The Heart Mountain War Relocation Center opened in June 1942 and held a total of 13,997 Japanese Americans over the next three years, with a peak population of 10,767, before it closed on November 10, 1945. It was one of ten concentration camps used for the internment of Japanese Americans evicted from the West Coast Exclusion Zone during World War II. The camp contained 650 military-­style barracks and surrounding guard towers.

The photographs were shot by George Shinichi Iwanaga (1921–2012), a 21-year-old Los Angeles resident of Japanese descent. Born in Fresno, he never visited Japan and had completed two years of college. He lived for two years at Heart Mountain before being released in August 1944. At Heart Mountain, Iwanaga took a job as an assistant in the Public Works Department.

The photographs included in this collection were part of an exhibit, perhaps for a school project, put together by his son Paul, a photographer who graduated from UCLA in 1977. A similar set of Iwanaga's photographs was used for an exhibit at UCLA in 2002.

After leaving Heart Mountain, Iwanaga pursued higher education. In 1946 he graduated from the Institute of Technology, University of Minnesota. He went on to the University of Washington to pursue a master of science in civil engineering. In 1950, Iwanaga married Mitsu Nemoto, also a Los Angeles resident who was held at the Rohwer internment camp in Arkansas. They lived many years in Pasadena and had four children: Doug, Paul, Barbara and Jon.

A photo of Heart Mountain by Iwanaga is contained in the collections of the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience in Seattle, as well as at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Source: Brad and Jennnifer Johnson, owners, The Book Shop, Covina, California.