Witness to Wartime: The Painted Diary of Takuichi Fujii

Artist Takuichi Fujii was fifty years old when war broke out between the United States and Japan. In a climate of increasing fear and racist propaganda, he became one of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast forced to leave their homes and live in geographically isolated incarceration camps. Fujii left a remarkably comprehensive visual record of this important time in American history, and offers a unique perspective on his generation. This stunning body of work sheds light on events that most Americans did not experience, but whose lessons remain salient today. His illustrated diary and watercolors span the years from his forced removal in May 1942 to the closing of most of the camps in the autumn of 1945. This stunning body of work sheds light on events that most Americans did not experience, but whose lessons remain salient today. themuseum.org.