A color drawing of the Kilauer Military Dentention Camp, barracks with mountain in distance

Online Exhibition

The Life and Work of George Hoshida

A Japanese American’s Journey

Bio

1907–1985

George Hoshida photoGeorge Hoshida was born in Japan in 1907. In 1912, at the age of four, he immigrated with his family to Hilo, Hawai‘i. It is important to note Hoshida’s age when he made the journey across the Pacific. Although his entire adolescence and adulthood was spent in Hawai‘i, Hoshida was forbidden by law to become a naturalized citizen. Unlike migrants from Europe, immigrants from Asia were restricted from naturalization because of race until 1952.

A self-educated man, Hoshida’s formal education ended when he graduated from junior high school (he received his GED after the war). Hoshida then went on to work for the Hilo Electric Light Company, married, and started a family. He was also involved in his Buddhist temple and had a keen interest in judo. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hoshida was considered “potentially dangerous” due to his community involvement. Although he professed little interest in international politics, the practice of his Buddhist faith, his leadership in his temple, and his interest in judo deemed him “suspicious.” Hoshida was first incarcerated in the Kilauea Military Camp in Hawai‘i, and then subsequently taken to the Justice Department camps at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, and Lordsburg and Santa Fe in New Mexico.

During the first two years of his incarceration, Hoshida was separated from his wife, Tamae, and four daughters, Taeko, June, Sandra, and Carole. Taeko was severely disabled and died during his absence. When Hoshida was finally reunited with his family, it was only under the terms of incarceration in the War Relocation Authority concentration camp in Jerome, Arkansas.

While Hoshida was incarcerated, he cultivated a long-time interest in drawing. He filled notebooks with drawings and watercolors of his time behind barbed wire. He drew portraits of fellow inmates, depicted scenes of daily activities, sketched the surrounding camp environment, and used his skills to teach other inmates. His detailed visual diary provides an extensive and personal record of his experiences. Hoshida drew for his own consumption, but his carefully preserved drawings and watercolors helps us reconstruct this critical time in American history.

In December 1945, Hoshida and his family returned home to Hilo, Hawai‘i. In 1959, Hoshida, along with his wife and daughter Carole, resettled in Los Angeles where he worked as a deputy clerk in the municipal court. His daughters June and Sandra would later relocate to Los Angeles. After retiring, Hoshida returned to Hawai‘i where he wrote and published an autobiography entitled, Life of a Japanese Immigrant Boy in Hawaii. George Hoshida died in 1985. In 1996, led by his daughters Sandra Hoshida and June Honma, his family donated his sketchbooks and letters to the permanent collection of the Japanese American National Museum.

Bio

Ongoing

Bio

The December 7, 1941 attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawai‘i by the nation of Japan plunged the United States into World War II and irrevocably changed the course of American history. But for thousands of Americans of Japanese ancestry living in the Hawaiian Islands and the mainland, the war highlighted the great divide between their American ideals and their unfair treatment based solely on race. 

The Japanese first immigrated to Hawai‘i in 1885 to work as laborers in the burgeoning plantations. By the time of World War II, the Japanese immigrants and the subsequent generations born on the Islands had developed extensive communities and demonstrated their centrality to the Hawaiian economy. They worked on plantations, owned shops, practiced trades, founded churches and temples, and organized sports leagues, Japanese language schools, and martial arts clubs—all characteristic of a stable and growing community, a community that was making a commitment to a new homeland on the Islands. However, the United States had long been suspicious of immigrants who “looked” different. Hawai‘i was not yet a state, but on the Mainland numerous laws and court decisions created a hierarchy that limited the Japanese immigrant’s ability to become an American. 

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, martial law was declared in Hawai‘i and Japanese American community leaders were singled out as “suspicious.” Although the Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i had posed no prior threat, community leaders were thought to be potentially harmful to United States security despite the fact that no evidence existed to link Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i with the acts of Japan, except by virtue of ancestry. By December 9, over 120 community leaders were taken from their homes and incarcerated in Hawai‘i.¹ George Hoshida was one such person.

This microsite honors the spirit and talent of George Hoshida (1907–1985), an incarcerated artist who documented camp life with pencil and brushwork in a series of notebooks he kept between 1942 and 1945. Through examples of Hoshida’s artwork and personal correspondence with his family, this site hopes to provide insight into one individual’s incarceration experience.

The pages of this microsite are organized chronologically by the camps where George Hoshida and his family were incarcerated. Hoshida’s notebooks and letters are now part of the June Honma Collection deposited at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California. In addition to Hoshida’s personal documents, a select number of secondary sources were used to develop this site.

¹ On the mainland, over 1,000 community leaders were incarcerated in Justice Department internment camps immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In February 1942, Executive Order 9066 paved the way for the further incarceration of all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast.

 

About this Site

This site was originally created and launched in 1997 as an independent class project for Development of Cultural Information Resources Using Digital Multimedia (LIS208) at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles. All works displayed are owned by the Honma Collection which resides at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

All text was written specifically for this site using publications and primary source material in the collection of the Japanese American Museum. The content for the site was moved into a new microsite on janm.org in 2023. Some text/captions were updated and newer scans of the artwork were used for the expanded galleries.

Bio

Ongoing

Bio

The December 7, 1941 attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawai‘i by the nation of Japan plunged the United States into World War II and irrevocably changed the course of American history. But for thousands of Americans of Japanese ancestry living in the Hawaiian Islands and the mainland, the war highlighted the great divide between their American ideals and their unfair treatment based solely on race. 

The Japanese first immigrated to Hawai‘i in 1885 to work as laborers in the burgeoning plantations. By the time of World War II, the Japanese immigrants and the subsequent generations born on the Islands had developed extensive communities and demonstrated their centrality to the Hawaiian economy. They worked on plantations, owned shops, practiced trades, founded churches and temples, and organized sports leagues, Japanese language schools, and martial arts clubs—all characteristic of a stable and growing community, a community that was making a commitment to a new homeland on the Islands. However, the United States had long been suspicious of immigrants who “looked” different. Hawai‘i was not yet a state, but on the Mainland numerous laws and court decisions created a hierarchy that limited the Japanese immigrant’s ability to become an American. 

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, martial law was declared in Hawai‘i and Japanese American community leaders were singled out as “suspicious.” Although the Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i had posed no prior threat, community leaders were thought to be potentially harmful to United States security despite the fact that no evidence existed to link Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i with the acts of Japan, except by virtue of ancestry. By December 9, over 120 community leaders were taken from their homes and incarcerated in Hawai‘i.¹ George Hoshida was one such person.

This microsite honors the spirit and talent of George Hoshida (1907–1985), an incarcerated artist who documented camp life with pencil and brushwork in a series of notebooks he kept between 1942 and 1945. Through examples of Hoshida’s artwork and personal correspondence with his family, this site hopes to provide insight into one individual’s incarceration experience.

The pages of this microsite are organized chronologically by the camps where George Hoshida and his family were incarcerated. Hoshida’s notebooks and letters are now part of the June Honma Collection deposited at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California. In addition to Hoshida’s personal documents, a select number of secondary sources were used to develop this site.

¹ On the mainland, over 1,000 community leaders were incarcerated in Justice Department internment camps immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In February 1942, Executive Order 9066 paved the way for the further incarceration of all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast.

 

About this Site

This site was originally created and launched in 1997 as an independent class project for Development of Cultural Information Resources Using Digital Multimedia (LIS208) at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles. All works displayed are owned by the Honma Collection which resides at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

All text was written specifically for this site using publications and primary source material in the collection of the Japanese American Museum. The content for the site was moved into a new microsite on janm.org in 2023. Some text/captions were updated and newer scans of the artwork were used for the expanded galleries.

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