Riki Oya

This is one of approximately 100 portraits that Mary Koga made of elderly Issei, first-generation Japanese immigrants that she met through Chicago’s Japanese American Service Committee. Koga was a social worker who turned to pho-tography late in life. Born in Sacramento, California, Koga had just graduated college when she was incarcerated—among other American residents of Japanese descent during World War II—by the federal government. After her release, Koga relocated to Chicago, where she completed a master’s degree in social work from the University of Chicago and an MFA in photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.