Kay Sekimachi was 15 years old when she and her family arrived at the Japanese American camp known as Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno, California. She was one of the roughly 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast who were forcibly moved to incarceration camps during World War II. Amid the crushing confinement of the camps, Sekimachi attended the Tanforan Art School founded by artist Chiura Obata (1885–1975), a fellow Japanese American prisoner who recognized the children’s need for continuity and normalcy inside the camps and believed in the healing power of art.
Tanforan
Object Details
- Date
- between 1940-1946
- Creator
- Stocksdale, Kay Sekimachi, 1926-
- Place of publication, production, or execution
- No place, unknown, or undetermined
- Physical Description
- 1 painting : watercolor ; 23 x 31 cm.
- Citation
- Kay Sekimachi Stocksdale. Tanforan, between 1940-1946. Bob Stocksdale and Kay Sekimachi papers, circa 1900-2015. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
- Use Note
- Current copyright status is undetermined
- Location Note
- Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution Washington, D.C. 20560
- Topic
- Asian American art
- Asian American artists
- Japanese American artists
- Women artists
- See more items in
- Bob Stocksdale and Kay Sekimachi papers, circa 1900-2015
- Data Source
- Archives of American Art
- Record number
- (DSI-AAA)6246
- Type
- Artworks
- Metadata Usage
- Usage conditions apply
- Record ID
- AAADCD_item_6246
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.