Uploaded May 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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JANM brought its "Contested Histories: Art and Artifacts from the Allen Hendershott Eaton Collection" display to the Noguchi Foundation and Museum Garden in Long Island City, New York on April 8–10, 2022, where it was presented in conjunction with the exhibition, "No Monument: In the Wake of the Japanese American Incarceration." Christina Hiromi Hobbs and Genji Amino, co-curators of "No Monument," talked about the exhibitions.

"No Monument: In the Wake of the Japanese American Incarceration" is on view at the Noguchi Museum through May 15, 2022. The exhibition is organized to mark the 80th anniversary of Executive Order 9066 (signed on February 19, 1942) which authorized the forced removal and mass incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans by the United States government during World War II.

By gathering together works such as Isamu Noguchi’s haunting wood and bone "Monument to Heroes" (1943), Kay Sekimachi’s ethereal hanging fiber work "Ogawa II (1969)", and Patrick Nagatani’s 1994 photographs of the former sites of Japanese American concentration camps in Utah and Idaho, the exhibition presents a range of approaches to abstraction developed following the era of Japanese American incarceration.

Filmed at The Noguchi Museum, Long Island City, New York. Artworks by Isamu Noguchi © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society.

ABOUT THE EATON COLLECTION:
Allen Hendershott Eaton’s historic 1952 book, "Beauty Behind Barbed Wire: The Arts of the Japanese in Our War Relocation Camps," explored art and craft objects created by persons of Japanese ancestry while wrongfully incarcerated in World War II American concentration camps. It was one of the first books to examine any aspect of the lives of the 120,000 inmates. In the course of conducting research for the book and a never-realized exhibition of camp artifacts, Eaton amassed a significant personal collection of such artifacts.

After many years of lying forgotten in storage, the collection was inherited by a family friend of Eaton’s, who in April 2015 attempted to put it up for auction. An outcry arose from Japanese American community leaders and activists, who rallied successfully to stop the insensitive sale of these important artifacts of Japanese American history. Ultimately, the collection was transferred to the Japanese American National Museum for safekeeping.

ABOUT "CONTESTED HISTORIES":
"Contested Histories" is intended to help gather information about each individual object so that the museum’s efforts to preserve and catalog the collection can be as complete as possible. Camp survivors and their family members and friends will be encouraged to share with JANM information they know or remember about the objects, including who is depicted in the many photographs, most of which were shot by photographers working for the War Relocation Authority.

LEARN MORE ABOUT "CONTESTED HISTORIES":
Contested Histories - janm.org/contested-histories
Flickr Images - bit.ly/3faOX2W
Venues and Contacts - http://www.janm.org/contested-histori...

SEND MAIL TO:
Japanese American National Museum
100 N. Central Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
c/o Clement Hanami

This project was funded, in part, by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program. Additional support was provided by George and Brad Takei, the Earle K. & Katherine F. (Muto) Moore Foundation, and Richard Sakai.

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The work of the museum is made possible by the generous support of JANM's members and donors. Become a member (janm.org/membership) or consider making a tax-deductible gift so that we can continue to maintain and preserve JANM’s Collection as well as important projects like this in support of our mission: janm.org/donatenow. Your support makes a difference. Thank you!

Japanese American National Museum
100 N. Central Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
janm.org