Gaman 

When my family was wrongfully incarcerated by the American government in 1942 they, along with other Japanese Americans, employed the practice of Gaman which means to "bear the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity.” While this practice helped to cope with the hardships and terrors that they faced, it prevented them from processing the numerous traumas they endured. In many ways, they never left the camps. In preserving their dignity, the incarcerated Japanese Americans unknowingly passed their traumas down to the following generations. 

Through the use of mixed media, destructive techniques, and contrasting surfaces, this work serves to confront generational trauma, interrogate the systems that caused it, and celebrate the growth and resilience of the Japanese American community as we work to come to terms with our past and build our future in this land. 

This body of work is dedicated to my great-grandmother, Fuku Ogura Itashiki, who in 1943 was separated from her family and died months later in the custody of the FBI.