A Conversation with Elizabeth Hashimoto

by Lauren McGinn, 02/1/23

“Inescapable Incarceration: Hansel Mieth’s Photography at Heart Mountain”

This essay explores Japanese American Incarceration in World War II without separating it as a concept from the people living through it. Through thoughtful and loving analysis, it moves the narrative of imprisonment away from the environment and boundaries of the incarcerated and puts the story back where it belongs: in the hearts and in the spirits of the Japanese who lived through internment. 

Photography is a unique opportunity for artists to capture life exactly as it is outside of time and without limitation. It gives the artist the unique opportunity to capture rare perspectives. The author, Elizabeth Hashimoto, notes just how unique of an opportunity Hansel Mieth had and carefully analyzes his technique to lovingly reveal an all too rare perspective: the perspective of the human person. 

Elizabeth Hashimoto, an alumnus of CUA, received her undergraduate degree in Anthropology with a minor in Studio Art. She has since completed her master's degree in Art History and Museum Studies at Georgetown University and is now living and working in her home in Hawai'i as a cultural resource manager. 

Elizabeth produced this research for CUA's Dr. Kathleen Markowski in her class, “Made in America.” When asked why she chose to produce this research, she revealed a personal anecdote of an experience she had with an exhibit at the National Gallery of Art: "I knew that I wanted it as my subject because I was fascinated with the image's depiction of internment that focused on the internees rather than the more carceral aspects such as the camp's barbed wire and guard towers."

Upon her fascination with Hansel Mieth's The March of Dimes, she came to a realization, "Since it's a beautiful image and has such a compassionate portrayal of its internee subjects, I expected it to be a well-known photograph, but the small body of work focusing on Mieth's photography didn't include specific mention of it." Elizabeth notes a hole in what people have to say, not just on the work of Hansel Mieth but also on Japanese Americans living in World War II. She notes: "Especially on the East Coast, Japanese Americans are a very small minority, and our experiences during WWII aren't often a central part of the popular narratives about Americans during the war."

After realizing this lack of representation and lack of research, she decided: "It was important for me to produce something that highlighted internees' time in the camps and what they faced day to day there as framed through this image,” and formed an intense focus on how "internment impacted all aspects of internees' lives, even as they tried to maintain a semblance of normalcy through recreational activities like the fundraiser dance depicted."

Elizabeth is doing more here than producing original and quality research; she is honoring her ancestors, connecting with her family story, and shifting the narrative back to the people. She lovingly describes her strong connection to her own ancestral history that she recognized in Mieth's art: "Japanese internment is personal to me, as I am Japanese on my father's side. I am gosei, the fifth generation after my relatives who came from Japan… [and] when I see historical photos of Japanese Americans: sugarcane farmers, young internees at a dance, or members of the 442nd Infantry Regiment, I see my relatives looking back at me." Elizabeth shared the story of one of these relatives: her great grandfather– who "was marked as potentially dangerous for his influence over other Japanese, and narrowly avoided being sent to an internment camp on the west coast."

Elizabeth has things to say about why people should be writing narratives that honor people; she told another powerful anecdote about her goals for this research from her time at CUA: "At CUA's annual Hertzfeld Symposium in 2022, Dr. Amy Lonetree spoke about producing work that brings to light narratives our ancestors would recognize themselves in. This was my goal as I wrote about the photograph and the history surrounding it." Elizabeth Hashimoto is a profoundly personal writer who can identify holes in racial representation and artistic analysis and, through an emotional connection with a specific work of Hansel Mieth's photography, shifts the internment narrative from harsh, abrupt images of the environment to something very human—a dance. In doing this, she brings a sense of humanity to internment photography without humanizing a dehumanizing and inescapable experience that Japanese Americans suffered: incarceration. Elizabeth’s work serves as a witness to the incarceration of Japanese Americans who lived through incarceration at Heart Mountain. 

Read Elizabeth's piece, "Inescapable Incarceration: Hansel Mieth's Photography at Heart Mountain," in the upcoming issue of Inventio's Volume 9!