WEBVTT

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GUEST: I brought this pin that
my Uncle Shiro made in the
internment camp at Poston.
That's

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my uncle right there, Shiro. My
mom received this pin from
Shiro, who is her
brother-in-law,

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and she gave it to me. And then
I had it framed, with the story
and the picture of, of the camp.

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The other thing I have is this
picture of him receiving his
internment orders from this
soldier.

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APPRAISER: Did you
know your uncle?

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GUEST: No, he
passed in, um, 1956.

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APPRAISER: Tell us what's
happening in this photo.

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GUEST: He was living on Terminal
Island. That was located in
California. The soldier right

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there with the bayonet is giving
the order to my uncle that they
have to evacuate the island

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and go to the internment camp. I
wonder what he's thinking as
he's, as he's reading this.

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APPRAISER: So when he was asked
to leave, it wasn't to relocate
20 miles down the road.

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GUEST: No.

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APPRAISER: They took
him all the way to Yuma.

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GUEST: Yes. I've researched the
National Archives, and they said
that he was in the

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relocation camp from 1942 to
1946. I'm a Sansei, which is
three generations.

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And I wasn't born during this
period. And I read this book...

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Um... (voice trembling): And it
was very hard to read, um...
(clears throat) A lot of the
Japanese

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received 48 hours or so to get
their belongings and leave. And
some of the men left and the
women

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stayed with the children. My
paternal grandparents and my
maternal grandparents

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were too far inland, so they
were not interred. (sniffles)

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APPRAISER: Were they treated
with respect by their fellow
Americans?

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GUEST: No. (sighs) When the war
happened, they were asked to
leave the church. And another
thing

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that happened, my mother, and my
grandmother and grandfather, had
a farm in a small town in Utah.

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And... She heard all this noise.
(sniffs) And she walked out.
(voice trembling): And,

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um, there were some men in white
sheets, and they're trying to
push my grandfather's tractor

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into the lake. And my
grandmother tried to stop them,
and they pushed her down. I d...

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It's really hard for me to
understand that hatred, or fear,
or, or whatever

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emotions it was. Their house was
egged. One of the teachers, um,
taught the kids to say, "Go
home..."

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I can't even say the word. Um,
in Spanish. And she was the only
Japanese in the class. My mom

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said that if she were in a
relocation camp, they probably
would have been safer. (sniffs)

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APPRAISER: From tragedy,
sometimes, comes art.

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And that's what we have here.
What do you know about this?

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GUEST: We believe that my uncle
created it out of sagebrush,

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and they had paints. And if you
can see, he painted it. It's
amazing.

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APPRAISER: Internment camp
artwork is not exclusive to the
experience of the Japanese

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Americans in the Second World
War. This is something that
militaria collectors, trench art

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collectors, see going back
through time. Really, where you
see the most of it is in the
First World

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War. I find it interesting that
this artwork that we see
represented typically reflects
the culture

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of those who are in that
circumstance. So what we see
here is the cultural tradition
of Japan

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as it is manifested in
internment camp artwork. The
level of detail is beautiful.

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GUEST: Mm-hmm.

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APPRAISER: It's really pretty
exquisite. And it is interesting
that it's a way to cope...

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GUEST: Mm-hmm.

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APPRAISER: ...with being in
an intolerable circumstance.

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GUEST: Mm.

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APPRAISER: Make something
beautiful out of something that
is

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not beautiful at all. The way
that we disrespect one another.
These are American citizens.

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GUEST: Mm-hmm.

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APPRAISER: And that's what made
this so particularly heinous
within the

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way that we look at history. The
artifact clearly has emotional
significance to you.

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GUEST: Yes.

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APPRAISER: It has cultural
significance to the Japanese
American community.

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GUEST: Yes.

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APPRAISER: And because of that,
when these do come up for sale,
there is often

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offense taken. I
like to tell folks

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that there are three major
components of the system that
saves history. There's the
family, who

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decided that something was worth
saving. And then there are
museums that can curate a tiny
percent

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of what needs to be saved. And
then there's the collecting
community that steps in to do
the rest.

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GUEST: Mm-hmm.

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APPRAISER: So we all work
together to make sure that
history is saved. Artifacts are
conduits

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to the past. It's a touchstone.
Every time you look at this,
you're feeling what happened...

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GUEST: Mm-hmm.

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APPRAISER: ...to your family.
And I think everybody else who
looks at these things,

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when they see them, because they
know the story, they can share
in that and empathize

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with you. And that is really...
There's the building blocks of
making sure that

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we respect one another as human
beings, and we don't let things
like that happen again.

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If one of these was to come up
for sale, I would expect to see
a retail value of $1,000 to
$1,500.

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GUEST: It's priceless to me.
It's interesting how things
haven't really changed that
much.

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I'm Japanese American. But I'm a
person. My mom is 95, and she
still has a deep, sad feeling.