At first glance it looks like any other high school yearbook, but on closer inspection it is far from ordinary. The 1944 yearbook is from Aquila High School at the Tule Lake Relocation Center, California. Tule Lake was one of ten Japanese internment camps, among the largest and with the highest level of security. The illustrations depict the barren landscape and convey the experience of isolation and confinement. Despite their circumstances, high school and all of its normalcy continued. The Japanese phrase, "Shikata ga nai," meaning it can't be helped or nothing can be done about it, begins to express the ability of the Japanese internees to maintain dignity in the face of an unjust tragedy.
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