Jerry Takigawa
“Balancing Cultures” is an award-winning photography series that reveals my family’s story related to the WWII American Concentration camps sanctioned by President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, which was issued on February 19, 1942. This project presented an opportunity to address the racism perpetrated on the 120,000 Japanese living on the West Coast that resulted in the loss of their property and dignity, and a suspension of their civil rights. Awakened by a discovery of old family photographs taken in an Arkansas camp, I was compelled to speak out about my parents’ silence.
Piecing together a historical puzzle, I used collaged photographs, artifacts, and memories to create a visual story of my family’s journey—from immigration to incarceration and re-assimilation. “Balancing Cultures” seeks to remind us that racism, hysteria, and economic exploitation are still issues in America. At first, sharing these feelings publicly felt like a betrayal—a telling of family secrets. But now, with renewed violence and racism against people of color in America, this work is not only healing, it’s critical to the context of the times. If silence sanctions, then documentation is resistance.