Beauty Behind Barbed Wire: The Relocation Camp Experience of Estelle Ishigo

Lesson Two: Conditions in the Camp-Two Views

This lesson will examine the question of what art can say that the official photos often do not. Estelle and Arthur Ishigo were sent to Pomona Assembly Center (Pomona Fairgrounds) in May 1942 when they were first evacuated and then to Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Wyoming in September 1942 when the permanent camps were built in remote areas of the United States. Only official information was published about these assembly centers and camps with descriptions in newspapers and magazines of apartments, organized and well stocked kitchens, organized recreation, schools and adequate hospitals. Letters to Estelle Ishigo from European American friends indicate that they seem unaware of the conditions under which Japanese Americans were interned. In order to control information about the conditions in the camps, only official photographs were allowed and personal cameras were confiscated. Artists like Estelle Ishigo kept a record of their experiences through their art.

The students learn more about the conditions in the camps by comparing War Relocation Authority (WRA) photos to Estelle Ishigo's paintings.

Put a transparency of a WRA photo (National Archives NWDNS-210-G-E617) of a Japanese American family in the barracks at Heart Mountain on the overhead and ask them to take two minutes to study it.

[Photo of Japanese American family in the barracks. National Archives and Records Administration, Still Picture Branch (NWDNS). Title: Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Heart Mountain, Wyoming. A few pieces of scrap and some additiona . . ., 01/07/1943. Control Number: NWDNS-210-G-E617. Creating Organization: Department of the Interior. War Relocation Authority.]

Use the following questions as a basis for a class discussion:

1. What is happening in the photograph?
2. Describe where the photograph was taken. (Tell them it is a barracks at Heart Mountain Relocation Camp in Wyoming. Point out the location of Wyoming on a map of the United States).
3. Who took the photograph, and who was meant to see it?
4. What do you think was the purpose of the photograph?
5. What conclusions can you draw from the photo about the living conditions of Japanese Americans?

Then show a transparency of the painting "Home" by Estelle Ishigo, watercolor, December 1942. Read the following description from Estelle Ishigo's manuscript for Lone Heart Mountain:

“Here at this new place the rooms were like barns before, - one family to a room. But these barracks, with steps, and little storm poarch (sic) and double flooring for winter time. Inside were just the roofs and rafters with no ceilings, and the rooms were made of eight foot the board partitions and they held a coal stove, cots, two blankets each and a bucket and broom, nothing more: and a great din of voices of all the families rose over the partitions throughout the barracks. There were hundreds of barracks in the mile square enclosure. We went out that first night into the wind, wandering over the rough terrain, to look for the buildings with latrines and a place to get water: and some looked for a friend or relative and lost their way as they wandered far among the rows of black tar paper barracks.” (Lone Heart Mountain, p. 7)

Discuss the following questions:

1. Who are the people in the painting?
2. What is happening in the painting?
3. Describe the barracks including the objects and amenities in the barracks?
4. What is the purpose of the painting?
5. What conclusions can you draw from the painting about the living conditions of Japanese Americans from the painting?
6. How do the living conditions of the people in the painting compare to the family in the WRA photograph?

Compare two pictures depicting winter in Heart Mountain Relocation Camp. First show a transparency of the photograph of the people ice skating (National Archives NWDNS-210-G-E625) and ask the students to study it.

[Photo of ice skaters. National Archives and Records Administration, Still Picture Branch (NWDNS). Control No: NWDNS-210-G-E625. Title: Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Heart Mountain, Wyoming. A young hopeful, not yet quite sure of h . . ., 01/10/1943. Creating Organization: Department of the Interior. War Relocation Authority.] Discuss what it suggests about conditions at Heart Mountain.

Then show a transparency of the painting "Gathering Coal at Heart Mountain Relocation Camp." Read the following description from Estelle Ishigo's manuscript for Lone Heart Mountain:

"We tied our heads in wool, padded our bodies with everything we could find and the earth froze four feet deep. Still the work of living went on - through the blizzards to mess, to the shower or to wash out cloths that froze stiff while being carried back to hang on a string in the room. . .Although there was still enough coal for everyone, there was fear that supplies might be cut off by the deep snows." (Lone Heart Mountain, p. 17)

Have the student do a Venn Diagram comparing the photograph of the people skating and the painting of people gathering coal. Discuss these two views of winter at Heart Mountain.

Discuss the veracity of the painting and the photograph. The following questions can be used to focus the discussion:

1. Why do you think the photograph paints such a rosy picture of the conditions in the camp?
2. How does omission influence our perceptions of conditions at the relocation camps?
3. Why do you think that the War Relocation Agency would want to exaggerate the conditions in the camps?