The Japanese American Citizen’s League and 18 Million Rising are demanding that Amazon stop profiting from images of Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II.
An open letter to Amazon Vice President and General Counsel Mark Hoff accused the online retailer of marketing those images as decorative home and office art, reports Northwest Asian Weekly.
The online retailer allows third parties to sell merchandise such as photographs, but JACL claims that these sellers capitalize on Japanese Americans’ painful history and “exploiting our anguish for profit” in the letter.
The letter acknowledges the photographs’ historical value, but argues that “they should be used in the classroom and other educational settings, not as a profit center for e-commerce businesses who have no relationship connection to this history.” It notes that Walmart agreed to remove similar products after “engaging in conversations with us and other members of our community.”
One photograph of an incarcerated Japanese American child is sold on Amazon for $19.95 plus $2.99 for shipping, reports The Rafu Shimpo.
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