Bay Area artists pay tribute to survivors of Tanforan Japanese internment camp with new exhibit

ByRyan Curry KGO logo

Sunday, August 28, 2022

Exhibit honors survivors of Tanforan Japanese internment camp

Bay Area artists paid tribute to the survivors of the Japanese internment camp at Tanforan with a exhibit at the Tanforan shopping mall in San Bruno.

SAN BRUNO, Calif. (KGO) -- Local artists unveiled a new exhibit Saturday at the Tanforan Shopping Center. The works of art are meant to honor those who spent time in the Tanforan internment camp.

"Each piece is made up of around 5-to-11 pieces of glass," said Reiko Fuji, one of the artists who designed a kimono made of glass photos of former interment camp members. "The pictures are of families and people while they were incarcerated during World War II."

The exhibit is open till early September. It features artwork by five local artists whose ancestors were in internment camps.

It is the 80th anniversary of the Tanforan internment camp. These artists wanted to pay tribute to the anniversary by unveiling the exhibit to remind people of what happened during World War II and how to prevent it from happening again.

"We fight together against the prejudice racial and inhumane treatment that many are still encountering today," said Kathy Fujii-Oka, another artist.

The Tanforan Memorial Committee also unveiled a new memorial that lists the names of the 8,000 members in the internment camp. It was a project that took 10 years to curate. Organizers say it was the best thing they can do now to honor them.

"We did this memorial to honor them," said Steve Okamoto, vice chairman of the committee. "We want to make sure they understand this was for them."