California Before the War

In my collection of photographs taken by Ochan are a series of photographs taken in San Francisco before the evacuation occur. It is hard to determine the date of these pictures, but from the crowds, I believe this may be the opening of the Golden Gate or an image of some of the late phase of construction. The rigging to the side seems to indicate some sort of construction occurring.

Here we have a photograph taken of Alcatraz when it was still used as a penitentiary. This was more than likely taken from one of the ferries across the bay.

And here is one of the passenger ferries taking groups to one side of the bay to the other. 

While it would seem likely that more pre-war pictures would exist, but unfortunately, I only have a handful of images of the kind. According to family legend, on December 8th, 1941, men from the FBI went to all of the Japanese households and took away the men. As word of this travelled from family to family, and word reached my grandmother, she did what she could to keep the family safe. She burned any photograph that could be thought of as suspicious.  Now these images are some of the few that remain.