The events of the internment of the Japanese-American people after the bombing of Pearl Harbor left a tragic mark in American history that can be taught through Henry Sugimoto’s artwork. When two art professors from Hendrix College visited the Relocation Center in Jerome, Arkansas, they asked Sugimoto to display his paintings at the college. The exhibition served as a statement against the racism that existed in the United States during World War II. Sugimoto’s artworks recount the history of the internment camps based on his experiences in camps Jerome and Rohwer in Arkansas. “Arrival in Jerome,” one of the artist’s paintings, depicts the transition in his life where he had to give up his home based on his race. The painting creates …show more content…
This treatment shocked Japanese-Americans, as they were forced to present their family registry as a physical file so that that the government could find if any of them had any affiliation with the Japanese government (Time of Fear, 00:14:00). However, around 1942, Americans began to fear the Japanese-Americans since they were packed in large groups at the camps in California (Time of Fear, 00:01:30). The US military rounded up any person who was of Japanese ancestry, including Sugimoto and his family, and separated thousands of them into groups that were sent to internment camps that were located at Jerome and Rohwer in southern Arkansas (Branham, par. 5). Sugimoto, despite the fact that he lost his home during this time, continued painting as he “increasingly depicted his family and neighbors” as a way to preserve “his memories of those three years” in the internment camps (Branham, par. …show more content…
The peaceful family portrayed in the painting is what many Japanese-Americans wanted to keep as their homes and culture altogether were snatched away from them. Sugimoto expressed his close relationship with his wife and daughter by portraying them as a family that is glad as long as they are together (Sugimoto). With the boxes and cases as well as the train in the background, the painting illustrates the transition in the artist’s life as the family departs from their home to a new life in Jerome (Sugimoto). The background serves as the piece of history of the internment period that he wants his audience to bear in mind in the