Jerome War Relocation Center, near Jerome, Arkansas, 1942. Richard Henmi’s family was held here.“Beauty In Enormous Bleakness, a multi-layered investigation into the lives of Japanese American architects who survived the Japanese Incarceration of WWII, explores American architecture’s relationship to issues of immigration, exclusion, and cultural identity in the 20th-century.
“The project centers four Washington University in St. Louis College of Architecture alumni—Richard Henmi, Gyo Obata, George Matsumoto, and Fred Toguchi—who made vital contributions to the post-war design landscape of the United States within residential, commercial, landscape, and large-scale industrial architectural spheres.”
Henmi, Obata, Matsumoto, and Toguchi, each originally from California, were incarcerated in 1942. Through advocacy by the American Friends Service Committee they were allowed to leave their camps to continue their education. Washington University was one of the few universities to accept Japanese American students during the war.
The incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II is also the subject of “Building History 3.0,” featured as well in this season of arcCA DIGEST.
