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

Lesson Three: Interpreting Art

This plan includes Teacher's Notes. Click here to view notes.

Before beginning the lesson tell the students about Estelle Ishigo:

“Estelle Ishigo was an artist and writer who documented daily life at Heart Mountain Relocation Camp while interned there. Although she was a European American, she married Japanese American, Arthur Shigeharu Ishigo, in 1928 when marriage between people of different races was forbidden by law in California (the Ishigos had to get married in Mexico). After war broke out and Japanese Americans were ordered into camps on the West Coast, Estelle chose to stay with her husband and they were sent to Pomona Assembly Center and then Heart Mountain Relocation Camp in Wyoming. There, Estelle Ishigo continued her work as a painter. Unofficial photographs were not allowed and the news media was given highly exaggerated accounts about the wonderful conditions in the assembly centers and camps. For example, white washed horse stalls were called apartments, there were glowing accounts of the recreation and school facilities, etc. Artists like Ishigo often worked on drawings and painting that give us a rare look at the bleak conditions in these remote, hastily constructed "camps." Estelle Ishigo's experience does not speak for all internees. Because she was a European American, she was often able to express more open criticism of the internment experience.” (View from Within, p. 42)

Before the class begins, divide the class into mixed ability pairs. Each pair of students will be given a graphic organizer (click here to view graphic organizer).

1. The purpose of the activity is to teach the students how an artist portrays historical events and makes social and political commentary through the use of subject, color, and symbols. Explain to the class that many of the photographs that were taken in the relocation camps were taken for official purposes and often do not show typical conditions or people behaving as they normally do.
2. Explain to the students the concepts of objects and symbols and have them identify these elements in the paintings. An object is anything that can be seen or touched-such as building, fence, or a person. A symbol is an image or object that represents something else. Bars or barbed wire can represent loss of freedom, a snake can represent danger, and a flower can represent renewal.
3. 
   

   Tell the students that they are now ready to analyze and interpret the paintings. Put a transparency of "Two Boys and a Kite" on the overhead and have the class work on this first example together. Ask the students to name the objects in the painting and list them on the board. Then ask them which ones are symbols and what they represent.

   (Teacher Notes: “the kite represents freedom, the barbed wire represents imprisonment, the act of flying the kite represents daily life and it is curtailed by the barbed wire, the little boys represent innocence.” View from Within, p. 42). What is happening in the picture? Two boys are trying to free a kite that has become entangled in the barbed wire. What does the painting tell us about Japanese American relocation? (Sample answers: The boys are innocent victims. Even a simple activity is restricted by the barbed wire of imprisonment.)
4. After all the students have had an opportunity to express their opinions, show the second transparency of the "Women with the Child" on her back and pass out the graphic organizer.
5. 
   

   After all the students have had an opportunity to express their opinions, show the second transparency of the "Women with the Child" on her back and pass out the graphic organizer. Have each pair of students list and discuss the objects and symbols. Have them discuss and write down on the graphic organizer what they think is happening in the picture.

   Finally have them interpret what they think this reveals about Japanese internment and how it affected Japanese Americans. Then have each team volunteer their observations. When they are finished read the appropriate caption from Lone Heart Mountain manuscript and ask them if it changes their interpretation of the painting.
6. When all the transparencies of the paintings have been viewed and discussed, explain that they are looking at Estelle Ishigo's view of what she saw and thought.