‘CROSSINGS’ EXHIBITION FEATURES ARTISTS' TAKE ON WWII CONCENTRATION CAMPS

Crossings: 10 Views of America’s Concentration Camps, a new exhibition providing an artist’s perspective into the mass incarceration of Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II by the U.S. government, looks at artwork from the past and present in an attempt to provide greater insight into a dark episode of American history. The exhibition opens April 2 at the National Museum.

By comparing works from the past and present, the exhibition attempts to provide a greater perspective into the memory and history of a community. Views from the past may reveal forgotten truths. Views from the present may illustrate the evolution of a community. Together, they provide a more complex vision of the larger experience and its impact on the greater society. Not commonly seen in the mainstream, these artists share experiences and memories in the hopes that people never forget about what happened so that such an injustice will never happen again.

Crossings will feature the artwork of Sesshu Foster, Masumi Hayashi, Hisako Hibi, Toyo Miyatake, Tadashi Nakamura, Benji Okubo, Mine Okubo, Shizu Saldamando, Renee Tajima Peña, and Sadayuki Uno.

Crossings is a program of "Salon Pop," an experimental exhibition program that provides short-term opportunities for the National Museum to present the creative talents of Japanese and/or Japanese Americans whose unique and/or innovative work is currently having an impact/influence on American culture. In doing so, Salon Pop will illustrate the relevance of Asian American youth culture and its place within our everyday society.

The United States Government incarcerated 120,313 Japanese Americans during World War II, placing the majority of them in 10 concentration camps run by the War Relocation Authority or in other camps or centers of detention run by the Justice Department or other government agencies. Americans of Japanese ancestry, 70 percent who were Americans citizens, were forced off the West Coast or parts of Hawai'i. Most had to sell their homes and businesses at great losses and some lost everything without compensation.

Under the pretext of Japanese Americans being a threat to national security, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, giving the War Department the authority to establish areas from which any and all persons could be excluded. However, only individuals of Japanese ancestry were completely removed. In 1982, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) concluded, "Executive Order 9066 was not justified by military necessity. The broad historical causes... were race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership."

The exhibition is free to National Museum members or with general admission. For more information, call the Japanese American National Museum at (213) 625-0414, or go to www.janm.org.