Resilience of Japanese internees seen in ‘contested histories’ in Los Angeles – Daily News

My trip last Sunday by train to meet two friends in Little Tokyo to watch the Dodgers game at a bar was mentioned here in passing on Wednesday. Perhaps you would like to hear about my detour.

After transferring at Union Station from Metrolink to the light rail, I arrived at Little Tokyo station about 45 minutes before our meeting time. The National Japanese-American Museum (100 N. Central Ave.) is across the street. I figured I might as well see what’s new.

Typically, admission costs $16 for adults or $9 for those 62 and older. But on this day, due to a craft exhibition inside, entry was free. I can’t beat that.

“Contested Histories: Preserving and Sharing Community History” is an ongoing exhibition. The backstory is fascinating.

At the end of World War II, a man named Allen Hendershott Eaton, an expert on American folk art, visited five of the American concentration camps where Japanese Americans were held, curious about the creative activity of the inmates .

Astonished by what he discovered, Eaton published a book of photographs in 1952 – “The Beauty Behind the Barbed Wire” – and subsequently received numerous works of art. In 2015, long after his death in 1962, the entire artwork and artifacts were put up for auction.

The Japanese American community mobilized to oppose the public sale of these artifacts. Actor George Takei was among them. The auction has been canceled. The objects, stored unlabeled in cardboard boxes, ended up at the museum, which led a national awareness campaign to speak to camp survivors to gather information about the objects and their creators.

On display are paintings, fine wood and metalwork artwork, and more, along with personal stories, where known, categorized by the camp they originated from.

My eye was drawn to two watercolors by Estelle Ishigo, in which she painted scenes at Heart Mountain in Wyoming, where she was detained.

RELATED: Years ago, Wyoming’s wilderness became home to Pomona’s Japanese American internees

In one, the internees spend their day outside the simple wooden barracks, located in the middle of dirt roads, with laundry hung on ropes. In a nighttime scene, characters are bundled up against the cold, walking through the snow and converging on a long barracks, the windows lit, the chimneys emitting smoke, promising warmth within.

Remarkably, Ishigo was a white woman who married a Japanese American and volunteered to be incarcerated with him rather than be separated. Isn’t that something?

Other works might be more to your taste. Time only permitted a quick visit. But “Contested Histories,” which opened Oct. 19 and runs through Jan. 5, is a window into the daily lives and creative minds of people whose own minds have been put to the test.

Book Report

My speech Tuesday evening in Pomona, sponsored by the Historical Society, attracted 18 people, a good enough number for a reading by a local newspaper editor. Almost everyone who came bought one or more of my books, so from a personal finance perspective it was a great success.

During the Q&A, a woman said she appreciated me writing about day trips, especially those involving public transportation. It was something I did frequently, I replied. In fact, upon meeting me in person, many readers would say, “I love it when you write about your Metrolink trips.” »

These days, with so many new discoveries in IE, telling you about one of my leisure trips to Los Angeles by public transit or car may seem indulgent or irrelevant, which is why I decided to largely stopped.

But I might have corrected too much.

So, every now and then I’ll tell you about a place I’ve been – see item above. After all, it might be something you’d like to see for yourself. Otherwise, you can travel in a wheelchair.

Organ notes

Last February, an organ concert in a church in Claremont gave rise to a column. In what you might consider a late follow-up, here are details on two upcoming opportunities to hear church organs outside of worship services.

The first is a Halloween-themed organ concert at Riverside First United Methodist Church of Christ, 4845 Brockton Ave., at 7 p.m. Saturday (Oct. 26). It is free, but a goodwill offering will be collected to help with the upkeep of the organ.

According to the ad, Robert Phillips will perform “a ‘thrilling’ Michael Jackson number, a ‘chilling’ gothic toccata and a ‘distillation’ of TV and film themes.” Of course there will be Ghoultide Carols and special guests. Costumes admired! I admire the spirit of the church.

Then, on Nov. 1, the Pomona Pilgrim Congregational Church, 600 N. Garey Ave., presents one of its occasional silent film screenings with organ accompaniment. It will be one of John Ford’s first westerns, “3 Bad Men”, which will take place during the Dakota land rush after the Civil War.