Japanese-American owned grocery store, Oakland, California, March 1942

The full caption for this photograph reads: Oakland, Calif., Mar. 1942. A large sign reading "I am an American" placed in the window of a store, at 401 - 403 Eighth and Franklin streets, on December 8, the day after Pearl Harbor. The store was closed following orders to persons of Japanese descent to evacuate from certain West Coast areas. The owner, a University of California graduate, will be housed with hundreds of evacuees in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration of the war Summary: Photograph shows the Wanto Co. store located at 401 - 403 Eighth and Franklin Streets in Oakland, California. The business was owned by the Matsuda family. Tatsuro Matsuda, a University of California graduate, commissioned and installed the "I am an American" sign. (Source: researcher R. Yee, Oakland Museum of California, 2017) Lange took this photograph while working for the War Relocation Authority, and the OWI acquired a copy for its own files.

Date

1942-03

Collection

FSA/OWI

Archive

Library of Congress (via Wikimedia Commons)

Type

photograph

Original size

5,723 × 4,547 pixels

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