A Nisei cartoonist who documented life in the incarceration camp with his drawing is dead at the age of 87, reports Rafu Shimpo.
Jack Matsuoka is author of the book “Camp II, Block 211,” which was published in 1974 and updated in 2003. The illustrations in the book focused on life in the Poston Camp in Arizona.
“With cartooning as my whole source of income, it was difficult, but I managed to get by,” Matsuoka recalled in 1969 when he made the decision to become a freelance cartoonist.
Matsuoka is also known for his comic strip, “Sensei,” that ran in The Hokubei for years. He also worked for the San Francisco Examiner, San Mateo Times and San Jose Mercury News.
He died after a stroke he suffered during the opening of the Congressional Gold Medal exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco on June 29.
You can read a lot more about his life in Rafu Shimpo.
