Hatsuki Wakasa Shot by M.P.
notes: label: Description
content: Art was a valuable resource that incarcerated Japanese Americans used to not only express themselves within the confines of camp, but also to document the environment and wrongdoings they experienced. No one did this better than the master artist Chiura Obata. He painted hauntingly beautiful landscapes as well as chronicled oppression, such as this work, "Hatsuki Wakasa Shot by M.P." Obata was standing witness when a man attempting to pet a dog by the perimeter fence was shot down by guards. The guards were yelling at him but because of either the language barrier or the distance, Wakasa did not hear and was killed on the spot.
label: Description
content: Obata knew that painting was a critical tool for expression and documentation. When he was imprisoned due to EO9066, he used his experience as a professor at UC Berkeley to open an art school at the Tanforan Detention Center where he was sent. Tanforan Art School taught hundreds of people of all ages how to draw and paint. Obata was later moved to the Topaz incarceration camp in Utah, and he carried over his art school and rebranded it into the Topaz Art School. Here Obata met Masako (Koho) Yamamoto, his star pupil at the camp. She studied under him for the duration of Obata's stay, and after the war Koho became a professionally famed artist herself.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Utah, Topaz War Relocation Center
topic: label: Subject
content: World War II
label: related event
content: World War II
setName: label: See more items in
content: Military and Society: Armed Forces History, Japanese American
label: See more items in
content: Executive Order 9066
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Chiura Obata family
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2016.0224.01
label: accession number
content: 2016.0224
label: catalog number
content: 2016.0224.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: painting
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: painted (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: in frame: 17 in x 21 in x 1 in; 43.18 cm x 53.34 cm x 2.54 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 in x 15 in x in; 27.94 cm x 38.1 cm x .00254 cm