Exhibition-Related Discussion for "The Heart Mountain Story" at the Japanese American National Museum April 17

A very special roundtable discussion for the exhibition The Heart Mountain Story, moderated by curator Mamoru Inouye and including panelists Bill Hosokawa, Mike Mackey, and Grace Schaub, will be held at the Japanese American National Museum on Saturday, April 17 at 1 p.m. During World War II, over 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated without due process and placed in concentration camps around the United States like the one at Heart Mountain, Wyoming. In 1943 German photographers Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel were commissioned by Life Magazine to photograph life inside the Heart Mountain camp. Their serene black-and-white photographs, which were never published by Life Magazine, are now on display in the Museum’s Legacy Center until August 22. The panel discussion on April 17 will focus on Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel’s experiences while inside the camp, as well as the exhibition of their photographs.

Participants in the discussion will include Grace Schaub, biographer of Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel, who will recount the background of the photographers and discuss Hansel Mieth’s recollections of the assignment. Also present will Bill Hosokawa, editor of the Heart Mountain camp newspaper Sentinel and guide for Mieth and Hagel while inside the camp. Rounding out the panel is historian Mike Mackey, a third generation Wyomingite who has studied the Heart Mountain Relocation Center from both sides of the barbed wire fence. Curator of The Heart Mountain Story and former inmate at Heart Mountain, Mamoru Inouye, will moderate the discussion.

All Museum programs are free for Museum members and free with admission for non-members. Please make reservations early due to limited seating. The Japanese American National Museum is located at 369 East First Street, in Little Tokyo, Downtown Los Angeles. For reservations and more information, please call the Museum at 213.625.0414.