The Ninth Annual Paul H. and Erika Bourguignon Lecture in Art and Anthropology will focus on : Japanese American Resettlement through the Lens, featuring Lane Hirabayashi, professor, UCLA Asian American Studies, and author of Japanese-American Resettlement through the Lens: Hikaru Iwasaki and the WRA's Photographic Section, 1943-1945 and Hijaru Carl Iwasaki, War Relocation Authority (WRA) Photographer.
Hirabayashi teaches in the Asian American Studies Department at UCLA, where he holds an endowed chair dedicated to research on and teaching about the Japanese American World War II internment, redress, and other Japanese-American issues.
Iwasaki, 19 years old in 1943 and living in an internment camp himself, was the only Japanese American who was hired full-time as an official photographer WRA’s Photographic Section (WRAPS). He is the only full-time WRA photographer from the period still living.He took over 1,300 pictures for WRAPS before going on to an illustrious career as a photojournalist.
For Through the Lens, Hirabayashi divides Iwasaki and the WRA’s photo documentation into two phases, first the evacuation and internment, and second the process of resettlement. This second phase began in 1943, the year that Iwasaki was hired. During this period, WRAPS’ goal, according to Hirabayashi, was to pressure “loyal” imprisoned Japanese Americans to return to society as quickly as possible.
“Naturally,” Hirabayashi writes, WRAPS did not document stories of Japanese Americans “in difficult or impoverished conditions.” Designed to further the WRA’s goal of resettlement, the photos depict former prisoners as “smiling, happy, free, confident about their safety,” eager to contribute to the war effort through their compliant and successful resettlement.
The annualPaul H. and Erika Bourguignon Lecture in Art and Anthropology is made possible by a generous gift from Erika Bourguignon. Bourguignon is one of Ohio State’s most distinguished, influential, and interdisciplinary faculty members. In her forty years at Ohio State (1949-90), she chaired the Department of Anthropology, co-created with her husband (Belgian artist Paul-Henri Bourguignon) a weekly radio program on world music, co-founded the still-running Women in Development seminar, and was the first chair of the Council on Academic Excellence for Women
The event is free and open to the public. RSVP required to Wayne Miller at miller.1044@osu.edu
