Collection Summary
Ishigo, Estelle
Estelle Ishigo photographs
1928-1972
10368
.25 cubic ft. (1 box)
University of Wyoming. American Heritage Center.
English
Photographs of drawings by Estelle Ishigo showing life inside an internment camp for Japanese Americans near Heart Mountain, Wyoming, 1942-1945.
Arrangement of the Collection
The Estelle Ishigo Photographs are arranged in 2 series. The first contains copy prints of Estelle and Arthur Ishigo family photographs. The second series comprises
photographic prints of drawings made by Estelle Ishigo while living in the Heart Mountain camp and in a trailer camp in Lomita, California.
Biography of Estelle Ishigo
After Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans were forced to sell their property and move to what the Supreme Court later called "concentration camps." They were never
adequately reimbursed for their losses, and it took many years for them to collect even token amounts.
Estelle Ishigo, a Caucasian, met her future husband Arthur Shigeharu Ishigo, a San Francisco-born Nisei, when they were both students at Otis Art School in Los
Angeles, California. They were married in 1928 in Tijuana because Caucasians were not allowed to marry non-Caucasians in California at that time. In 1942
she accompanied her husband to the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp between Cody and Powell, Wyoming, where they were interned for nearly four years.
When the Ishigos were released in 1945, they moved to a house trailer near Los Angeles, California. Arthur Ishigo worked at the Los Angeles airport for ten years
until he died in 1957. Estelle Ishigo then moved from place to place working in odd jobs and supplementing her income with her art work. Her book of recollections
and sketches called Lone Heart Mountain was published in 1972.
Scope and Content
The Estelle Ishigo photographs were gathered for use in her book Lone Heart Mountain and many of them were published there. The original drawings and sketches
were created by Estelle Ishigo while she was interned with her Japanese-American husband at the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp between Cody and Powell, Wyoming.
Some were originally intended for use in the camp newspaper, the Heart Mountain Sentinel, and for an official project report for the U.S. government. She continued to
sketch Japanese-American community life in their new home after the war in a trailer camp, still surrounded by barbed wire, in Lomita, California.
Access Restrictions
There are no access restrictions on the materials for research purposes, and the
collection is open to the public.
Copyright Information
The researcher assumes full responsibility for observing all copyright, property, and
libel laws as they apply.
Related Materials
Collections for Estelle Ishigo can also be found at the Japanese American National Museum,
and at the University of California, Los Angeles Special Collections.
Acquisition Information
The Estelle Ishigo photographs were donated to the American Heritage Center by Bacon Sakatani in one shipment on May 27, 1993.
Processing Information
The collection was processed by John Earl Hanks in December, 1997. The electronic finding aid was encoded with links to digitized material in September 2010 by Ben Goldman.
Preferred Citation
Item Description, Box Number, Folder Number, Collection Name, Collection Number,
American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Existence and Location of Copies
Digital reproductions of this entire collection are available at
http://digitalcollections.uwyo.edu:8180/luna/servlet/uwydbuwy~42~42.
Access Terms
Ishigo, Estelle: Lone heart mountain.
Ishigo family.
Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Wyoming.
Japanese Americans -- Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945.
Wyoming -- History, 1919-1945.
Sketches.
Artists
Social Life and Customs
People, Ethnicity, and Culture
Japanese Americans
Politics, Government, and Law
Wyoming
Container List
Series I.
Personal
ca. 1928-ca. 1972
1
1
Personal photographs of Estelle and Arthur Ishigo
ca. 1928-ca. 1972
Series II.
Photographs of original drawings and sketches by Estelle Ishigo
1942-1945
These drawings depict life at Heart Mountain Relocation Camp between Cody and Powell, Wyoming, and post-internment life in Lomita, California.
1
2
"Adult evening school for sewing and English and to know the constitution"
1
2
Amateur theatrical - Geisha girls
1
2
Amateur theatrical - audience braving the snow
1
2
Amateur theatrical - watching the player on the stage
1
2
Baseball from the back of the bench
1
2
Baseball in the courtyard
1
2
Boy on knees, holding a ball
1
2
Boy sitting by a hut
1
2
Boy sitting in road
1
2
Boys flying a kite
1
2
Boys flying a kite near five graves
1
2
Boys loitering around the stove
1
2
Boys ogling girls
1
2
Boys playing marbles
1
2
Boys playing a bugle
1
2
Boys rescuing kite from barbed wire
1
2
Boys standing for portrait
1
2
Boys taking showers and baths
1
2
Boys wrestling
1
2
Buying fish in the Lomita, California, trailer park
1
2
Buying produce in the Lomita, California, trailer park
1
2
"Camp and Farming Area, Heart Mountain, Wyoming" - sketch map
1
2
Camp in Winter
1
2
Coal for hut stoves is rationed
1
2
Coal for hut stoves is rationed - windy day
1
2
Cooking outdoors in Lomita, California, trailer park at night
1
2
Cooking outdoors in Lomita, California, trailer park during the day
1
2
Church in the rain
1
2
Church in the snow
1
2
Dog eating ice cream cone outside canteen
1
2
Dust storm
1
2
Eating at a picnic table
1
2
Eating at a picnic table
1
3
Family life in a hut
1
3
Family life in a hut
1
3
Firefighting
1
3
Grandmother with child on back
1
3
Inside the canteen clothing hut
1
3
Inside the canteen general store
1
3
Inside the canteen general store
1
3
Inside the men's wash house (no privacy)
1
3
Inside the men's wash house (no privacy)
1
3
Inside the mess hall at the counter
1
3
Inside the mess hall at the counter
1
3
Inside the mess hall on the way to the tables
1
3
Inside the mess hall at the tables
1
3
Inside the women's wash house - general view (no privacy)
1
3
Inside the women's wash house - the showers (no privacy)
1
3
Laundry - Women washing clothes inside
1
3
Laundry - Kids dumping dirty water
1
3
Laundry - Kids dumping dirty water
1
3
Line for mess hall?
1
3
Line for mess hall?
1
3
Line in Summer
1
3
Line of children in Winter
1
3
Line with guard tower
1
3
Man seated on crate
1
3
Man seated on crate
1
3
Man teaching - seated
1
3
Man teaching - seated
1
3
Men on rocking chairs in "hospital"
1
3
Meeting - General
1
3
Meeting - Men
1
3
Planting a garden
1
3
Police department in "the authority" building
1
4
Relocation - Another move
1
4
Relocation - Pomona Fair Grounds, California
1
4
Relocation - Leaving the neighborhood and home
1
4
Relocation - Loading a stake truck
1
4
Relocation - Searching for dumped possessions
1
4
Relocation - Waiting to be assigned
1
4
Relocation - Watching friends leave for relocation
1
4
Scavenging - Adults make use of packing crates
1
4
Scavenging - Children scavenge through barrels
1
4
Scavenging - "Wood for Tables and Chairs"
1
4
School bell ringing, "When the school bell rang-"
1
4
School - first day
1
4
School girl and puppy
1
4
Standing alone back against the wind
1
4
Standing alone back against the wind
1
4
Standing around with the trees blowing in the wind, Pomona, California
1
4
Standing around near the mess hall
1
4
Standing around beyond the huts
1
4
Travel - Leaving the camp in the train for Los Angeles
1
4
Travel - Riding with ranchers in the back of the bus
1
4
Travel - Showing a pass to "the authority" to get into town
1
4
"We Are Americans, Again?" Man by barbed wire with an idealized city on horizon
1
4
Weather - Snow and wind catch people walking in camp
1
4
Weather - Walking to the wash house in the Lomita, California, trailer park
1
4
Weather - Wind catches a couple and child by the barbed wire
1
4
Weather - Wind catches a Man and boy walking by the barbed wire
1
4
Woman (grandmother) sucking a finger and unable to speak English
1
4
Woman (grandmother) holding child on her back
1
4
Woman sweeping around trash barrels
1
4
Woman taking a little boy to the men's wash house
1
4
Women cleaning and watching the kids
1
4
Women walking between huts in the Winter
1
4
Women walking between huts in the Winter
1
4
Woodcutter at his workbench