Henry Sugimoto
Henry Yuzuru Sugimoto was a Japanese-American artist born in Wakayama, Japan, who later moved to California in 1919. He pursued formal art education, graduating from the California School of Arts and Crafts and studying in Paris before embarking on a successful artistic career in the 1930s. Sugimoto's life took a dramatic turn following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which led to the internment of Japanese Americans. He and his family were initially placed in the Fresno Assembly Center and later relocated to the Jerome and Rohwer War Relocation Centers in Arkansas. Throughout this challenging period, Sugimoto continued to create art, producing significant works that depicted the experiences of internment. After leaving the camps in 1945, he returned to New York, eventually resuming full-time art production in 1962. Sugimoto's legacy includes raising awareness of the internment experience through his art, particularly the powerful works he created during his time in detention, which comment on the injustices faced by Japanese Americans during World War II.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Henry Sugimoto
Japanese-born artist
- Pronunciation: YEW-zew-rew SEW-gee-MOH-toh
- Born: March 12, 1900
- Birthplace: Wakayama, Japan
- Died: May 8, 1990
- Place of death: New York, New York
Sugimoto established his reputation as an artist in California during the Great Depression and became best known for his paintings created during his time in the Japanese American internment camps of World War II. Later in life, he worked to call attention to the experiences of internees.
Area of achievement: Art
Early Life
Henry Yuzuru Sugimoto was born in Wakayama, Japan, and raised by his maternal grandparents. In 1919, he joined his parents in California, where he began his formal education in art. He graduated from the California School of Arts and Crafts in 1928 and then studied at the Académie Colarossi in Paris, France. He returned to California in 1932; in 1934, he married Susie Tagawa, with whom he had two children.
Life’s Work
In the 1930s, Sugimoto enjoyed a successful artistic career in California and also made a significant trip to Mexico, during which he studied the work of the Mexican muralists. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Japanese Americans on the West Coast were relocated to internment camps. Sugimoto and his family were interned in the Fresno Assembly Center in May of 1942 and relocated to the Jerome Relocation Center in Arkansas in October. Sugimoto continued to draw and paint throughout his detention, and his work was featured in an exhibition at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. The Sugimotos were transferred to the nearby Rohwer War Relocation Center in June of 1944. They left the camp the following year and moved to New York.
Sugimoto worked at a textile company until 1962, returning to full-time artistic production only after retirement. He traveled to France and Japan and began to exhibit work in the United States and abroad. Sugimoto also worked to raise awareness of the detention-camp experience, returning to the motif in his art and donating significant works from his internment to museums.
Significance
Sugimoto is best known for the large body of work that he produced during his years in the Jerome and Rohwer detention camps. This mature work presents powerful renderings of human actions and activities that capture the experiences endured during internment, raising awareness of the issue and commenting on the actions of the US government.
Bibliography
Gesensway, Deborah, and Mindy Roseman. Beyond Words: Images from America’s Concentration Camps. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1987. Print. Considers Sugimoto alongside other Japanese American artists working within the internment camps.
Inada, Lawson Fusao. Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience. Berkeley: Heyday, 2000. Print. Gathers images and texts related to the experience of Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II.
Kim, Kristine. Henry Sugimoto: Painting an American Experience. Berkeley: Heyday, 2000. Print. Offers a biography of Sugimoto, placing the work produced during his internment within the context of his full career.