Dorothea Lange photographed successful chrysanthemum grower Ryohitsu Shibuya and his family at their home in Mountain View, California, on April 18, 1942. Days later, they were sent to Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Wyoming, under Executive Order 9066. The family returned to their home in April 1945 without Mrs. Shibuya, who had died at the internment camp.
The original caption for this photograph reads: Mountain View, California. Members of the Shibuya family are pictured at their home before evacuation. The father and the mother were born in Japan and came to this country in 1904. At that time the father had $60 in cash and a basket of clothes. He later built a prosperous business of raising select varieties of chrysanthemums which he shipped to eastern markets under his own trade name. Six children in the family were born in the United States. The four older children attended leading California Universities. Evacuees of Japanese ancestry will be housed in War Relocation Authority Centers for the duration.
