Dorothea Lange is best known for documentary photographs taken during the Great Depression under the auspices of the Farm Securities Administration, in particular, her iconic photograph, Migrant Mother. The War Relocation Authority later commissioned her to document the experience of Japanese Americans preparing for and embarking on the road to internment. Her images offer poignant insight into the effect of “exclusion” on the lives of Japanese Americans in California. At the time, the U. S. government found her work controversial—presumably too sympathetic to her subjects—and impounded over 800 of her negatives. They deposited the collection in a quiet corner of the National Archives. Rediscovered over fifty years later by a Lange biographer, they reveal the emotional trauma and humiliation suffered by thousands of Americans. Here, San Franciscans gather to read the first posted exclusion notice, as did Otsuka’s character.

Dave Masaharu Tatsuno (1913-2006) was a prominent Japanese American businessman and civic leader. When he and his family prepared to leave for internment, his wife was 9 months pregnant. Their son was born en route to Topaz, at Tanforan Racetrack, re-purposed as an assembly center. Internees were housed in the horse stables.