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Image / Old Parents Thinking about Their Son on the Battlefield

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Item information. View source record on the Online Archive of California.

Title
Old Parents Thinking about Their Son on the Battlefield
Creator
Sugimoto, Henry
Date Created and/or Issued
1943
Publication Information
Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Contributing Institution
Japanese American National Museum
Collection
Sugimoto (Henry) Collection
Rights Information
Please contact the contributing institution for more information regarding the copyright status of this object.
Description
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back: Old parents are thinking their son/in the battlefield
Stretched and framed. On the left, an elderly man in tan shirt and pants wearing geta (a traditional Japanese wooden clog that is worn outdoors) is seated on the front steps of barracks with his head on his left hand while an elderly woman dressed in grey leaning on cane holding a bucket in left hand stands to the right. The face of a young man in army uniform is painted between them. In the barracks window is an image of an American flag over a star and a large "V". In the background, the mess hall and other barracks are visible.
"One of the nisei soldiers who willingly enlisted under the draft law came back to say goodbye to his parents in the camp. There was so much to learn from his words in answer to his friends' questions--he said he knew too well that U.S. policy towards Japanese Americans was unreasonable, but he cannot be angry. It is the time to sacrifice and serve...with the hope that risking life may become the driving power to shatter ignorance." (Henry Sugimoto, draft of redress testimony given in 1981)
Type
image
Format
Painting oil on canvas Denson, Ark.
Form/Genre
painting
Identifier
http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf4g5003jq
92.97.4
Subject
Barracks
Soldiers
Concentration camps
Parents
Sons
Japanese Americans
Thought and thinking
442nd Regimental Combat Team
Place
Denson, Ark.

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