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Captured history

Exhibit offers 'eye' into Japanese-American internment camps

Students walk to Manzanar high school within the California internment camp in this undated photo taken by camp photographer Toyo Miyatake. -- TOYO MIYATAKE photo
Toyo Miyatake captured images of Norito Takamoto (from left), Albert Masaichi and Masaaki Ooka at Manzanar internment camp in California in 1944. -- TOYO MIYATAKE photo
TOYO MIYATAKE, Self-portrait
KAHULUI -- Photographer Toyo Miyatake documented the everyday life of Japanese-Americans at work and at play. The setting for his subjects' day-to-day lives was anything but normal, though. Miyatake was "camp photographer" at Manzanar, one of the largest World War II internment camps in the U.S., where he smuggled in camera parts before gaining approval take pictures, so long as a white assistant snaps the shot. Miyatake's photos capture history unlike words ever could. The artist's images from Manzanar, along with his prewar photography, were unveiled Saturday for Hawaii's premiere of "Toyo: Behind the Glass Eye" exhibition at the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center in Wailuku. The show is open during center hours through June 14. Scores attended the exhibition's opening talk by Alan Miyatake, who discussed grandfather Toyo Miyatake's experience before, during and after the war. It's a story that to this day connects many generations of Japanese-Americans, especially in Hawaii, where internment camps were established on six islands, including four in Maui County. Barbara Huntley of Paia on Friday recalled wartime stories that directly impacted her issei and nisei family. Her grandfather and mother were interned at different times in various locations around the U.S. while her father was serving in the war as a U.S. Army medical officer. Huntley's grandfather, Seiichi Ohata, who immigrated with family from Japan to Oahu in 1912 and then to Maui in 1915, was a celebrated physician. Born on Maui, her father, Seiya Ohata, became a doctor as well. When the war broke out, Seiichi Ohata was working at his practice in Paia, Huntley said. He was jailed, then interned in Kansas, Louisiana and Montana, according to "Every Grain of Rice: Portraits of Maui's Japanese Community." Seiya Ohata was training at a hospital when the war began. His study was hastened; he would soon be deployed with the U.S. Army to care for wounded at Cherbourg, France, the day after D-Day. Huntley's father returned to Maui near the end of 1948; her grandfather was eventually forced back to Japan during a prisoner-of-war exchange and was restricted from returning until 1954. Seiya Ohata, who now lives in Kula, was in solo private practice until 1959, when he became one of the founders of Maui Medical Group, where he worked until his retirement in 1984. Huntley remembers visiting an internment camp museum in Montana decades later with her father and other family members. "It was the first time I ever saw my father cry," Huntley said. "It was quite touching. Japanese are so stoic, yeah? You cannot cry." "A lot of the Japanese did not talk about their experiences," she added. Internment camps held Japanese-Americans and Japanese aliens against their will during World War II under Executive Order 9066. While internees in Hawaii were primarily leaders of the Japanese-American community, including teachers, doctors, businesspeople and Buddhist priests, populations also included German-Americans, Italian-Americans and prisoners of war. Well-known Mainland camps included Tule Lake and Manzanar, both in California, and one in Minidoka, Idaho. Those locations are now part of the National Park System. Overall, camp populations held about 120,000, according to the National Park Service. From the start of the war in 1941 to its end in 1954, internment sites were located on Maui, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai and the Big Island. Oahu's Honouliuli Gulch and Sand Island confined more than 1,200 people, the service said. "Not much is known about Neighbor Island internment camps because they were temporary holding places before people were moved to Oahu," Mary Campany, Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii collection librarian, said Friday. Maui internment camps were situated at Wailuku County Jail, which was located on the same property as the county building, and also in Haiku, where the camp used to be on an athletic field makai of old Haiku Pineapple Cannery or in an area near Horizons Academy of Maui along Haiku Road, the cultural center said. Internment camp documentation, especially visible in Toyo Miyatake's photographs, provides rich insight into pages of history that remain relevant to this day. It is the viewer's discussions, interpretations and stories that Alan Miyatake said would have fulfilled his grandfather's original intent. "With art, there is no right or wrong," he said. "There are reactions to it." Nisei Veterans Memorial Center officials hope the show will foster a means of understanding and respect among all people, possibly providing a lens to see through the eyes of another. "We live in a time with many cultural differences, but my takeaway is that there is a space between them," said show curator Hirokazu Kosaka. * Kehaulani Cerizo can be reached at kcerizo@mauinews.com. _______________ "Toyo Miyatake: Behind the Glass Eye" • Open noon to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday through June 14 • Nisei Veterans Memorial Center, 665 Kahului Beach Road, Kahului ≤ 244-6862 • www.nvmc.org • Free admission Toyo Miyatake (1895-1979) grew up in Japan wanting to paint, but his mother convinced him to instead explore photography. He moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1909, and about a decade later, Miyatake would study the art form under acclaimed photographer Edward Weston. He eventually collaborated with famed photographer Ansel Adams. Under World War II's Executive Order 9066, Miyatake was forced with his wife and four children into one of the largest U.S. Japanese-American internment camps at Manzanar, about 230 miles north of LA. He spent about four years there, documenting daily life with smuggled camera parts before he got approval to take pictures as camp photographer. There was just one provision: A white assistant had to snap the shutter. Miyatake said it was his duty as a photographer to capture life there, according to grandson Alan Miyatake, in "hopes that something like this will never happen again." While incarcerated, Miyatake met and began collaboration with Ansel Adams. The two later published work together in "Two Views of Manzanar." In addition to portraits of celebrities, civic personalities and families, Miyatake photographed Japan's first postwar international sports competition, the 1959 U.S. outdoor swimming championships, and worked as a freelance photographer for the Rafu Shimpo in LA. "Toyo: Behind the Glass Eye" juxtaposes prewar art photography with life at Manzanar. The show had its Hawaii debut at the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center in Kahului on Saturday, featuring an opening talk by Alan Miyatake. "On the Veranda," a talk by curator Hirokazu Kosaka, will be held at 1:30 p.m. today at Maui Arts & Cultural Center. RSVP is required 244-6862. [gallery ids="725586,725585,725584"]

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