Sigrid Hudson
@sigridSigrid Hudson is a children’s librarian at a public library in the Los Angeles area. She is also an online writer and public programs volunteer for the Japanese American National Museum (JANM). Born and raised in Orange County, California, she currently lives in Los Angeles. As an undergraduate journalism student, Sigrid became interested in First Amendment and other civil rights. She is particularly impressed with the way the JANM carries out its mission in the Los Angeles (and international) community—including the Discover Nikkei online project—and is happy to be a contributor.
Updated June 2009
Stories from This Author
The Legacy of “Farewell to Manzanar”
July 26, 2010 • Sigrid Hudson
“We never mentioned camp.”For nearly twenty-five years after the end of World War II, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston—and many other Japanese Americans imprisoned in concentration camps during the war—never spoke to others about her experiences as a child behind barbed wire at Manzanar. “We never mentioned camp,” she says, “It was so subconscious...like it was a bad dream or that there was some shame involved with it. So you just don’t refer to it.” During those years, many things changed in …
A Place Where Sunflowers Grow: A Granddaughter’s Tribute to Artist Hisako Hibi
July 20, 2007 • Sigrid Hudson
As the granddaughter of prominent Japanese American painter Hisako Hibi, Amy Lee-Tai was exposed to art at an early age—and it was through her grandmother’s paintings that Amy first learned of the Japanese American incarceration during World War II. Amy’s first book, A Place Where Sunflowers Grow, was inspired by her family’s internment experiences and the art schools that gave internees moments of solace and expression. Like the character Mari in the book, Amy’s mother’s family had an artist mother …
The Art of Gaman: Enduring the Seemingly Unbearable with Patience and Dignity
Dec. 1, 2006 • Sigrid Hudson
Looking through the pages of Delphine Hirasuna’s The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps 1942-1946, one is struck by the beauty and craftsmanship of the selected pieces. However, it is more than just the aesthetic quality that shines through. It is the amazing resourcefulness and resiliency of these individuals who, out of necessity and the first idle time of their lives, created objects both utilitarian and decorative. Although most often translated as “perseverance,” Hirasuna …
