The pop art images and flat, comic-book style characters outlined in black that Shimomura uses to illustrate his grandmother's entries recall traditional Japanese imagery. His grandmother arrived at the Minidoka Relocation Center on Aug. 17, 1942. Part of her journal entry that day describes traveling by bus in 112-degree heat to the desolate location. Though the camp was still unfinished, we could see the grand scale of this city near the mountains. We stared in amazement.
Barbed wire is a recurring theme, seen in several individual paintings.
A painted barbed-wire fence encircles the exhibit, running along the wall and above each painting. In January, President Clinton named the Minidoka Relocation Center one of seven newly selected national monuments. Shimomura says the designation was long overdue. It's still not in the history books. For 40 years, people didn't want to talk about it.