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Eddie Sato Camp Harmony sketchbook and drawings, 1942

Overview of the Collection

Artist
Sato, Eddie, 1923-2005
Title
Eddie Sato Camp Harmony sketchbook and drawings
Dates
1942 (inclusive)
Quantity
34 drawings (26 charcoal drawings, 8 pen-and-ink drawings) (1 box) ; various sizes
Collection Number
PH0664
Summary
Pen-and-ink and charcoal drawings of scenes at the Puyallup Assembly Center, "Camp Harmony," in Washington state, where many of Seattle's Japanese Americans were incarcerated for several months during World War II.
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

Original drawings may be viewed in the repository only with the permission of the curators.

Request at UW

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was partially provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Biographical Note

Eddie Sato was an artist who grew up in Seattle. In 1942, at age 19, Sato was incarcerated with other Seattle Japanese Americans at the Puyallup Assembly Center, called "Camp Harmony," in Puyallup, Washington. Sato served as a staff artist for the Camp Harmony newspaper, sketching scenes of everyday life at the camp. He subsequently fought in the U.S. Army's 442nd Battalion (also known as the 442nd Regimental Combat Team), a highly decorated, all-Nisei unit. Sato later worked as a commercial artist in Chicago.

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Historical Background

In 1942, in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor the previous December, over 100,000 Japanese Americans (more than 70% of whom were American citizens) were removed from their homes and incarcerated in camps. These residents of Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, and Alaska were sent to local temporary assembly centers and then to remote incarceration camps where many spent the rest of the war. Life at the camps was strictly regulated, with roll calls and curfews, and camp residents lost basic civil rights such as the right to religious freedom, the right to assemble, and the right to privacy.

In April 1942, Seattle’s Japanese community began to be shipped to Camp Harmony, the temporary assembly center in Puyallup. Within a week, more than 2,500 Seattle Japanese Americans had been transported to Puyallup; by the end of May, over 7,000 people were living at Camp Harmony. After four months, the residents of Camp Harmony were transported to the Minidoka Relocation Center in southern Idaho, where many spent the duration of the war.

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Content Description

The collection contains charcoal and pen-and-ink drawings by Eddie Sato depicting the settings and various aspects of daily life at Camp Harmony (Puyallup Assembly Center) in July and August, 1942.

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Use of the Collection

Alternative Forms Available

View selections from the collection in digital format .

Photocopies of the original drawings are available for viewing in the repository.

Restrictions on Use

Restrictions may exist on reproduction, quotation, or publication. Contact the repository for details.

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Administrative Information

Acquisition Information

Donor: Eddie Sato, pen-and-ink drawings, 1996; S. Frank Miyamoto, sketchbook, 1975.

Processing Note

Processed by Jody Hendrickson, 2004.

The original sketchbook was disassembled due to deterioration, but the order of the pages has been retained.

These materials were relocated from the Eddie Sato Sketchbook and Drawings Collection (manuscripts Accession no. 4586-001) in the repository in 2005.

Related Materials

See also PH1653 Eddie Sato Comic Strip and Camp Harmony Drawings.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

 

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Subject Terms

  • Concentration camp inmates--Washington (State)--Puyallup--In art
  • Concentration camps--Washington (State)--Puyallup--In art
  • Japanese American art--Washington (State)
  • Japanese American artists--Washington (State)
  • Japanese Americans--Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945--In art
  • Mah Jong in art
  • Political persecution in art
  • Sumo in art
  • Visual Materials Collections (University of Washington)
  • World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Washington (State)--Puyallup--In art
  • World War, 1939-1945--Japanese Americans--In art

Personal Names

  • Sato, Eddie, 1923-2005--Archives (artist)

Corporate Names

  • Puyallup Assembly Center (Puyallup, Wash.)--In art

Geographical Names

  • Puyallup (Wash.)--In art


2005 (Last modified: 4/13/2022)

CC0

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