Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata's Art of the Internment

by Kimi Kodani Hill (Editor), Ruth Asawa (Foreword), Timothy Anglin Burgard (Introduction)

Chiura Obata was one of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans forcefully relocated from their homes, work, and communities to the stark barracks of desert internment camps during World War II. As an artist faithfully recording the world around him, Obata's work from this period gives us a view into the camps that is at once honest and strikingly lyrical. Topaz Moon brings together more than 100 paintings and sketches from Obata's internment period, from the stables at Tanforan, California, to the barracks in Topaz, Utah. Edited by his granddaughter Kimi Kodani Hill, these images are accompanied by a text that draws heavily upon the letters of Obata and his wife, Haruko, family documents, and interviews with family and friends.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Biography, History, Japanese Literature

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Aneesa]

Again, I only looked at the pictures, but this is a good addition to the literature of the internment.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This book is impactful. Not only is the artwork super impressive, but the story of Chiura Obata's survival and perseverance will really make the reader think. The author does a fantastic job at creating empathy for the interned Japanese Americans. (Really, not too hard- it's appalling what the US did with the internment camps during WWII. I understand the US fear, but still hate that so many thousands had to be endure internment.)

Full disclosure: I don't think I would have ever sought out traditional Japanese-style art if not for this book recommendation from my aunt. I'm so glad that she recommended it! The artwork is amazing, and takes on even deeper meaning when you read the text of the book, that tells the story of when and where Obata created it. He makes even the bleakest internment camp moments appear spectacular through the lens of his spare brush strokes.

Just a note.... I had to interlibrary loan request this book in order to read it, and it was worth way more than the $2 fee! I read it rather quickly and took it back into work and my staff all enjoyed looking at it too!

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have already done a fair amount of reading on the Japanese American Internment Camps which were established in 1942 in reaction to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Thus, I was uncertain about whether to read Topaz Moon or not. I am pleased that I did, however, for two reasons.

First, Kodani Hill’s narrative provided a solid context in which to view the experiences which her grandparents Chiura and Haruko Obata had as ‘internees’ (prisoners) in 1942-43, after they were released, and upon their return to California in 1945. A skillful mix of letters, family documents, and interviews allowed me to gain a great deal of insight into the tremendous challenges they, and thousands of others, courageously and stoically overcame.

Second, and more importantly IMHO, the dozens of Obata’s paintings and sketches inserted into the narrative were profoundly moving. While his letters and a handful of poems he wrote were informative, some of these depictions of what he experienced in both California and Utah were incredibly powerful.

There were other elements in Topaz Moon that enhanced its impact. The most essential were 23 pages of more of Obata’s paintings provided at the conclusion of the narrative. Some of these are breathtaking. There were also 3 pages of Endnotes and a 2 page bibliography.

Even if someone is already knowledgeable about the tragedy of these camps I highly recommend this book.

[MundiNova · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've walked by this book on my parent's bookshelf for over twenty years and today I finally read it, cover to cover. Not just skimmed looking at the paintings, but actually read it.

A quick disclaimer before I lay the praise on thick: Kimi Hill is married to my cousin, so there's a family connection. I didn't stumble across this book or hear about it from a publisher. Kimi's books are well known within my family.

So, on to the praise!

This is a wonderfully written, very accessible, and great introduction to one family's experience in the internment camps. The numerous sketches capture the day-by-day experience in a way I haven't seen before. Excerpts from personal letters and diaries add details that make the whole experience come alive. Since cameras weren't allowed in the internment camps, the sketches captured key moments: Suitcases piled high outside the church for departing, the dust storms, toilets, families living in horse stalls, and most importantly the fences.

I loved all the details about the art schools Chiura Obata founded in each camp he lived in. How he used art and nature to help hundreds of people through a horrific time in American history.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in American history or Art. Can't believe I walked by this gem for so many years. I'm sorry, Kimi.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A moving history of American Japanese internment and the resilience of those Americans, the book includes many of Obata’s writings and art during the WWII era.

The courses and work at the art schools in the Tanforan and Topaz internment camps is breathtaking as is Obata’s ability to share natural beauty even in the direst of circumstances.

The book includes color prints of many works, including the Moonlight Over Topaz work that remained with Eleanor Roosevelt until her death and the three painting Obata created in remembrance of the Hiroshima holocaust.

The reproductions in the book cannot do justice to the incredible color interaction of the original paintings, but they do show the deliberate intentionality of every brushstroke that can be seen in Obata’s earlier water paintings.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is by the granddaughter of Chiura Obata. It is a wonderful blend of photos and text.

Kimi Kodani Hill has used letters, articles, lectures, interviews, and the beautiful artwork to relate her grandparents life during the 1940s. This work is mostly the time spent in the Japanese Relocation Camps.

The biggest take away from this book is no matter what, you need to find the beauty around you. That Chiura Obata did. There are over 100 of Obata's paintings, sketches, and watercolors.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love it. This book shares the Obata family’s story during the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WW2. Chiura Obata’s artwork is lovely, honest, and provides invaluable visual histories of this time. I love that he used his knowledge and connections to start art schools and teach art to help lift the spirits of his fellow internees.

[Regine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, moving. A worthy tribute to artist Chiura Obata and his testimony to the devastating dislocations and losses of the Japanese-Americans who were living in the Bay Area in 1942. From the stables of Tanforan Racetrack to the barbed wire and omnipresent dust of the Topaz Utah internment camp, the journey mirrors the movements of all Japanese-Americans then living on or near the West Coast.

Obata’s insistence that art can focus and settle the mind was important for internees who had lost everything and were struggling to find some peace and stability at a time when being an innocent, hard-working American citizen was insufficient protection.

[Paul Aller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the art, amazing how dignified and reselient the Japanese people were. How did this happen?

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am working on a piece of literary fiction that will treat, in part, the internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II. I am in the research phase on so many levels—there is so much to know about and understand. But one thing I do know: at least one of my characters will be an artist. I expect I'll base that character at least partly on Chiura Obata.

I first encountered Chiura Obata in a book called Obata's Yosemite, comprising paintings, drawings, and letters from a trip he made to the High Sierra in 1927. I later learned that he was imprisoned at Tanforan, near San Francisco, and Topaz, Utah, during the war.

Obata came to the U.S. in 1903, at the age of eighteen. His father was an artist, and Chiura followed in his footsteps, training in the art of sumi-e starting at age seven. By the 1920s he was becoming established as an artist, painting murals and designs for leading department stores and designing sets for the San Francisco Opera. In 1928 he had his first solo show, and in 1932 he began teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, where he remained until 1954&mdash—absent the gap caused by his internment and subsequent relocation to the Midwest. In 1954, when Japanese were finally allowed to become U.S. citizens, he and his wife, Haruko, did so. He died in 1975, having spent fifteen years after retirement leading cultural/artistic tours to Japan: his second career.

This book, written and researched by his granddaughter, brings together many photographs, letters, and especially drawings and paintings that pertain to the war years, when the Obatas spent five months at the Tanforan Assembly Center and then eight more months at Topaz Relocation Center. He never stopped drawing, so we have images of the camps, of the train rides in between, of assembly areas, of the hospital—you name it, he got it down on paper. Notably, in both camps, he started and led art schools, with a professional faculty teaching hundreds of students, from children to seventy-year-olds, in all manner of classes: figure painting, still life, mural painting, and art appreciation; interior and fashion design; architectural drafting and cartooning; and many techniques, including sumi-e. Haruko taught ikebana.

The book is rich with details, but even more, it's rich with humanity. Obata was fifty-seven when he had to leave everything behind (fortunately, he had good friends in the Berkeley community who took care of his most prized possessions—something most internees did not have), but his attitude was consistently positive. He found solace and meaning in his art. As he put it in 1946, "In any circumstance, anywhere and anytime, take up your brush and express what you face and what you think without wasting time and energy complaining and crying out. I hold that statement as my aim, and as I have told my friends and students, the aim of artists."

Throughout the text, we are treated to line drawings, and at the end of the book many of his color paintings—watercolors on paper and silk mostly—show us Obata's sensibility and the beauty of his vision, in the context of one of the more tragic periods of our nation's history.

[Patsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fine tribute to Chiura Obata and his wife Haruko about their five month stay at the Tanforan Japanese detention camp in 1942. It is written by their granddaughter after she began doing research about her grandparents. She shares lovely family photos as well as many of Chiura's sumi paintings, drawings and watercolors that he did during that time.

Chiura gave hope and meaning to the months he was in the camp as he had an art school built and he, his wife and other U C Berkeley college graduates taught art classes to many, many people.

This book is a testament to what the human spirit is capable of when driven by love, kindness and passion for the arts even in the face of tremendous adversity.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even in a time of adversity Chiura Obata found solace in his art and in teaching art to others. The time he and his family spent in an internment camp was not easy or comfortable, but he managed to rely on his skills and the beauty he found in nature to minimize the strain of being uprooted from his home and career.

[Rwildfon · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inside look at Chiura Obata's (Professor of Art -U of California) time, with sketches and drawings of his experience while displaced at Tanforan and Topaz internment camps. His absolute dedication to his profession, teaching and nurturing art students in the camps.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent short read.

[Maureen Apter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A look at an incredible man and the beautiful and meaningful art he created. Opened my eyes further to the injustice of Japanese internment.

[e · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful work. wish more of the art images were full page size!