Bill Manbo

Bill Manbo (1908–1992) was an amateur photographer who documented the incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry during World War II in Kodachrome photographs.

Early life Bill Manbo was born in Riverside, California in 1908. His parents were Kaichi and Tayo Manbo, Japanese immigrants originally from Hiroshima. As an adolescent, he lived in Hollywood and in Japan for nearly two years. He did not attend school in Japan and entered high school at the age of 17, graduating from Hollywood High School in 1929. He took approximately 192 photographs at Heart Mountain, which he sent back to Los Angeles for processing. He started working at the Heart Mountain motor pool in late October 1942. In November 1944, he and his wife and son, Bill Manbo Jr., moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where Manbo worked in a factory. They eventually returned to California and settled in Hollywood. Manbo died in 1992.

Exhibitions and books In 2012, Eric Muller published Manbo's photographs in Colors of Confinement. An exhibit of his photographs was on display at the Japanese American National Museum.