Internee-Artists of Heart Mountain War Relocation Camp, Wyoming
Images of Heart Mountain - Do they tell the truth, the whole truth?
Photographs of Heart Mountain taken by the Camp residents usually show a happy place showing group photos and activities There are many photographs of little children born at Heart Mountain. Most pictures taken by amateur photographers show this reality. For instance, I haven't seen photos of the communal latrines, My family and others were making the best of this situation and showing the best of camp life. There are 2 phrases in Japanese which can explain this attitude. "Shikata ga na" (It can't be helped) and "gaman. " Wikipedia translates the latter as "enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity." More simply, it can mean "don't complain."
Of course, there were internees who protested. There were men who resisted being drafted into the U.S. military while their family were still behind barbed wire. But my family was not one of those. So I'll leave that part of the story to others to tell.
Internee-artists, uninhibited by family faces and situations, could and did express a different reality, many times a more real and more bleak reality.
Below are art work by artist-internees of Heart Mountain.
Photographs of Heart Mountain taken by the Camp residents usually show a happy place showing group photos and activities There are many photographs of little children born at Heart Mountain. Most pictures taken by amateur photographers show this reality. For instance, I haven't seen photos of the communal latrines, My family and others were making the best of this situation and showing the best of camp life. There are 2 phrases in Japanese which can explain this attitude. "Shikata ga na" (It can't be helped) and "gaman. " Wikipedia translates the latter as "enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity." More simply, it can mean "don't complain."
Of course, there were internees who protested. There were men who resisted being drafted into the U.S. military while their family were still behind barbed wire. But my family was not one of those. So I'll leave that part of the story to others to tell.
Internee-artists, uninhibited by family faces and situations, could and did express a different reality, many times a more real and more bleak reality.
Below are art work by artist-internees of Heart Mountain.
Heart mountain relocation camp as seen by Internee-Artists
Heart Mt. Wyo, xx" x xx", (Kay Yonemoto Collection)
Jishiro Miyauchi (1888-1984)
Heart Mountain Address 28-13-A
Biography:
Jishiro Miyauchi (1888-1984) was an Issei painter and an occasional performer who produced a number of landscape paintings while incarcerated at the American concentration camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming, during World War II. Miyauchi was born on August 21, 1888, in Japan and immigrated to Vancouver, BC, in 1907, where he found work with the railroad in a variety of jobs, from mine worker to dishwasher. As his passion was to become an artist and musician, he eventually moved to Chicago and enrolled at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, and eventually left Illinois to perform in vaudeville, singing Italian arias and novelty songs. He and his wife, Kama, were residing in the Los Angeles area when World War II broke out, and were consequently sent to the Santa Anita Assembly Center, and then to the permanent camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming.
In Heart Mountain, he joined other artists who shared studio space and often worked together such as Hideo Date, Jack Yamasaki, and Gompers Saijo. He focused on his painting, mixing his own paint colors with coal dust, rice paste, and natural pigments he found in and around the camp. After the war, he continued painting as a hobby. He died on July 8, 1984 in Los Angeles, California.
Biography authored by Patricia Wakida - Densho Encyclopedia
Jishiro Miyauchi (1888-1984)
Heart Mountain Address 28-13-A
Biography:
Jishiro Miyauchi (1888-1984) was an Issei painter and an occasional performer who produced a number of landscape paintings while incarcerated at the American concentration camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming, during World War II. Miyauchi was born on August 21, 1888, in Japan and immigrated to Vancouver, BC, in 1907, where he found work with the railroad in a variety of jobs, from mine worker to dishwasher. As his passion was to become an artist and musician, he eventually moved to Chicago and enrolled at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, and eventually left Illinois to perform in vaudeville, singing Italian arias and novelty songs. He and his wife, Kama, were residing in the Los Angeles area when World War II broke out, and were consequently sent to the Santa Anita Assembly Center, and then to the permanent camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming.
In Heart Mountain, he joined other artists who shared studio space and often worked together such as Hideo Date, Jack Yamasaki, and Gompers Saijo. He focused on his painting, mixing his own paint colors with coal dust, rice paste, and natural pigments he found in and around the camp. After the war, he continued painting as a hobby. He died on July 8, 1984 in Los Angeles, California.
Biography authored by Patricia Wakida - Densho Encyclopedia
"Horizon Can Be Clear" reproduction of a drawing (part of the Yonemoto archives)
Paul M. Zaima (1921- 1979)
Heart Mountain Address 20-13-E (Masataka Zaima, head of household)
A slightly different version of this print won second prize winner at the art exhibit at Cambridge, Massachusetts under the sponsorship of the Friends Meeting, 1943. Chiura Obata won first prize with his drawing, New Moon.
Biography:
Paul M. Zaima was born in 1921 and was living in Hollywood, California with his family at the time of the evacuation. His parents were both born in Japan, but Paul never visited or lived in Japan and never went to Japanese school. He enlisted in the 442nd regiment, 100th battalion, Headquarters Company.
Paul M. Zaima (1921- 1979)
Heart Mountain Address 20-13-E (Masataka Zaima, head of household)
A slightly different version of this print won second prize winner at the art exhibit at Cambridge, Massachusetts under the sponsorship of the Friends Meeting, 1943. Chiura Obata won first prize with his drawing, New Moon.
Biography:
Paul M. Zaima was born in 1921 and was living in Hollywood, California with his family at the time of the evacuation. His parents were both born in Japan, but Paul never visited or lived in Japan and never went to Japanese school. He enlisted in the 442nd regiment, 100th battalion, Headquarters Company.
Front Cover of Heart Mountain Directory - all Japanese version
(part of the Yonemoto archives)
A drawing reproduced on mimeographed paper
Signed D.T., 1943
(part of the Yonemoto archives)
A drawing reproduced on mimeographed paper
Signed D.T., 1943
Estelle Ishigo (1941-1990)
Heart Mountain Address 14-6-A
Heart Mountain Address 14-6-A
The best known of the artist-internee of Heart Mountain is Estelle Ishigo, a Caucasian artist, who chose to follow her Japanese-American husband, Arthur Ishigo, to Heart Mountain. Hers was a heart-breaking story. She and her husband were one of the last to leave Heart Mountain after the war's end. They had no where to go. After the war, she continued to sketch Japanese-American community life in their new home in a trailer camp in Lomita, California. They worked in fish canneries in nearby San Pedro.
Flying Kites at Heart Mountain
The sky and wind
were all they had, sailing on a kite
to greet the clouds
from glowing sun
down into shadows of night
Original drawing and poem by Estelle Ishigo from her book Lone Heart Mountain
Image from a note card, published by the Heart Mountain Fund in West Covina, California
Flying Kites at Heart Mountain
The sky and wind
were all they had, sailing on a kite
to greet the clouds
from glowing sun
down into shadows of night
Original drawing and poem by Estelle Ishigo from her book Lone Heart Mountain
Image from a note card, published by the Heart Mountain Fund in West Covina, California
Estelle's Lone Heart Mountain, a book which she wrote and sketched during her encampment years, was published in 1972,
In 1990 Producer/Director Steven Okazaki released the film Days of Waiting about Estelle's life. The film earned the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject and received the prestigious George Peabody Award.
Many of her sketches and papers are now part of the University of Wyoming collection and the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.
In 1990 Producer/Director Steven Okazaki released the film Days of Waiting about Estelle's life. The film earned the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject and received the prestigious George Peabody Award.
Many of her sketches and papers are now part of the University of Wyoming collection and the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.