Henry Sugimoto

Henry Yuzuru Sugimoto (March 12, 1900 – May 8, 1990) was a Japanese-American artist, art teacher and a survivor of Japanese American Internment during World War II.

His father emigrated to the United States soon after he was born, and his mother followed nine years later, leaving Sugimoto and a younger brother to be raised by their maternal grandparents.

Following Executive Order 9066, which authorized military commanders to evict "any or all persons" from the West Coast, Sugimoto was removed with his wife and daughter to the Pinedale Assembly Center.

He began painting on sheets, pillowcases and other scrap materials, hiding his early work from administrators because he feared his critical depictions of camp life would be confiscated.

The Galerie exhibit was his first solo show in nearly twenty years, but due to a concurrent newspaper strike it received little public attention and attracted few buyers.

However, around this time his work began to receive renewed attention from artists and activists connected to the redress movement and the establishment of Asian American Studies programs.

Sugimoto began to create new woodblock prints exploring camp themes and became involved in the redress movement himself, testifying before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians in 1981.