Toyo Miyatake's photos tell story of displaced lives at Manzanar

Toyo Miyatake was an accomplished Los Angeles photographer in the 1930s and '40s. The immigrant, who had come to the United States at age 14, was among the more than 110,000 Japanese Americans sent to internment camps during World War II.

In 1942 when he and his family were forced to move to the military-style Manzanar relocation camp near Lone Pine, Calif., Miyatake used his skills to tell the story of day-to-day life for these displaced families -- no easy task considering cameras were not allowed in the camp.

Seventy of the black-and-white photographs he took are now on display as part of an exhibition at the Eastern California Museum in Independence, Calif., not far from what has become Manzanar National Historic Site. The photos document aspects of the camp and the people who endured the harsh climate in the Sierra foothills that could be searing hot in summer and freezing cold in winter...