Through photographs, personal accounts, essays, and historical documents, Show Me the Way to Go to Home by Sandy Sugawara and Catian Garcia-Kilroy reopens the conversation about the incarceration camps where 120,000 Japanese Americans were held during World War II. Sugawara and Garcia-Kilroy visited the sites of the ten former camps, photographing the remnants and traces of what had taken place there. The evocative visual journey through the photographic part of the book is filled with contrast and contradiction between the beautiful natural surroundings and the injustice and inhumanity that occurred in these locations.

Show Me the Way to Go to Home is an immersive, visual journey through the incarceration camps that held 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. Photographers Sandy Sugawara and Catiana Garcia-Kilroy tell the story of each camp through original and archival photographs, personal stories, and government documents. It’s a frightening tale of a society that failed to protect its vulnerable.

Each camp is introduced by a short summary, printed on delicate rice paper, that includes the camp’s background as well as notable incarcerees. Following the photographic visit to the ten camps, Show Me the Way to Go to Home then focuses on the personal experiences of several survivors, among them Sandy Sugawara’s grandmother, Kiyo Miyake, the artist Chiura Obata, and the scientist Takashi Hoshizaki. Historical documents (including a speech by Ronald Reagan), poems by writers Christine Kitano and Brandon Shimoda, as well as essays by Dr. Karen Korematsu and Dr. Donna Nagata, further illustrate the grave injustice and its lasting impact.