Excerpts from Miné Okubo’s self-illustrated memoir “Citizen 13660” published in 1946. Images courtesy of the Japanese American National Museum.
Okubo’s illustrated memoir was the first personal documentation of the mass incarceration experience. Okubo had studied in Europe on a California Berkeley Fellowship and was working for the Federal Arts Program doing mosaic and fresco murals before the war.
Incarceration Map, Edward H. Spicer’s Impounded People, (1946) p. 67
Shows the “assembly centers” close to people’s homes run by the Wartime Civil Control Administration & the more permanent “relocation centers” run by the War Relocation Authority in remote areas.
Gidra Vol. IV, No. 5, May 1972, p. 12
April 1972 march by Asian American antiwar protesters in Los Angeles. Photo courtesy of Densho.
Violet Kazue de Cristoforo, “J’ Accuse,” Rikka 13.1, 1992
After being labeled “disloyal,” Violet Kazue de Cristoforo & her 3 children were transferred from Jerome to the Tule Lake segregation center. She renounced her citizenship & expatriated to Japan in 1946. She was able to send her children back to the US but it would take Violet nearly 10 years before she could return. In 1988, she charged anthropologist Rosalie Hankey Wax of violating promised confidentiality, lying about her to camp officials, & causing her to be blacklisted. She demanded a public apology from Wax for being barred from returning to the US and making her children feel that they had been abandoned by their mother.
Threads of Remembrance Quilt and Quilters, 1990
Honoring three generations of Japanese American women, the quilt was created in conjunction with the 1990 landmark exhibition, Strength and Diversity: Japanese American Women 1885-1990. Co-curated by Rosalyn Tonai of the National Japanese American Historical Society and Carey Caldwell of the Oakland Museum of California, this was the first exhibit on Japanese American women. The exhibition opened at the Oakland Museum of California and traveled to Hawaii, the Midwest, the East Coast and Canada.
The quilt depicts a picture bride, an immigrant Issei farmwife, a Gold Star mother, barracks, a sentry tower, and barbed wire. One quilter incorporated her daughter’s hair into the farmwife’s bonnet. Another stitched her mother’s family ID number on the registration tag. Many women, including those who had been wrongfully imprisoned, took a symbolic stitch in the quilt.
Quilting Cotton, Embroidery Thread, Quilt Batting
Quilt Idea Creator: Daisy Uyeda Satoda. Panel Designer: Jan Inouye. Quilters: Bess Kawachi Chin, Margene Fudenna, Dolores Hamaji, Ruth Hayashi, Jan Inouye, Naoko Yoshimura Ito, Julie Kataoka, Karen Matsumoto, Phyllis Mizuhara, Hazel Nakabayashi,Iku Noma, Alys Sakaji, Kay Sakanashi, Setsu Shimizu, Tami Tanabe, and Yuri Uchiyama. Images courtesy of the National Japanese American Historical Society
San Jose Nikkei Resisters Unity Quilt Project, 2020
Christine Hikido, Alice Hikido, and Robin Goku Huynh holding quilt
pieces that they or their family members created, 2023.
San Jose Nikkei Resisters is an inclusive multi-generational grassroots organization focusing on uniting and mobilizing the Japanese American community to defend civil liberties and social justice for all. It has called for sanctuary for asylum seekers, not border walls and compassion and inclusion, not a Muslim ban.
The quilt emphasized 3 themes: Never Again is Now, Families Belong Together, and No Ban, No Wall. It was displayed at the 2020 San Jose Day of Remembrance. Quilt organizers called for support of immigrant communities who face exclusion and vowed to stand with the Latinx, Muslim, Black, and Asian families facing separation, detention, and deportation at the hands of ICE.
Quilting Cotton, Fabric Paint, Acrylic Paint, Permanent Marker, Felt, Paper, Woven Textile
Quilt Coordinator: Kathy Higuchi, Quilters: Joanne Kobori, Carole Rast, Annie Hikido, Ginger Greenfield, Amanda Lee Ware, Mary Abo, Frances Hikido, Duane Kubo, Samantha Mark, Manzanar Pilgrimage, and Christine Hikido. Images courtesy of courtesy of Kathy Higuchi
Karen Korematsu at Then They Came for Me Exhibition
Dr. Karen Korematsu founded the Fred T. Korematsu Institute to continue her father’s civil rights activism. As part of the Stop Repeating History campaign, she drew parallels between the mass incarceration and President Trump’s policies targeting groups based on race or religion, such as the Muslim travel ban. Photo by Alice Yang, 8/17/19.
traci kato-kiriyama at a protest against former President Trump’s family separation policy, 2018
Writer, actor, and award-winning director traci kato-kiriyama called for the abolition of ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), protested immigrant detention, and called for sanctuary for migrants. Photo courtesy of traci kato-kiriyama.
Fort Sill protest, 6/22/19, photo by John Ota.
Former incarcerees protested President Trump’s plans to detain 1400 undocumented migrant children, vowed to prevent history from being repeated, and worked with indigenous and other activists of color to share intersecting histories of racism and colonialism at the site.
Never Again is Now, 2/27/20, photo by Ryan Kozu.
Protesters outside the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma called for an end to immigrant incarceration and separation at a Day of Action organized by Tsuru for Solidarity, the Seattle Japanese American Citizens League, Densho, and La Resistencia
San Jose Nikkei Resisters Support Black Lives Matter, 6/2/20, photo by Lucien Kubo.
Carrying posters designed by artist Kala Mendoza, Nikkei (people of Japanese ancestry) showed their support for the campaign to end police brutality and racially motivated violence against African Americans
Return to Alcatraz, 11-20-21, photo by Emiko Omori.
Nancy Ukai, Akemi Yamane Ina, and Shoshana Arai held signs to show solidarity with San Francisco tribal members and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the occupation of Alcatraz. Ukai and her mother were among the 400 participants of the original 19-month occupation between 1969 and 1971.