Koga was born in Sacramento, California, on August 10, 1920, and had been an avid photographer since she was a child.
During World War II, following the signing of Executive Order 9066, she was incarcerated in the internment camp at Tule Lake[1] for a year because of her Japanese ethnicity.
Done in both color as well as black and white, the images are delicate close-ups of mostly single flower heads, artfully arranged in the studio with tightly controlled lighting.
Her images show the members of the isolated religious community of Hutterites, who in many cases had been photographed for the first time.
Between 1986 and 1989, Koga photographed them in the day care facility and the Senior Citizens Work Center of the Japanese American Service Committee (JASC) and at Heiwa Terrace, a Japanese American senior residence, both located in Chicago.