Last Wednesday, members of the Creighton community gathered at the Joslyn Art Museum to learn about the life and legacy of Japanese American painter Henry Sugimoto.
The event was a collaborative effort between the Creighton Intercultural Center and the Japanese American Citizens League to celebrate the annual “Day of Remembrance” for Japanese Americans that were forcefully incarcerated during World War II. The “Day of Remembrance” happens every year on February 19.
The event focused on a specific piece from the Josyln Art Museum’s “All Aboard: The Railroad in American Art, 1840-1955” exhibition, which is featured from February 15 until May 4. The piece, titled “When Can We Go Home?” was painted by Henry Sugimoto to reflect his World War II incarceration experience.
As the painting normally belongs in the collection at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) in Los Angeles, the event hosted a speaker from the museum to talk about Sugimoto’s work. Kristen Hayashi, the director of collections and curator for the JANM, spoke about Sugimoto’s life, artwork and the impact that it has had on WWII education, specifically regarding the Japanese American experience.
The artist, Henry Sugimoto, came to the United States in 1919 at just 19 years old. He was interested in becoming an artist and took a liking to landscape paintings, so he studied different styles of landscape paintings all around the world. According to Hayashi, things were looking up for Sugimoto until tragedy struck.
“He was really showing promise of being this burgeoning artist, and then World War II really turned his life upside down…as well as the lives of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast,” Hayashi said.
Hayashi said that, during WWII, Japanese Americans on the West Coast were forced to leave their homes and were incarcerated in “what we call ‘America’s concentration camps.’”
Because of this experience, the subject matter of Sugimoto’s paintings pivoted from landscapes to his experience during incarceration. Later in his life, his paintings also revisited the immigrant experience and the discrimination that Japanese Americans faced.
“He really captures not only daily life, but…[life with] a lot of emotion and political charge. … He’s definitely making a statement about [the] injustice of this experience and just [the] challenges and the discrimination and prejudice that Japanese immigrants face in this country,” Hayashi said.
The painting, titled “When Can We Go Home Again?”, which was featured in the exhibition, told a particularly touching story about Sugimoto’s experience, Hayashi explained.
“The anecdote goes that soon after the Sugimotos had to leave their home and community, they were first taken to the Fresno temporary detention center in California. And I think the Sugimotos made it seem like this was like a picnic for their daughter. So, after they finished having lunch, her quote was ‘When can we go home again?’ and they, you know, they had to explain to her [the] situation.”
The painting features the mother and daughter in the foreground, with elements of the incarceration in the background as well as a train, which depicted the way that they transported the individuals to the detention centers.
“There’s this real social justice element to his artwork that is so important, because I think that it’s so relevant to today,” Hayashi said.
Hayashi also said that Sugimoto’s paintings were extremely prevalent, despite not gaining recognition for many years.
“I think he would just be very pleased that his artwork is educating people about the incarceration experience today, because [he] did try to get these paintings in galleries sort of later in his life,” Hayashi said. “From post-World War II until his death in 1990, [there] are few cases where he was able to exhibit his work, [because] largely, people were not interested in the camp experience and his work.”
The students in attendance appreciated how Sugimoto shared his history through his artwork.
“I think what he did was [great], and I think his history is very beautiful,” said Toni Ero, a freshman in the College of Arts and Science.
Toni also shared a unique impact that Sugimoto’s paintings can have on other Japanese Americans.
“His paintings really show history and document history, which other Japanese Americans here can look back [on] and really see the ancestors,” Ero said. “He may not be alive today, but…looking back [on] what he started [the paintings] for…[it’s] actually helping so many people right now.”