A moment of national injustice: In the hysteria following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, 125,000 West Coast Japanese American citizens were sent without trial to ten incarceration camps across the U.S. My family—including my young grandmother, Mari Matsumoto—lost their California home and belongings when they were forcibly relocated to the Colorado River "Relocation Center" in Poston, AZ.

Eighty years after their release and forced relocation to Chicago, I was able to join the Poston Pilgrimage with thirty-five Matsumoto descendants and relatives. I captured many images, but these six, taken with a small travel camera, are the ones I feel best convey the legacy of my family’s experience and the weight of their story almost a century later.