|
view
my guestbook
|
sign my guestbook
get
your free guestbook
Reception
Invitation
Photos
from Opening Reception
|
 |
|
Ladies
and gentlemen, The Honorable Mike Honda, Jerry Hiura,
a member of the California Arts Council, members of
the Japanese American Museum of San Jose, friends,
and family — thank you for coming tonight to
celebrate the opening of 1942: Luggage From
Home To Camp, a collaborative suitcase exhibition
based on memories of packing for internment camp between
the Japanese American Museum of San Jose (JAMsj)
and myself. |
| The
stars of 1942: Luggage From Home To Camp
are Lola Tanaka Abe, Elsie Mayeda Honda, David
M. Sakai, Eiichi Edward Sakauye, Esau Shimizu, and
Misao Yamano Shiotsuka. In 1942, Lola Tanaka Abe
was a senior in high school whose family moved from
San Luis Obispo to Cutler, California in hopes of
not being interned. Elsie Mayeda Honda was a 17 year
old high school junior living with her family who
were pre-evacuated from their home located in a sensitive
area of Richmond, California to Berkeley. David M.
Sakai, known as Dave, was a 25 year old senior at
San Jose State College whose family was in Japan when
notice of the evacuation came. Edward Eiichi Sakauye
was 30 years old when his family left their San Jose
farm in the care of a neighbor. Esau Shimizu was 25
years old and a new bridegroom when he and his brothers
closed up their familyÕs San Jose berry basket business.
Misao Yamano Shiotsuka was 22 years old when she left
with her family for the Salinas Assembly Center where
she eventually became engaged to her future husband,
Sam. Their expanded stories form the heart of 1942:
Luggage From Home To Camp.
|
| Without
their participation we would not have the exhibit.
They sat with me for hours, extracting bits and pieces
of their past. They opened up their family albums.
They went through boxes of camp-era objects. When
I met with Dave and Ruth Sakai one day at their house
Dave said that I made his head hurt. He said that
in order to answer my questions he had to intimately
review photos and documents of a distant time of his
life. Yet, Dave and the other participants continued
to work with me. I had explained that I wanted to
know what they had packed for internment and that
I would visually tell their packing stories in actual
camp suitcases.
|
| How
did this project get started? It came into being as
a result of my 2001 solo show at the Japanese American
National Museum (JANM). A week after 9/11, I met
Diane Matsuda, Director of the California Civil
Liberties Public Education Program, at JANM. Diane
had seen made in usa: Angel Island Shhh,
my exhibit about Chinese who entered this country
under false identities from 1910-1940 and who were
interrogated at Angel Island. She asked me to consider
making a visual arts project to examine parallel issues
between the Chinese American Angel Island detainee
experience and the Japanese American internment experience.
The concept was daunting and I then consulted Karin
Higa and Krissy Kim of JANM. Karin helped me focus
the exhibition premise into what you see here on display.
|
| In
January of 2002, I presented my proposal — a
suitcase exhibition, an accompanying catalog, and
a symposium - to Joe Yasutake, JAMsj president, and
Ken Iwagaki, museum founder. Because I envision suitcases
as objects that convey history and culture I felt
that they would be significant symbols of the internment.
For years, I have carried the World War II images
of Japanese American internees and their families
with their crammed suitcases waiting to board trains
for camp. I thought about the emotional and psychological
cramming of their lives when they were abruptly ripped
from their everyday existence by the U. S. government
as American citizens and their immigrant parents from
Japan. |
| So,
I wanted to make my art in actual camp luggage. At
the meeting with Joe and Ken I asked “Do you
have internment suitcases?” “We have some”
was the answer and one of them led me to a closet.
When the door opened I saw six well-worn pieces of
luggage, stacked one atop of another. I knew then
that the project was meant to be. At a later meeting,
I met Jimi Yamaichi, museum director and curator.
Energized by the exhibition proposal, he suggested
that the art pieces be housed in a replica of a barrack.
1942: Luggage From Home To Camp was on its
way after the museum received a California Civil Liberties
Public Education Program grant and supplemental funding
from other sources. |
| Why
did I take on the project? I was fresh from having
completed a major one about Chinese in America and
was in the midst of starting one on Wen Ho Lee. I
knew that the making of 1942: Luggage From Home
To Camp would consume and satisfy me. But, was
I ready for another intense enterprise? My father's
teachings then came into play. My father, Gee Seow
Hong, taught me that life was a balance of give and
take, never to go anywhere empty handed, and to respect
my elders. His principles guided me to embrace
1942: Luggage From Home To Camp. Another major
concern motivated me. I was worried about the fall-out
for Muslim and Arab Americans in the wake of 9/11
and the Iraq War. I was also excited that Joe Yasutake
wanted to include women in the project. Now, a year
after its inception, I am aware of how 1942: Luggage
From Home To Camp, an art project, weaves identity,
culture, and history into a legacy of remembrance
and healing. |
| I
am wearing blue tonight because blue was a prevalent
color during the internment era for Elsie Mayeda Honda,
the late Kay Shimizu, and Misao Yamano Shiotsuka.
Elsie packed a blue dress for camp, which her sister,
Maria, sewed for her. When Elsie wore her blue dress
to church at Tanforan she met her future husband,
Henry. When Kay and Esau Shimizu were married in March
of 1942 Kay wore a blue dress. Misao wore a blue suit
at her Poston II wedding on March 30, 1943. |
| I
had help making this project. Thank you, Jerry Hiura,
for introducing me to the people at the museum. Joe
Yasutake served as co-project director; Ken Iwagaki
became chief financial officer; Jimi Yamaichi designed
and constructed the barrack replica. He lent his family's
camp objects to the show. Thank you, Joe, Ken, and
Jimi. Our collaboration comes from the heart. The
stunning graphics — the announcement, the poster,
the catalog, and the website - was conceived by the
creative team of YAD2M— Steve Yamaguma, Han Nguyen,
and Antoinette Wardell. Thank you, Steve, Han, and
Antoinette. Jim Nagareda was the dedicated project
photographer who came whenever I needed him. Each
project participant wrote a heartwarming story. Steve
Fugita, Krissy Kim, and Wendy Ng wrote substantive
essays. Brian Komei Dempster, a dynamic editor, laboriously
edited the manuscripts so that the text flowed. I
also want to thank Steve Fugita for organizing the
October 11th symposium to which you are all invited.
Larsen Associates of San Francisco provided excellent
publicity and thanks to those who donated camp suitcases,
blankets, and other objects. Amy Higuchi and her team
of quilters are responsible for the moving 1942
quilt. The following people also helped: Gloria Bares,
Svetlana Bruk, Val DeLang, Judith Fleitman, Jonathan
Hirabayashi, Allen Lieu, Roy Matsuzaki, Doug Nomura,
Cecilia Nguyen, Gordon Rosete, Ruth Sakai, Barbara
Sakakihara, and Edward K. Wong, my husband. I also
want to thank the board of the Japanese American Museum
of San Jose for their faith in me and I am grateful
to the volunteer team, headed by Barbara Sakakihara,
who put tonight's event together. |
| Now,
let me introduce you tonight to the stars of 1942:
Luggage From Home To Camp. They courageously shared
their memories to leave us with a legacy of remembrance
and healing. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome
Lola Tanaka Abe, Elsie Mayeda Honda, David M. Sakai,
Eiichi Edward Sakauye, Esau Shimizu, and Misao Yamano
Shiotsuka. |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
 |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
