By Louis Chan
AsAmNews National Correspondent
The Japanese American Citizens League says Walmart has agreed to remove photos of the incarceration of Japanese Americans from sale, although some photos remain on Walmart.com.
The group contacted the retailer along with posterazzi.com, and Granger Historical Picture Archive shortly after a tweet from best selling author Jamie Ford went viral.
Hey @Walmart why are you selling posters of the Japanese Internment? Described as “The perfect Wall Art for any home, bedroom, playroom, classroom, dorm room or office workspace.” https://t.co/uKwLdugQMl pic.twitter.com/0rAQ0F5HjU
— Jamie Ford (@JamieFord) November 11, 2017
“Upon further investigation, the company Posterazzi.com selling Japanese concentration camp ‘art’ is the same company caught selling photos of Auschwitz on the Walmart site three years ago, JACL said in a statement released to a Rafu Shimpo “Walmart responded immediately over the weekend to remove the Auschwitz photos, we expect the same for Japanese American camp photos”
JACL says the photos have been taken down from each company’s website.
AsAmNews delayed reporting the removal of the photos because it was unclear what action had been taken. While a search seem to indicate some photos had been taken down, others appear to remain up.
We found this photo for sale just today under the category of art and wall decor.
Inquiries to Walmart were never returned to AsAmNews.
Ford himself expressed dismay when he received this message from the retailer shortly after his original tweet went viral.
Sweet Petunia. After visiting @Walmart, Facebook’s algorithms sent me this. No thanks. I don’t need any Japanese Internment deals. Go home @facebook, you’re drunk. pic.twitter.com/hjgulPbGMk
— Jamie Ford (@JamieFord) November 11, 2017
What seemed to bother many was the lack of context in which the photos were sold.
They were advertised as “the perfect wall art for any home, bedroom, playroom, classroom, dorm room or office workspace.”
“We are very sorry such a sensitive topic was handled in such an insensitive way,” Walmart said to the Huffington Post. “The description used for these products was beyond tone-deaf, and unfortunately it wasn’t caught by us or the marketplace seller who listed these products on our site. When we were contacted about these over the weekend, we quickly removed the items from our Marketplace. We apologize this wasn’t caught sooner.”
AsAmNews has Asian America in its heart. We’re an all-volunteer effort of dedicated staff and interns. You can show your support by liking our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/asamnews, following us on Twitter, sharing our stories, interning or joining our staff.
