What happened to Japanese-Americans in the U.S. in the months immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 is shocking, even today.
As the American war effort geared up, 120,000 of these American citizens were forced to abandon their homes and businesses and move to internment camps in desolate parcels of Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho and California.
The forced imprisonment of Americans of Japanese ancestry, born of a misguided notion they would undermine the nation from within, is a troubling and often overlooked side of American history.
But despite their circumstances, imprisoned Japanese-Americans created artwork and useful objects that helped them cope with their bleak situation. In the exhibition “The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps 1942-1946” at the William Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, this deplorable moment in our national narrative is examined in a new light.
The traveling exhibition features artworks, furniture, crafts and household objects created by Japanese-American internees and was curated by the daughter of camp detainee, Delphine Hirasuna.
“The Art of Gaman” shows how people, many with no previous artistic experience, found relief from their situation by creating works of beauty and utility. “Gaman,” as defined by the Japanese, means “enduring the unbearable with dignity and patience.”
The objects are quite varied, from traditional objects rooted in Japanese life, to functional items, like knives and scissors forged from scrap metal.
Some show the particular interest of their makers, as the humorous pine wood carvings of World War II political leaders like Mussolini and Hitler.
But in many cases the art-making was communal. A subgenre of Japanese dolls and faux flower brooches was created by groups of detainees. Using tiny sea shells found in the dry lake beds of the internment camps in Tule Lake, Calif., and Topaz, Utah, prisoners shaped them into chrysanthemums or wisteria to mark weddings, funerals and other occasions.
In the construction of these objects, the internees created some semblance of the life they had previously known, bringing reminders of beauty, normalcy and devotion to a bleak world. The objects range from the quirky, like a ring carved from a peach pit, to the sublime, like Harry Yoshio Tsuruda’s 7-inch birch-bark log sculpture depicting tiny hikers traversing a steep mountain road.
Included in the exhibition are photographs and mementos from local collections of internees now living in Georgia and a Breman-produced video “After Camp: The Resilience of the Human Spirit” documenting their experiences.
Craft and folk are are often derided as “lesser” forms than fine art, but in “The Art of Gaman,” one finds a full appreciation for the significance of these populist forms. Artists used indigenous materials like mesquite and manzanita wood, cactus, slate and scrap metal to transform the overlooked into something meaningful.
History becomes tangible via these hand-made objects. In many ways, the artworks are more thought-provoking and emotionally powerful than what might be found in a typical historical exhibition. The objects convey meticulous care, hours of work, love, dignity and the warm imprint of the human touch. In this fascinating, eye-opening show, these artworks often say more about the interior lives of the individuals who created them than a mere photograph or historical document.
Visual art review
“The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps 1942-1946.” Through May 31. $12; $8 seniors; $6 students; $4 children 3-6; free for children 3 and under and members. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Fridays; 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Sundays. William Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, 1440 Spring St., NW, 678-222-3700, www.thebreman.org.
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