What You Can Carry
Oil ink, charcoal on paper
18” x 24”
Oil ink, charcoal on paper
18” x 24”
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Executive Order 9066 was issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. With little notice, over 120,000 individuals—two-thirds of them U.S. citizens—were ordered to leave their homes.
They were told to bring only what they could carry. No furniture. No pets. No cameras or radios. Entire lives were reduced to a suitcase. Businesses were shuttered, property was lost, and communities were fractured. A single suitcase carried not only the last of their belongings but also the weight of memory and identity.
Many were soon transported by bus or train to desolate camps surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards.
What would you take if your entire life had to fit into one suitcase—with just days to prepare?
