April 1942. Dorothea Lange.

Harry Futamachi, Stockton farm manager. April 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Mission San Jose agriculturist identified by Lange as an irrigation specialist in May 1942.

Mr. Negi discussing the transfer of his 40-acre truck farm and equipment with a Chinese businessman, just prior to his evacuation to a Colorado internment camp. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Armed guards at San Francisco buses transporting evacuees to the Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno, from where they were sent to internment camps. April 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Japanese American laborer in a Stockton celery field, just prior to evacuation. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Nisei soldier in Florin, assisting his family under orders to evacuate in May 1942. Dorothea Lange.

Evacuees boarding train from Woodland in Yolo County to Merced Assembly Center in San Joaquin Valley. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Newly arrived evacuees at the Turlock Assembly Center. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

In June 1942, the desolate location of the Manzanar Relocation Center at the foot of the Sierra Nevada in Owens Valley. Dorothea Lange.

Three Stockton-born boys of Japanese ancestry, newly arrived at their assembly center. April 1942, Dorothea Lange.

True to her farming background, Mrs. Fujita (with a neighbor) tends to a tidy garden at the Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno. Dorothea Lange.

The newly opened Stockton Assembly Center. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

American born friends, both University of California students, outside the Sacramento Assembly barracks. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Field work at Manzanar Relocation Center. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Nurse at Tanforan Assembly Center; all medical personnel at the assembly centers and relocation camps was manned by Japanese-American internees. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Library at the Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Evacuees compelled to do their own maintenance, repair and construction work at San Bruno Assembly Center, such as the digging of a drainage tank alongside newly constructed barracks. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Pre-schoolers at San Bruno evacuation center. June 1942, Dorothea Lange.

At the Sacramento Assembly Center, undergraduate college students who helped establish kindergarten and elementary school classes for 300 children, aged 3 to 10. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Third graders at the Manazanar Relocation Camp—in 1942, classrooms were still without desks or chairs. Dorothea Lange.

According to Lange's notes, this was a third year San Jose College student who was studying to be a nurse before her relocation to the Sacramento Assembly Center. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Bill Fujii, identified as a 3rd year University of California student outside the barracks at the Sacramento Assembly Center. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Maye Noma (catcher) and Tomi Nagao (batting) identified as members of the Chick-a-Dee softball team in the Manzanar Relocation Center. July 1942, Dorothea Lange.

A group photo of some of the Japanese American orphans—under the care Mrs. Harry Matsumoto, a University of California graduate—in the Childrens' Village consisting of 65 children at the Manzanar Relocation Center. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

At the Manzanar Relocation Center, Ichiro Okumura, 22 (left) from Venice, California and Ben Iguchi, 20 from Sangus, California; thinning young plants in a 2-acre field of white radishes. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Child of Japanese American farmers in San Lorenzo, Alameda County. 1942, Dorothea Lange.

Japanese American tenant farmer in Woodland, California, contemplating his imminent eviction to a relocation camp. 1942, Dorothea Lange.