Tōyō Miyatake (宮武東洋,ōyō Miyatake Tōyō; 1895–1979) was a Japanese American photographer, best known for his photographs documenting the Japanese American people and the Japanese American internment at Manzanar during World War II.
Life
Miyatake was born in Kagawa, Shikoku, in Japan in 1895. In 1909 he migrated to the United States to join his father. He settled in the Little Tokyo section of Los Angeles, California.
With an interest in arts — most notably photography, which he studied under Harry K. Shigeta — Miyatake began associating with the local arts community. In 1923 he bought his photo studio. Miyatake encouraged fellow photographer Edward Weston to exhibit his work and Miyatake is credited as giving Weston his first gallery showing.
At the time Miyatake met his future wife, his brother was courting her. He began spending time with Hiro under the guise that he was using her as a model. His brother was crushed; it is said that he "died of a broken heart" at an early age.
Before World War II, Miyatake's photography won awards including the 1926 London International Photography Exhibition as he photographed various personalities.
Manzanar
With the outbreak of American involvement in World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Miyatake was incarcerated at the Manzanar internment camp in the Owens Valley, along with his wife and four children, part of the internment of Japanese Americans during the war. He smuggled a camera lens into the camp and had a camera body constructed from wood, while an ally smuggled film and developing supplies to him from outside to allow him to take and develop photographs of the camp. Using this equipment he secretly took photographs of the camp, working primarily in the early morning before most people were about, or at mealtimes, to avoid being seen photographing by the military police. Although he initially started his photography in secret, he approached Manzanar project director Ralph Merritt to ask to serve as official camp photographer. This would allow him to take photos to commemorate weddings and other official purposes, and to photograph Japanese volunteers who wanted photos for their families before they left for military service. Merritt agreed to this, but since at the time inmates were not allowed cameras, the proviso was made that Miyatake could set up the camera and frame the photograph, but the actual shutter release must be done by a white person. This condition was eventually lifted, and eight months after arriving at the camp, Miyatake was issued an ID card as the official concentration camp photographer, allowing him to take pictures at will, and sent for his photographic equipment from his (closed) studio in Los Angeles. He set up a studio at the camp as part of the internee-run Manzanar Consumer Cooperative.
At Manzanar, Miyatake met and began a longtime collaboration with Ansel Adams, who visited and photographed the camp in 1943. After the war, they showed their photographs in a collaborative exhibit, and published the book Two Views of Manzanar featuring both his and Adams' photos of the camp.,
Of the three major photographers who documented the camps, Adams, Miyatake, and Dorothea Lange, each one's work showed somewhat different aspects of the camps. Miyatake's work is described as showing "an intimacy with camp life absent in the pictures that Adams and Lange took."
Post-War
After the war, the family returned to Los Angeles, where their home had been entrusted to some of their white friends during the incarceration. Unlike many families who lost their homes, the Miyatakes were able to resume their life and provide shelter to a few less fortunate incarcerees and their families. In post-war Little Tokyo, many residents were unable to afford Miyatake's services and some opted instead to barter goods to have him photograph weddings and portraits. With his wife Hiro running the front office, she once negotiated his services for a Steinway piano and another time, she negotiated for a litter of poodles.
After the death of his wife, Hiro, in 1971, Miyatake moved from his home on Third Street in East Los Angeles to live in neighboring Monterey Park with his daughter and her family.
He remained active in the studio throughout this period. In the early morning, Miyatake could be seen walking around Monterey Highlands Elementary School for exercise. The last image he captured on film was taken at this park. The film was discovered and processed after his death.
Before his death in 1979, Miyatake and Ansel Adams produced a book, Two Views of Manzanar, a compilation of their photographs during the incarceration.