1 00:00:02,135 --> 00:00:14,547 GUEST: I brought this pin that my Uncle Shiro made in the internment camp at Poston. That's 2 00:00:14,547 --> 00:00:22,422 my uncle right there, Shiro. My mom received this pin from Shiro, who is her brother-in-law, 3 00:00:22,422 --> 00:00:29,129 and she gave it to me. And then I had it framed, with the story and the picture of, of the camp. 4 00:00:29,129 --> 00:00:35,902 The other thing I have is this picture of him receiving his internment orders from this soldier. 5 00:00:35,902 --> 00:00:37,237 APPRAISER: Did you know your uncle? 6 00:00:37,237 --> 00:00:41,241 GUEST: No, he passed in, um, 1956. 7 00:00:41,241 --> 00:00:44,444 APPRAISER: Tell us what's happening in this photo. 8 00:00:44,444 --> 00:00:51,651 GUEST: He was living on Terminal Island. That was located in California. The soldier right 9 00:00:51,651 --> 00:01:01,628 there with the bayonet is giving the order to my uncle that they have to evacuate the island 10 00:01:01,628 --> 00:01:08,168 and go to the internment camp. I wonder what he's thinking as he's, as he's reading this. 11 00:01:08,168 --> 00:01:12,338 APPRAISER: So when he was asked to leave, it wasn't to relocate 20 miles down the road. 12 00:01:12,338 --> 00:01:13,440 GUEST: No. 13 00:01:13,440 --> 00:01:16,609 APPRAISER: They took him all the way to Yuma. 14 00:01:16,609 --> 00:01:22,482 GUEST: Yes. I've researched the National Archives, and they said that he was in the 15 00:01:22,482 --> 00:01:27,620 relocation camp from 1942 to 1946. I'm a Sansei, which is three generations. 16 00:01:30,190 --> 00:01:34,961 And I wasn't born during this period. And I read this book... 17 00:01:38,531 --> 00:01:46,139 Um... (voice trembling): And it was very hard to read, um... (clears throat) A lot of the Japanese 18 00:01:49,409 --> 00:01:56,282 received 48 hours or so to get their belongings and leave. And some of the men left and the women 19 00:01:59,119 --> 00:02:04,023 stayed with the children. My paternal grandparents and my maternal grandparents 20 00:02:06,059 --> 00:02:10,663 were too far inland, so they were not interred. (sniffles) 21 00:02:10,663 --> 00:02:15,602 APPRAISER: Were they treated with respect by their fellow Americans? 22 00:02:15,602 --> 00:02:24,144 GUEST: No. (sighs) When the war happened, they were asked to leave the church. And another thing 23 00:02:24,144 --> 00:02:29,616 that happened, my mother, and my grandmother and grandfather, had a farm in a small town in Utah. 24 00:02:32,085 --> 00:02:39,826 And... She heard all this noise. (sniffs) And she walked out. (voice trembling): And, 25 00:02:39,826 --> 00:02:47,834 um, there were some men in white sheets, and they're trying to push my grandfather's tractor 26 00:02:47,834 --> 00:02:55,441 into the lake. And my grandmother tried to stop them, and they pushed her down. I d... 27 00:02:55,441 --> 00:03:05,752 It's really hard for me to understand that hatred, or fear, or, or whatever 28 00:03:05,752 --> 00:03:13,560 emotions it was. Their house was egged. One of the teachers, um, taught the kids to say, "Go home..." 29 00:03:16,963 --> 00:03:26,973 I can't even say the word. Um, in Spanish. And she was the only Japanese in the class. My mom 30 00:03:26,973 --> 00:03:33,780 said that if she were in a relocation camp, they probably would have been safer. (sniffs) 31 00:03:33,780 --> 00:03:38,318 APPRAISER: From tragedy, sometimes, comes art. 32 00:03:41,020 --> 00:03:44,524 And that's what we have here. What do you know about this? 33 00:03:44,524 --> 00:03:48,161 GUEST: We believe that my uncle created it out of sagebrush, 34 00:03:50,530 --> 00:03:56,869 and they had paints. And if you can see, he painted it. It's amazing. 35 00:03:56,869 --> 00:04:04,010 APPRAISER: Internment camp artwork is not exclusive to the experience of the Japanese 36 00:04:04,010 --> 00:04:10,149 Americans in the Second World War. This is something that militaria collectors, trench art 37 00:04:10,149 --> 00:04:17,590 collectors, see going back through time. Really, where you see the most of it is in the First World 38 00:04:17,590 --> 00:04:24,063 War. I find it interesting that this artwork that we see represented typically reflects the culture 39 00:04:24,063 --> 00:04:30,036 of those who are in that circumstance. So what we see here is the cultural tradition of Japan 40 00:04:32,872 --> 00:04:38,311 as it is manifested in internment camp artwork. The level of detail is beautiful. 41 00:04:38,311 --> 00:04:39,746 GUEST: Mm-hmm. 42 00:04:39,746 --> 00:04:44,484 APPRAISER: It's really pretty exquisite. And it is interesting that it's a way to cope... 43 00:04:44,484 --> 00:04:45,351 GUEST: Mm-hmm. 44 00:04:45,351 --> 00:04:47,920 APPRAISER: ...with being in an intolerable circumstance. 45 00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:48,955 GUEST: Mm. 46 00:04:48,955 --> 00:04:50,823 APPRAISER: Make something beautiful out of something that is 47 00:04:53,626 --> 00:04:58,498 not beautiful at all. The way that we disrespect one another. These are American citizens. 48 00:04:58,498 --> 00:04:59,632 GUEST: Mm-hmm. 49 00:04:59,632 --> 00:05:06,172 APPRAISER: And that's what made this so particularly heinous within the 50 00:05:06,172 --> 00:05:13,079 way that we look at history. The artifact clearly has emotional significance to you. 51 00:05:13,079 --> 00:05:15,114 GUEST: Yes. 52 00:05:15,114 --> 00:05:18,418 APPRAISER: It has cultural significance to the Japanese American community. 53 00:05:18,418 --> 00:05:20,119 GUEST: Yes. 54 00:05:20,119 --> 00:05:27,260 APPRAISER: And because of that, when these do come up for sale, there is often 55 00:05:28,828 --> 00:05:31,998 offense taken. I like to tell folks 56 00:05:35,034 --> 00:05:43,943 that there are three major components of the system that saves history. There's the family, who 57 00:05:43,943 --> 00:05:51,551 decided that something was worth saving. And then there are museums that can curate a tiny percent 58 00:05:51,551 --> 00:05:53,986 of what needs to be saved. And then there's the collecting community that steps in to do the rest. 59 00:05:53,986 --> 00:05:55,555 GUEST: Mm-hmm. 60 00:05:55,555 --> 00:05:58,424 APPRAISER: So we all work together to make sure that history is saved. Artifacts are conduits 61 00:06:00,927 --> 00:06:05,264 to the past. It's a touchstone. Every time you look at this, you're feeling what happened... 62 00:06:05,264 --> 00:06:06,699 GUEST: Mm-hmm. 63 00:06:06,699 --> 00:06:11,003 APPRAISER: ...to your family. And I think everybody else who looks at these things, 64 00:06:11,003 --> 00:06:15,942 when they see them, because they know the story, they can share in that and empathize 65 00:06:15,942 --> 00:06:22,215 with you. And that is really... There's the building blocks of making sure that 66 00:06:22,215 --> 00:06:28,287 we respect one another as human beings, and we don't let things like that happen again. 67 00:06:28,287 --> 00:06:36,696 If one of these was to come up for sale, I would expect to see a retail value of $1,000 to $1,500. 68 00:06:36,696 --> 00:06:47,573 GUEST: It's priceless to me. It's interesting how things haven't really changed that much. 69 00:06:47,573 --> 00:06:56,983 I'm Japanese American. But I'm a person. My mom is 95, and she still has a deep, sad feeling.