Photographer John Tonai wiil give Part 2 of his talk on “Look to the Sky: America’s Concentration Camps” in a virtual program held by the Greater L.A. Chapter of JACL on Sunday, April 10, at 1 p.m.
“Look to the Sky” is a documentary photography project depicting the contemporary physical conditions of the 10 WWII War Relocation Authority camps. The initial project took place from 1990-1992. Since that time, Tonai has revisited most of the sites and recorded the changes that have taken place.
On Feb. 13 in Part 1, Tonai showed photos of Amache (Colorado), Gila River (Arizona), Heart Mountain (Wyoming), Jerome (Arkansas), and Manzanar (California). His commentary of each black-and-white photo was interesting, informative and enlightening. One looked at the photos with new eyes.
In Part 2, Tonai will show photos of Minidoka (Idaho), Poston (Arizona), Rohwer (Arkansas), Topaz (Utah) and Tule Lake (California).
Tonai recently retired as an associate professor of photography at University of Northern Colorado. He currently works at the Japanese American National Museum as a production coordinator and collections photographer.
For a Zoom link to the program, email Layne Sakamoto at [email protected].