Analytical Description:

Henry Sugimoto was a Japanese American painter. He is significant to the Japanese American community in Los Angeles because he lived in Los Angeles for a large part of his life, and was held in the Fresno Assembly Center. Sugimoto was a painter who graduated with an honors degree from a Los Angeles school

These paintings connect to the theme of oppression in Asian-American history, as Sugimoto was confined in relocation camps. We analyze the work of Sugimoto, who spent many years in California, to help us understand Japanese American internment camps. Henry Sugimoto is a painter confined in such camps three times: first, in the Fresno Assembly Center in California, then in the Jerome camp in Arkansas, and lastly in the Rohwer camp in Arkansas (Robinson). Therefore, we attempt to understand Sugimoto’s experience, including his emotions, within the internment camps. Although we cannot access Sugimoto’s emotions, we can access Sugimoto’s paintings with color.

Sugimoto is able to powerfully express himself using color. We see that Sugimoto uses blue to express hopelessness, as we examined in his works, “On the Way to Jerome Camp,” “Going to America,” and “Mess Hall-Jerome Camp.” Blue was not always a culturally significant color; according to Pastoureau, blue was an insignificant color until recently. In the latter two works, “Going to America,” and “Mess Hall-Jerome Camp,” we saw how red could represent change in the United States; the possibility of change for the good, as for example Sugimoto earned an honor degree from a California arts school in oil painting (Robinson), or change for the worse, as Sugimoto was interned at several camps.

Keywords: Japanese American, relocation camp, Jerome camp, painting, oil, train