VOA标准英语2010-Exhibit Recalls Controversial Chapter in

'The Art of Gaman' features works by Japanese-Americans who were imprisoned¹ in camps during World War II

Susan Logue Koster | Washington, DC 09 April 2010

 
Photo: Dorothea Lange, Manzanar Relocation Center, Manzanar, Ca., 1942, National Archives
An art class at Manzanar War Relocation Center, one of 10 camps where Japanese-Americans were held during World War II.

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Smithsonian Exhibit

An exhibition of art created by Japanese-Americans draws attention to one of the U.S. government's most controversial acts. 

The more than 100 works collected for "The Art of Gaman" exhibit in Washington, D.C., were created by men and women who were removed from their homes and imprisoned in federally-run camps during World War II.

Quest for objects begins with a pin

Carved walking sticks, small wooden chests, paintings of the simple wood-frame barracks that served as home for three years, a toy train, dolls, baskets, and dozens of pins made of shells or carved from wood are among the objects on display at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery.

The ship model that curator Delphine Hirasuna is examining is one of more than 100 objects featured in the exhibit 'The Art of Gaman.'

Curator Delphine Hirasuna says "The Art of Gaman" was launched when she discovered a small wooden pin carved in the shape of a bird. 

"After my mom died, I was going through a box in the garage.  When I looked inside, I saw this little bird pin."  One day when she was wearing it, a friend asked her about it, and she told him she thought it was made in camp. "And he said, 'I wonder what else is out there?'  And that is what started me on this quest."

 

Hirasuna says her parents didn't talk about camp much when she was growing up. "I was always aware that there was something, but they never sat down and explained what happened and their reaction to it."

Overreaction to Pearl Harbor

Hirasuna's parents were among the 120,000 men, women and children who were rounded up, evacuated² from their homes and sent to one of 10 isolated³ relocation sites built to house Japanese-Americans during the country's bloody⁴ three-year war with Japan in World War II. 

In February 1942, two months after Japan bombed the large U.S. naval⁵ base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order directing the roundup. Like Hirasuna's parents, two-thirds of the internees were native-born American citizens.

 

Homei Iseyama, an internee at Topaz, Utah, carved a number of teapots and other objects from slate⁶ found at the camp

"Because Pearl Harbor had been attacked, they were nervous about an attack on the West Coast, but there was an overreaction," she says. "If you were living on the West Coast and you had 1/16 Japanese blood, you had to go to camp." 

The government documented the evacuation and camp life with film and photographs. So did some of the evacuees⁷. In fact, says Hirasuna, they were some of the first to do so.

Chiura Obata, an art professor at University of California — Berkeley, "started sketching⁹ a diary from the time he left his house in Berkeley. So you see his suitcase by the door, and then you see a sketch⁸ arriving at the church, which was an assembly point to be taken into camp."

 

Artist Unidentified, Interned¹⁰ at Heart Mountain, Wyoming, Camp Scene, Wood, paint, Collection of the Japanese American Museum of San José, From "Art of Gaman" by Delphine Hirasuna, ?2005, Ten Speed.

Mine Okubo did sketches¹¹ of camp life as well, and managed to have some of her drawings published in 1946 as a graphic¹² novel titled, "Citizen 13660." Hirasuna says Okubo's images are often humorous. "I don't know whether she did that to not alarm the authorities, to get it published or because she just had a sense of humor."

A way to "Gaman"

But most of the art in the exhibition was not created by professional artists, and initially¹³, Hirasuna says, it was created by necessity.  "Because the only thing that was in their barrack was a metal cot and mattress¹⁴ ticking which they filled with straw, the first things they made were chairs, tables, someplace to put their clothes away."

Later, because they remained in camp for more than three years, they began to make decorative¹⁵ objects. And they made them using found materials; weaving baskets from waxed tissue paper and making jewelry¹⁶ from seashells.

From "Art of Gaman" by Delphine Hirasuna, ?2005, Ten Speed

"Two of the camps were (located) over ancient sea beds," Hirasuna says.  "They discovered that there were millions of shells on the ground. You could just scratch the earth and pick up buckets." One camp had an abandoned slate quarry¹⁷, where people picked up slate to carve into teapots. 

Most of the artists were Issei, the elder generation who had emigrated from Japan prior to 1924, when the United States passed a law curtailing¹⁸ Japanese immigration. The younger generation was busy with school, sports and community activities. Some left the camp for jobs in the east or even joined the army. Hirasuna says, "What happened was the first generation got left in the camps and this was their way of keeping busy."

It was also their way to achieve "Gaman," an expression Hirasuna heard repeatedly when she was looking for objects for her book and which inspired its title. "Gaman actually means to bear the seemingly unbearable¹⁹ with patience and dignity."

"The old folks would say in Japanese to me, 'Our future is unknown. This is very, very trying,'" recalls Jim Yamaichi, who was 19 when his family was interned.

He says his father dealt with the stress by taking up woodcarving. "I never knew he that could do anything like that and he was fantastic.  But after coming back, that was the end of the line. The farm, his livelihood²⁰ was the most important thing."

Hirasuna says that was true of most of the artists in the exhibition, "because times were tough. Basically you lost everything and had to start over. They didn't have time to pursue any pastime like art."

And, she says, for the most part, the things created in camp were forgotten about.  Many were even lost.

"I think they probably at some level were proud of what they did and brought it back," the curator says, "but for every object I heard about, I heard of 10 more that were thrown away."

Chiura Obata depicted²¹ the dust blowing in through the cracks around the barrack window at Topaz, Utah.

But Jewel Okawachi kept the shell jewelry, bird pins, carved walking sticks and other objects her parents accumulated over the years in camp. She says they were given to her father, who had been a dentist in San Francisco.

"In camp, he opened a little dental lab in part of our barrack and started making dentures for internees. I think they appreciated what he did so they gave him all of these art objects," says Okawachi.

Welcome tribute

Although she knows nothing about the artists who created the objects, Okawachi assumes they would be pleased to learn their work is on display in the Smithsonian's prestigious²² Renwick Gallery. For Okawachi, "The Art of Gaman" is a welcome tribute to her parents.

"The only time I feel bitter is [when I think of] what it [internment] did to my parents," she says. "They came to this country for freedom and to make a better life for themselves and this happened." She says people often asked her father why he never became a U.S. citizen, not realizing the law prevented him from doing so until 1952.

"Having your freedom taken away from you is hard to forget," she says.  "I hope it never happens to anyone else."

No one of Japanese ancestry²³ in the United States was ever found guilty of sabotage²⁴ or treason during World War II. Yet it took more than 40 years after their release in 1945 for the U.S. government to issue an apology and offer financial restitution²⁵ for their lost property and their lost freedom — a check for $20,000 to each surviving internee.
 

1 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

2 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

3 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

4 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

5 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

6 slate   

n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订

参考例句：

• The nominating committee laid its slate before the board.提名委员会把候选人名单提交全体委员会讨论。
• What kind of job uses stained wood and slate? 什么工作会接触木头污浊和石板呢？

7 evacuees   

n.被疏散者( evacuee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Moreover, for multi-exits, evacuees select a exit based on game theory. 在有多个出口时，疏散人员根据对策论选择出口。 来自互联网
• Evacuees wade through flooded area following heavy monsoon rains in Peshawar on Saturday, July 31, 2010. 撤离灾区涉水通过后在白沙瓦沉重的季风降雨在周六，2010年7月31日。 来自互联网

8 sketch   

n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述

参考例句：

• My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
• I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。

9 sketching   

n.草图

参考例句：

• They are sketching out proposals for a new road. 他们正在草拟修建新路的计划。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• "Imagination is busy sketching rose-tinted pictures of joy. “飞舞驰骋的想象描绘出一幅幅玫瑰色欢乐的场景。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

10 interned   

v.拘留，关押( intern的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was interned but,as he was in no way implicated in war crimes,was released. 他曾被拘留过，但因未曾涉嫌战争罪行而被释放了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These soldiers were interned in a neutral country until the war was over. 这些士兵被拘留在一个中立国，直到战争结束。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

11 sketches   

n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概

参考例句：

• The artist is making sketches for his next painting. 画家正为他的下一幅作品画素描。
• You have to admit that these sketches are true to life. 你得承认这些素描很逼真。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

13 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

14 mattress   

n.床垫，床褥

参考例句：

• The straw mattress needs to be aired.草垫子该晾一晾了。
• The new mattress I bought sags in the middle.我买的新床垫中间陷了下去。

15 decorative   

adj.装饰的，可作装饰的

参考例句：

• This ware is suitable for decorative purpose but unsuitable for utility.这种器皿中看不中用。
• The style is ornate and highly decorative.这种风格很华丽，而且装饰效果很好。

16 jewelry   

n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝

参考例句：

• The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
• Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。

17 quarry   

n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找

参考例句：

• Michelangelo obtained his marble from a quarry.米开朗基罗从采石场获得他的大理石。
• This mountain was the site for a quarry.这座山曾经有一个采石场。

18 curtailing   

v.截断，缩短( curtail的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• They will be curtailing the discussions at two thirty. 他们将把讨论缩短至两点半。 来自互联网
• Individually, banks are acting rationally by retaining their capital and curtailing lending. 此外，银行们正在合理地保留其资本和减少贷款。 来自互联网

19 unbearable   

adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的

参考例句：

• It is unbearable to be always on thorns.老是处于焦虑不安的情况中是受不了的。
• The more he thought of it the more unbearable it became.他越想越觉得无法忍受。

20 livelihood   

n.生计，谋生之道

参考例句：

• Appropriate arrangements will be made for their work and livelihood.他们的工作和生活会得到妥善安排。
• My father gained a bare livelihood of family by his own hands.父亲靠自己的双手勉强维持家计。

21 depicted   

描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述

参考例句：

• Other animals were depicted on the periphery of the group. 其他动物在群像的外围加以修饰。
• They depicted the thrilling situation to us in great detail. 他们向我们详细地描述了那激动人心的场面。

22 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。

23 ancestry   

n.祖先，家世

参考例句：

• Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
• He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。

24 sabotage   

n.怠工，破坏活动，破坏；v.从事破坏活动，妨害，破坏

参考例句：

• They tried to sabotage my birthday party.他们企图破坏我的生日晚会。
• The fire at the factory was caused by sabotage.那家工厂的火灾是有人蓄意破坏引起的。

25 restitution   

n.赔偿；恢复原状

参考例句：

• It's only fair that those who do the damage should make restitution.损坏东西的人应负责赔偿，这是再公平不过的了。
• The victims are demanding full restitution.受害人要求全额赔偿。