Title:
My Papa
Creator/Contributor:
Sugimoto, Henry
Date:
ca. 1942
Identifier:
92.97.139
Format:
painting
oil on canvas
California
Inscription:
Written on back, top left: My Papa, Jerome Camp, by Henry Sugimoto
Description:
A man is taken away from the family farm by an FBI agent as his young family watches. Backs to the viewer, a man in yellow
shirt and blue overalls carries a brown suitcase in left hand and brown hat in other as he is led away by the arm to a waiting
car by a tall man in a dark suit and hat at left. Behind them in midground, a young girl in a cream-colored dress follows
with outstretched arms. A small black and brown dog walks at her side. In right foreground, a woman in a white bonnet and
white polka-dotted blue dress hangs her head as the child she holds cradles her face. A branch and a shovel blade are visible
in left foreground. In right background, a white horse stands with head down harnessed to a plow in front of a fence and other
farm buildings, including a water tank and windmill. A black car stands in left background. Sky is dark and gloomy. Stretched
and framed.
Historical Note:
"The Japanese-language newspaper reported daily that Japanese who lived all over [the West Coast] were being taken by the
FBI." (From Henry Sugimoto's diaries.)
Subject:
FBI
Men
Horses
Dogs
Plows
Farms
Windmills
Water towers
Forced exclusion