The Rafu Shimpo - L.A. Japanese Daily News

Sakoguchi Art Evokes Camp Memories
By ELLEN ENDO
Rafu Managing Editor
Saturday, Nov. 18, 2006

Hampshire College houses exhibit by Nisei chronicler.

Art Courtesy of Ben Sakoguchi
Artist Ben Sakoguchi’s acrylic paintings on canvas are now on display in the Main Gallery of
Hampshire College in Massachusetts. The exhibition, titled “Postcards from Camp” and
considered the artist’s most personal work to date, will be shown through Nov. 21.

AMHERST, Mass.–Artist Ben Sakoguchi calls them “postcards”–not the “wish you were here,” “I’ll be home soon” kind of postcards–but meticulously painted adaptations of photographs, most of them taken before, during, and immediately following World War II.

Sakoguchi’s acrylic paintings on canvas, each 11 by 16 inches, are on display in the Main Gallery of Hampshire College in Massachusetts. The exhibition, titled “Postcards from Camp” and considered the artist’s most personal work to date, will be shown through Nov. 21.

Sakoguchi began working on the collection, which is based on family, archival, and internee photographs and other historical data, following the deaths of his mother Mary Shizue Sakoguchi in 1994 and father Hideo “George” Sakoguchi in 1996. The Sansei artist’s evocative images were inspired by black-and-white photographs to which he added color and depth.

When he realized that his mother was dying, Sakoguchi decided to record her oral history. For years, she had been resigned and stoic about the camp experience, he recalls, adding, “I was startled by the fierceness in her voice. ‘I hated it,’ she said, ‘I hated every single day.’”

Photos like the one showing the Nisei Week queens greeted by a smiling Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron circa 1940 are typical of those found on the front page of The Rafu Shimpo. However, Sakoguchi’s caption tells the full story:

“In 1941, Mayor Bowron dismisses all Nisei city workers and urges the evacuation of all persons of Japanese ancestry.”

A sublime picture of children at Poston, Arizona, is juxtaposed with a quote from an L.A. Times editorial in February 1942, around the time Executive Order 9066 authorized the mass incarceration of 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry:

“A viper is nonetheless a viper wherever the egg is hatched–so a Japanese American, born of Japanese parents–grows up to be a Japanese, not an American.”

The collection is grouped into eight sections that cover the prewar Japanese American community, the Evacuation, camp, the achievements of Nisei soldiers during WWII, postwar resettlement, and the Asian American victims of hate crimes in contemporary America.

“Postcards from Camp” has been exhibited at several schools, the National Japanese American Historical Society in San Francisco and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Born in 1938 in San Bernardino, California, Ben spent his early childhood at Poston. After the war, the Sakoguchis returned to San Bernardino, and with considerable difficulty, reopened their small grocery business. Ben attended public schools, including San Bernardino Valley College.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, teaching credential, and in 1964 a Master of Fine Arts degree at UCLA and remained in the L.A. area, where he was on the Pasadena City College Art Department faculty until his 1997 retirement.

In four decades as a professional artist, Sakoguchi has been awarded two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and in 1997 participated in the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Artists at Giverny Program. Recently, he was among the recipients of Flintridge Foundation Awards for Visual Artists for 2005-2006.

Of the 80 paintings, none is more poignant than the one inspired by a family photo taken of his parents, brothers, and sister while they were incarcerated. Sakoguchi’s description reads:

“Before reporting to camp my mother made a money belt in which she sewed $1,000. In camp, she did not report the cash and, despite the sweltering heat, she wore the belt for over three years.

“After camp, my father was told there would be ‘no welfare for Japs.’ Without that cash, we would not have been able to stock our empty store and earn a living.”

Sakoguchi’s paintings can be viewed on his Web site, www.bensakoguchi.com.

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