Henry Blocher was interned during WW II at CPS Camp 21, Cascade Locks, OR.
During Henry's CPS Camp time, and while he was assigned to work in the medical photo lab at Western State Hospital in Lakewood, WA, he used his spare time to create a photographic record of Cascade Locks and the hospital wards, capturing where COs lived, and their "work of national importance." Henry took hundreds of photographs that now make up the Henry and Mary Blocher Collection, a priceless historical record and resource for future study. Henry's photographs have appeared in many books and magazines through the years, often without proper credit. His photographs of patients receiving care by COs, care that lead to improvements in how mental patients were treated, are some of his most famous and important images of the period.
"I think you just have to look at yourself, look inside yourself and see what convictions you have. You can't tell somebody what they should do, that doesn't work. They have to look at what other people have done, I guess, and see where they want to position themselves in relationship with what they believe. I think that's the only basis for being. To be a Conscientious Objector or anything else like that, you got to be convinced within yourself that you're doing what is right. If you don't, it won't work."
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