These eight hand-drawn portraits have the elements of a good mystery — a murky provenance, the backdrop of war, clues that, so far, have led to dead ends and a sense of urgency to find the heroes in the pictures.
Most intriguing are the faces themselves, drawn with such attention, skill and purpose. The artist makes you feel you know them.
Maybe you do.
In May of last year, the sketches surfaced at an event in Los Angeles for the Go for Broke National Education Center, a nonprofit dedicated to educating the public on the valor of Japanese-American veterans of World War II.
Rose Kinaga, widow of a 442nd Regimental Combat Team veteran, presented 10 portraits to the organization. She had kept them for years, safely tucked in a closet in a Nordstrom bag, until she could find the right organization that would care for them and continue her quest.
In the mid-1970s her husband, Tom Kinaga, president of a nisei veterans group, was at an event for 442nd veterans who had been interned at Heart Mountain, Wyo. A man handed him the portraits, which included one of Kinaga, and said he should try to find the others.
“No one remembers who the man was,” says Pauline Yoshihashi, a volunteer with GFBNEC. Yoshihashi has helped research the portraits. “We don’t know how many portraits there were originally. Some could be in private collections.”
The Kinagas worked for years to try to find each man. This was before the internet, so they did their research the hard way: combing through archives, cold-calling people. “The military didn’t keep good records, and camp records weren’t comprehensive,” Yoshihashi said.
This is what is known:
The portraits were done by issei artist Jack Yamasaki, who was also held at Heart Mountain. Yamasaki had studied at the California School of Fine Arts and had a career before being sent to the camp. Some of his work is now in the collection of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.
The portraits are in remarkably good shape. They were done on 11-by-17 sketch paper with charcoal pencil. Some of the images bear the name of the subject. Others are not marked. The artist showed these men at a pivotal point in their lives, when they were unjustly incarcerated yet about to go to war to defend the country that had taken their freedom.
Just last week Don Matsuda, 93, who lives in Honolulu, received his portrait. Matsuda was identified through archives in the Go for Broke collection.
“There’s a sense of urgency to find these families,” Yoshihashi said. “We’re saying goodbye to so many nisei vets so often now.”
Mitch Maki, president and CEO of GFBNEC, witnessed the family of the late Dick Kawamoto receive his portrait. One of Kawamoto’s grandsons was there, a young man just about the age Kawamoto was in the sketch. Maki said the resemblance was stunning.
“The family treated that portrait with such tender care,” Maki said. “I knew we had done the right thing.”
The men may not have been from Hawaii, but perhaps they have relatives or friends here. If you recognize any of the men or have information that can help solve this mystery, you can email archivist Gavin Do at gavin@goforbroke.org or call Pauline Yoshihashi at 323-683-8191.
Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.
