A free art exhibit portraying the experiences of Japanese Americans in incarceration camps is now open at the Tanforan Mall in San Bruno, California. Sansei Granddaughters’ Journey: From Remembrance to Resistance at the AZ gallery will be available to the public until Sept. 3.
The Tanforan Mall is on the same land where federal authorities imprisoned 8,000 Japanese Americans during WWII.
The art exhibition was inspired by the pilgrimage of five San Francisco Bay Area third-generation Japanese American artists to Manzanar. All five of the artists had family members who had been incarcerated in camps.
Art for the exhibit comes from the artists’ personal collection and from art created and inspired by the trip to Manzanar. The artists include Na Omi Judy Shintani, Reiko Fujii, Shari Arai DeBoer, Ellen Bepp and Kathy Fujii-Oka
“I spoke to a mother and daughter last week who said that their family helped an incarcerated Japanese family by storing all of their furniture. They told me that ‘Our family also emigrated here and they were ostracized by neighbors, calling them traitors,” Shintani said to TheSixtyFifty.com. “Anyone who has a family legacy of discrimination can experience our art and take that connection to a deeper place.”
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The exhibit will be open from Wednesday to Friday at 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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