Associate Wilkinson Dean awarded California Civil Liberties Award for research regarding Japanese-American incarceration camps
Dr. Stephanie Takaragawa uses photography to showcase the stories from incarceration camps. Photo illustration by RENEE ELEFANTE, Editor-in-Chief
Stephanie Takaragawa, the associate dean for Chapman University’s Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, was awarded the California Civil Liberties Award of $100,000 on June 2, for her visual project titled “Through Internees Eyes: Japanese American Incarceration Before and After.”
Takaragawa’s project focuses on in-depth research regarding Japanese-American confinement sites during World War II. Specifically, the project explores her family’s own story at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in California during the war.
With continuous research of photographs and documents, Takaragawa found many photographs from her grandmother’s house, which sparked curiosity in her. Takaragawa strived for answers about who the people in the photographs were and her family’s journey and experience through the confinement site.
“I learned about the Japanese-American internment in college,” Takaragawa said. “And, at that time, my family never told me that my dad was born in an internment camp and that my grandparents were taken out of their homes in Los Angeles and into camps. I think when you learn that — during college especially — you become curious. ‘Why did I never know that?’ I was horrified by what I had learned, but I was more curious as to why my family would never talk about it.”
“I learned about the Japanese-American internment in college. And, at that time, my family never told me that my dad was born in an internment camp and that my grandparents were taken out of their homes in Los Angeles and into camps. I think when you learn that — during college especially — you become curious. ‘Why did I never know that?’ I was horrified by what I had learned, but I was more curious as to why my family would never talk about it.”
Takaragawa described the emotions she felt when seeing the photographs from her grandmother’s house. She described feeling angry when she saw her father and aunts in the incarcerated camps. “I see my grandparents, aunts and my dad in these horrible living conditions and it makes me angry but also confused as to why they never told us about it and how they were still okay with continuing to live in the US years after,” Takaragawa said.
A press release from the California Civil Liberties Award describes Takaragawa’s project as a digital storytelling model that preserves and creates a case study of her family’s life inside the camps.
The release stated that Takaragawa’s project consists of “detailed pedagogical materials on creating a family history photo essay for teachers and students who will learn to tell their stories.”
Through extensive research, Takaragawa uncovered that the treatment of those of Japanese descent had been an economic motive and was primarily driven by farmers who wanted to take their land.
“My goal with the award is to learn about my family history, but I also want other people to learn about this history and to learn about it on their own,” Takaragawa said. “The study is to show visual photography and to reconcile what's happened to the value of photographs and how it is going to impact our understanding of memory, history and the psychological sense of a photograph and its connection to history.”
Takaragawa described how a significant difficulty she has been experiencing through her research is the mystery in the photographs. Since the majority of the people in the pictures are deceased, it is difficult to find out who they are. She stated that social media and descendants of the deceased are her only options to figure out the best process in order to identify them. Takaragawa also became curious as to how the photographs were taken because cameras were not allowed in the camps in the beginning, until WWII began and they were able to purchase cameras.
Asian American studies research assistant Eva Wong described her experience working with Takaragawa as inspiring but also emotional.
“One of the coolest things about working on this project, very specifically, is getting to see such a historical event through a personal lens,” Wong, a senior peace studies and theater double major, said. “A lot of (the) times I’ve looked at photos about the internment in the past, it's always some kind of disconnected photo of ‘nameless’ faces. As their names have been lost through history, the personal connection makes the experience more visceral.”
“One of the coolest things about working on this project, very specifically, is getting to see such a historical event through a personal lens. A lot of (the) times I’ve looked at photos about the internment in the past, it’s always some kind of disconnected photo of ‘nameless’ faces. As their names have been lost through history, the personal connection makes the experience more visceral.”
During her undergraduate studies in anthropology at the University of Southern California, Takaragawa became involved at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles during its development phase, where she participated in early focus groups. The museum opened in 1992 and seeks to organize art exhibitions and educational public programs as well as share and preserve historical stories that shaped Japanese-American history.
“It was after my family went to the museum for the first time that they actually started talking about it, because all their lives, they were told that they were bad and that they were spies,” Takaragawa said. “Somehow, their ethnicity made them a problem, and I think there's some embedded shame about their identity that came (and) reinforced itself through generations.”
In spring 2024, to further her research, Takaragawa plans to invite students from local high and middle schools to the exhibit and to present lectures about the research, discussing the history of Japanese-Americans and the art of storytelling through photography. She plans to do this by creating booklets to discuss the value of photography and by using her family’s pictures as an example. Chapman students, faculty and staff will be invited to the presentations.
“I continuously learn from students on what they think about photography, but I'm also worried that photographs are going to disappear and the way we value photography during our day-to-day lives,” Takaragawa said. “I want to think photographs are memories. I want people to know their significance and authenticity, especially in a world of AI.”
“I continuously learn from students on what they think about photography, but I’m also worried that photographs are going to disappear and the way we value photography during our day-to-day lives. I want to think photographs are memories. I want people to know their significance and authenticity, especially in a world of AI.”
