Excerpt from Patrick Nagatani, Japanese-American Concentration Camps (1993-1995),:

For most of my adult life I have been aware of the historical, political, philosophical, and psychological issues that define the "relocation" or "concentration camp" experience in which 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom were American citizens, endured from 1942-1945 here in the United States of America. My parents, John Nagatani and Diane (Yoshimura) Nagatani were interned at Jerome and Manzanar. . . .

Landscape retains memory. I felt the individual and collective memories that were inherent to all the camps in one way or another. Every camp is vividly etched in my mind and the images that I have selected to print are in a very small manner a way to share this personal experience. This work has been for me experiential and sentimental. I realize now, after having been to the ten camps, the experience has been very important for me in further developing my own cultural identity. I dedicate this work to my parents and to the other 120,000 inmates, many who are still living, all having had to live at these places and whose memories I encountered.