Held Captive in Their Own Country During World War II, Japanese Americans Used Nature to Cope With Their Unjustified Imprisonment

Guard tower, Manzanar concentration camp. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

With a stroke of a presidential pen, the lives of Izumi Taniguchi, Minoru Tajii, Homei Iseyama and Peggy Yorita irreparably changed on Feb. 19, 1942. On that day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which set in motion their wartime incarceration along with other people of Japanese ancestry who were forcibly removed from their homes in parts of California, Oregon, Washington and Arizona.

To cope with their fear...