Exhibit Displays Work of WWII Internees

Now through Oct. 12, AARP members showing their cards will receive a $2 discount per ticket for “The Art of Gaman,” an exhibit of more than 120 artifacts made by Japanese American internees during World War II, at the Bellevue Arts Museum, 510 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue.

Shortly after the Dec. 7, 1941, bombing of Pearl Harbor, approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast were ordered to leave their homes and forced into 10 internment camps, taking only necessities with them. They used arts and crafts for practical purposes, such as making furniture, as well as a form of recreation.

Among the internees was a group of 227 Japanese Americans from Bainbridge Island. With only a few days’ notice, the island residents left their homes on March 30, 1942. After the war, just 150 of them returned.

Curated by Delphine Hirasuna, a third-generation Japanese American, the exhibit was named for the Japanese word gaman, which means to bear the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity. The exhibit includes work from Ruth Asawa, Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani, Chiura Obata, Henry Sugimoto and others.

For more information, visit aarp.org/seattle or the Bellevue Arts Museum at bellevuearts.org.
—Dana E. Neuts