Kango Takamura (1895-1990) was an photo retoucher for RKO Studios in Los Angeles when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese Imperial Navy. He was detained by the FBI in 1942 after offering to sell a motion-picture camera to a visiting Japanese general. He was interned at Santa Fe, New Mexico for several months and then moved to a camp at Manzanar, California, where he joined his wife, daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. He remained at Manzanar with his family until 1945. While at Manzanar, Takamura depicted his surroundings in drawings and watercolors. He also worked as a camp sign-maker at Santa Fe and as curator for a small museum at Manzanar. After the war, he returned to Hollywood and worked at RKO Studios for another twenty-five years before retiring. The collection consists of 77 watercolor paintings produced during World War II while Kango Takamura was detained at the Santa Fe Internment Camp, New Mexico, and the Manzanar Internment Camp, California. Also included are paper mounts and one photographic reproduction of a painting.

Kango Takamura was an Issei artist born in Kumamoto-ken, Japan in January of 1895. He immigrated to the United States when he was seventeen years old. Takamura spent ten years in Hawaii and then went to New York after becoming interested in the motion picture industry. After a short stay at the Paramount Studios offices in Long Island he moved to Hollywood. He was working as a photo retoucher for RKO Studios in Los Angeles when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese Imperial Navy. Takamura was detained by the FBI in 1942 after offering to sell a motion-picture camera to a visiting Japanese general. He was interned at Santa Fe, New Mexico for several months and then moved to a camp at Manzanar, California, where he joined his wife, daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. He remained at Manzanar with his family until 1945. Takamura was not allowed to take photographs during his stays at Santa Fe and Manzanar but he depicted his surroundings in drawings and watercolors. He also worked as a camp sign-maker at Santa Fe and as curator for a small museum at Manzanar. When Takamura left Manzanar he returned to Hollywood and worked at RKO Studios for another twenty-five years before retiring. Takamura lived in Los Angeles until he passed away in January, 1990 at 94 years old.

0.5 linear feet (1 box and 2 oversize boxes)

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