Art Created By Japanese Prisoners In WWII Internment Camps Goes On Display Saturday

An exhibition titled, "Topaz Artists In Internment, Their Visual Work And Words" opens February 18 and runs through March 31 at the San Leandro History Museum and Art Gallery at 320 W. Estudillo Avenue.

The works  will be on display from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends free of charge.

The exhibition features the art of Japanese-Americans who were forced into camps in the Topaz War Relocation Center . The San Leandro museum is only one of two places to host the collection on loan from the Topaz Museum.

Over 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry were held in ten remote camps beginning in 1942. Two-thirds of those displaced were American citizens. Not charged or convicted of any crime, they were incarcerated for up to three years in prison camps surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by armed men.

To see a complete list of Topaz: Artists in Internment special events, click here.

The traveling exhibit is made possible by funding from the Western States Arts Federation, Utah Arts & Museums, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The artwork is owned by the Topaz Museum, a non-profit organization that will soon construct a museum to preserve the history of Topaz.

On February 25 from 2 to 5 p.m. a special reception will be held and noteworthy poet Lawson Inada will be featured. Refreshments will be served.

For more information about the opening or the exhibit itself, call 510-577-3991, Monday through Thursday.

Readers interested in this aspect of history may wish to know about the new honor bestowed upon Fred Korematsu, a victim of this imprisonment who took his case to the Supreme Court.

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