Paul Kitagaki, Jr.

Sacramento Bee senior photographer Paul Kitagaki Jr. has been searching since 2005 for the identities of Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans whose images of forced relocation in 1942 were captured by acclaimed documentary photographer Dorothea Lange and the War Relocation Authority.

At first, Kitagaki's interest was personal. In 1984, he learned that Lange photographed his grandparents, father and aunt in 1942 as they awaited a bus in Oakland to begin their journey into detention. Kitagaki set out to create a collection of portraits mirroring Lange's work. For the first, he gathered his family at the same Oakland departure point six decades after they had been sent away. Lange's photographs document the moment their lives changed forever; Kitagaki's images record their enduring spirit.
Since then, Kitagaki has photographed more than 15 subjects, or their descendants, from the original internment images. It's an ongoing project. Kitagaki seeks the identities of others photographed by Lange and her counterparts.

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