Identifier:

Archival Resource Key

Dates:

1985-1994

Scope and content:

In many ways this sculpture was the culmination of Ruth's public installation career. It certainly is the best documented. In July 1989, the Commission on the Internment of Local Japanese Americans, in conjunction with the City of San Jose, the City Council, Transit Mall Art Committee, and the Fine Arts Commission selected Asawa to create an internment memorial. The Commission also mandated an oral history project, a curriculum guide, and the construction of a resource center.

The six foot-high and 14 foot-long bronze monument stands at 280 South First Street near the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building. Peckham had assisted with returning property to former internees after the war. Due to administrative delays, contract negotiation, and the Loma Prieta earthquake, the project was slow to begin. A great deal of correspondence concerns insurance, legal matters, and installation logistics. Among the correspondents are Richard Tanaka, chair of the Internment Commission, Mayor Ron Gonzales, Representative Norm Mineta, Jerry Hiura of the Fine Arts Commission, and David Allen, acting director of the Office of Cultural Affairs.

Research, drafting, and dough sculpting was done with Nancy Thompson, Paul Lanier, and Addie Lanier. East Bay sculptor Dennis Fujimoto also helped. Nancy's work journal provides excellent insight to the project's daily progress.

The memorial's two long sides depict prewar nikkei scenes on one side and images representing internment, the 442nd Infantry Regiment and other JA soldiers, and the redress movement on the other. Historical accuracy was an important design component, and the research phase was extensive. The team talked to hundreds of people at senior centers and historical societies and sought community leader feedback on images once the design was drafted. Ruth was quoted in a 1997 SJSU magazine article: "I used my house and our farm and sheds. I represented orchards and vegetable farms in the Santa Clara Valley. I tried to represent the Buddhist temple and other actual buildings in San Jose where Japanese-Americans congregated. All of us had the same experience."

Each end of the sculpture features family crests known as mon, which were solicited from as many local residents as could be found. Ads were placed in several newspapers. In the end, 177 mon were used, including those of Representatives Norman Mineta and Robert Matsui, resistors Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi, and Minoru Yasui, and 442nd veteran Wayne Kanemoto. Ruth's friends also contributed their mon, including Kiku Funabiki, Ibuki Hibi Lee, Mai Kitazawa Arbegast, Janice Mirikitani, Kay Sekimachi, Alice Takemoto, and June Watanabe. Ruth's sister Mary Oye sent in the Asawa crest. The mon correspondence files contain many remembrances and other details. Refer to the Internment series for related material.

Artworks Foundry cast the bronze, and Lafayette manufactured a concrete base. The memorial was installed in February 1994, and dedicated in March with a taiko performance and speakers including Norm Mineta and Fred Korematsu, who remarked "I have heard people say that they didn't know anything about the internment. Well, here it is... And for those who don't want to talk about it, well, this will talk for them."

Language:

English .

Contents

Access and use