Creative Art of Coping in Internment

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The Creative Art Of Coping In Japanese Internment during WWII

"We had no furniture," Mineta recalls. "All you get is four blank walls and one light bulb in the middle of the room and a black potbellied stove over in the corner ... and cots. That was it."

And so, in all 10 of the internment camps, people began making what they needed with whatever materials they could find. Scrap lumber became chairs, tables, dressers. Found metal became knives (they weren't allowed to bring sharp objects into the camps). And for fun, scrap wood was carved into small, painted birds".

A Senninbari vest made of silk cloth, thread, ink, buttons and paint, made by the mother of George Matsushita, while she was interned at the Amache camp in Colorado. There are 1,000 French-tied knots on the vest -- each tied by a different person in the camp.

Bird and animal pins made of scrap wood, paint and metal, by Himeko Fukuhara and Kazuko Matsumoto, interned at Camp Amache, Colo., and Gila River, Ariz.

A puzzle made of wood, paint and shellac by Kametaro Matsumoto, while interned at Minidoka, Idaho.

A model ship made of wood, scrap metal, wire, thread, paint screws and nails by an unidentified internee in Jerome, Ark.

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