Licensing

Henry Sugimoto, "My Papa"

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States government viewed Japanese Americans as threats to the country, especially Japanese-language schoolteachers and those in possession of anything relating to Japan, such as a picture of the Japanese emperor. This piece shows a Japanese American father being taken away from his family by the FBI. Sugimoto painted this is 1943, during his time at the camp in Jerome. As is evident, his painting's main subjects are people, as opposed to his earlier works, which focused on landscapes. One must realize that Arkansas did not provide the serene and luscious landscapes that France's countryside did. Therefore, Sugimoto needed to shift his focus to tell the story of the Japanese American camp experience.