Why Comics?
This Superman comic strip depicts the questions of the loyalty of some of those incarcerated in the camps, creating fear in the public sphere that perhaps, those detained are threatening and should be feared. Images like this helped to contribute to the Yellow Peril of WWII.
Most Americans would never seen an incarceration camp because they were all located in remote and inhospitable places. Major comic companies such as DC and Marvel also created images of Japanese American internment that tried to convince the public that the incarceration sites were good. These images were very harmful and used negative stereotypes of Japanese American people. This shows how powerful images are in shaping the way that we perceive the world around us.
However, within the camps, various artists were also illustrating their day to day realities. This image shows the womens' latrines. Drawn by artist Mine Okubo, it is one of the few representations of what day to day life facilities looked like. With little privacy, these women used parts of boxes, cloth and other found objects to provide some semblance of privacy.
Comics and illustrations were widely used both inside and outside the camps and this projects chose comics because of its widespread accessibility and the fact that popular culture, rather than research, might also be the primary source of information about incarceration camps. As we move farther away from this history, the actual facts fade away. Looking at primary source documents (documents that were created during WWII in the internment camps and outside of the camps) give us insight into what people who were living through this period, thought about what was happening.
