In April 1942, a handmade sign leaning against a rural gatepost marked the end of someone’s world: “Foreclosure Sale. Furniture. All Must Be Sold.”
Photographer Russell Lee captured the scene as Japanese-American families were forced from their homes under Executive Order 9066. No crimes. No trials. Just fear, policy, and silence.
This Rockwell-style rendering reimagines that quiet horror. It looks peaceful—almost idyllic. But the beauty of the land doesn’t absolve what was done on it. The sign is more than just notice of a sale; it’s a monument to how easily American ideals can be betrayed by American hands.
And now, in 2025, we hear it again: Make America Great Again. But which again do they mean? The one where citizens lost everything by executive decree? The one where racial suspicion justified state theft?
Because this image—that sign—was someone’s “again.”
We need to ask, every time we hear the chant:
Is this the ‘Again?’
The one we’re being sold?
The one they’re trying to bring back?
Displacement today wears new clothes. It’s foreclosure, eviction, deregulated land grabs, ICE raids, and economic abandonment. Different tools. Same cruelty.
History isn’t a warning if we let it repeat with better marketing.
The Past, Reimagined Like Rockwell #11
Is this the “Again?” #5
