BeHere / 1942: A New Lens on the Japanese American Incarceration

“My aim was to peer deeply into photographs…to derive from them more than was visible on the surface.”

—Masaki Fujihata

Coming Soon | Great Hall

Friday, September 18, 2026—Sunday, December 27, 2026

Can looking closely at photographs change what we see, know, and feel about this history? Japanese artist Masaki Fujihata explores this very question in BeHere / 1942: A New Lens on the Japanese American Incarceration. Through immersive installations of historic images and augmented reality (AR) experiences, the exhibition brings visitors into the moments of 1942—before Japanese Americans in Oakland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles were transported to concentration camps during World War II. 

Fujihata has spent years combing through the archives of famed photographers Dorothea Lange and Russell Lee, who documented the forced incarceration of Japanese Americans in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, respectively. In this exhibition, he enlarges, zooms into, and activates their images to encourage visitors to look more closely—at the emotions of each subject and at the power dynamics at play between the photographer behind the camera and people in front of it. 

Originally developed by the Yanai Initiative at UCLA and presented at the Japanese American National Museum in 2022, OMCA’s exhibition features new elements specific to the Bay Area. Highlights include installations that draw from Dorothea Lange’s 1942 photographs of San Francisco and Oakland, some taken directly across the street from what is now Oakland Museum of California. Fujihata also created a new three-screen video featuring local residents, some with connections to the story of Japanese American incarceration and others impacted by present-day anti-immigrant policies. Significantly, BeHere / 1942 extends into Oak Street Plaza, where a life-size image of Japanese Americans lined up to board buses creates the basis for an AR experience. When visitors look at the AR app, they will see images of buses and people moving as they might have in 1942 layered over the plaza. 

Want to see it free? Members get unlimited admission to special exhibitions and galleries. Learn more about membership.

Highlights

Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange, Courtesy National Archives
Keisuke Tanaka, Takayuki Ochiai with a staff member of Crescent, Inc., Yasuhito Nagahara, Masaki Fujihata, and Yasutaka Fukuda.
Keisuke Tanaka, Takayuki Ochiai with a staff member of Crescent, Inc., Yasuhito Nagahara, Masaki Fujihata, and Yasutaka Fukuda.
Agfa Safety Film negative Dorothea Lange's WRA caption for photographs in this series 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
Dorothea Lange, Oakland Museum of California, All Rights Reserved
Yukiko Okinaga at the Old Santa Fe station. Photograph by Russell Lee, Los Angeles, California, April 1942.
Yukiko Okinaga at the Old Santa Fe station.,Russell Lee, Los Angeles, California, April 1942.
Knowing that Russell Lee used a 50 mm lens with his 35 mm Contax camera allowed three-dimensional modeler Yasutaka Fukuda to pinpoint the photographer’s position.
Knowing that Russell Lee used a 50 mm lens with his 35 mm Contax camera allowed three-dimensional modeler Yasutaka Fukuda to pinpoint the photographer’s position.
Russell Lee
Untitled photo, Russell Lee, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
Russell Lee
Russell Lee, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives
Dorothea Lange, Courtesy National Archives
Dorothea Lange, Courtesy National Archives
Dorothea Lange, Courtesy National Archives
Dorothea Lange, Courtesy National Archives

MORE

Please accept statistics, marketing cookies to watch this video.
The AR experience of BeHere / 1942 recorded at the plaza Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, in May 2022.

Sponsors

Support for BeHere / 1942: A New Lens on the Japanese American Incarceration is provided by The Oakland Museum Women’s Board and the Japanese American Community Foundation. 

BeHere / 1942: A New Lens on the Japanese American Incarceration is an exhibit by the Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities at UCLA, in collaboration with the Oakland Museum of California. BeHere / 1942 was originally co-presented by the Yanai Initiative and the Japanese American National Museum.

*Header image: Japanese-Owned Grocery Store, Oakland, Dorothea Lange