World War II and Amache, 1942–45

  • JR Henneman, Director and Curator, Petrie Institute of Western American Art, Denver Art Museum

Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, drew the United States into World War II. Wartime hysteria, compounded by preexisting “racial discrimination, economic greed, and . . . unfounded fear,” ultimately led to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order No. 9066, signed on February 19, 1942, which “authorized federal troops to exclude anyone from any location as deemed necessary for national security.”1 While not explicitly stated, the order was aimed at people of Japanese descent, immigrants and citizens alike, living in western states. Soon, they would be forced from their homes. Most complied with imposed restrictions, which included curfews, travel restrictions, and frozen bank accounts, and ultimately with forced relocation, hoping that in a time of intense patriotism such submission would signal their loyalty.2

On March 18, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9102 establishing the War Relocation Authority (WRA) to formulate a program for Japanese American removal. Soon, evacuation notices appeared in public spaces, and community members began moving into “reception centers,” or temporary detention centers, where they would be held until removed to facilities further inland. They took only what they could carry.3

A woman sews in a wooden chair in a room next to an open door.
Expand Cat. 19 Tokio Ueyama, The Evacuee, 1942. Oil on canvas, 24 × 30 1/4 in. Courtesy Japanese American National Museum: Gift of Kayoko Tsukada, 92.20.3. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama.

The Ueyamas were first detained at the Santa Anita Assembly Center, a racetrack converted into a holding center that, at its peak, held 19,000 people.4 At Santa Anita, barbed wire capped eight-foot fences around the perimeter, with search lights and armed guards placed at regular intervals. Tokio Ueyama’s painting The Evacuee (cat. 19, illustrated nearby) shows Suye inside one of the wood and tar paper barracks. Other evacuees lived in converted horse stalls. Hot, fly-ridden mess halls served thousands at a time. Privacy was nearly nonexistent. In the cramped barracks, many walls did not extend all the way to the ceiling. Toilet facilities were open rooms with boards with holes about a foot apart, like massive communal outhouses. Showers, too, were communal.5

Rows of long, low buildings.
Expand Fig. 1 Unknown photographer, View of Amache (Granada) concentration camp, Colorado, c. 1944. Densho Encyclopedia https://encyclopedia.densho.org/sources/en-denshopd-p159-00002-1/ (accessed January 19, 2024). Courtesy of Densho, the George Ochikubo Collection. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DEED.

In September, the Ueyamas were put on a train to Amache, an experience remembered by other evacuees as hot, long, monotonous, and uncomfortable.6 Upon arriving, the camp was not yet finished, much of the water was non-potable, and electricity was frequently unavailable.7 Once complete, the entire site encompassed more than 10,000 acres, the majority of which was devoted to agricultural production. The camp consisted of twenty-nine blocks of barracks, and apartments within measured between sixteen-by-twenty feet and twenty-four-by-twenty feet (fig. 1). Each apartment included cots, one light bulb, and a pad or blanket.8 Those incarcerated had to source or create all other necessities. Many fashioned beautiful gardens and planted trees to enhance their bleak living conditions.9 Each block included a recreation hall, mess hall, and lavatory. In addition to agricultural jobs, people also worked in the Amache Silk Screen Shop, the mess halls, the hospital, the newspaper the Granada Pioneer, the co-op store, and the local schools. Sports, dances, religious services, movies, clubs, and extracurricular classes, among other activities, helped alleviate boredom.10 Those forced to live at Amache worked to create a sense of normalcy and community even while battered by extreme temperatures and wind, surrounded by barbed wire fences, and shadowed by eight armed towers (fig. 2).

A watchtower stands against the sky in the distance as several people paint on easels.
Expand Fig. 2 Unknown photographer, Amache art students working below a guard tower, c. 1942–45. Collection of Bunkado, Inc. Photo by Joshua White, image courtesy Collection of Bunkado, Inc.

Ueyama’s relocation to Amache ruptured his previously rigorous exhibition schedule and the dynamic artistic community he and other Japanese American creatives had forged in Little Tokyo. It did not, however, stop him from painting. As part of the adult education program, he supervised and taught art classes three times a day, three days a week, with Koichi Nomiyama (1900–1984) and other instructors in the 7E block recreation hall.11 In a later interview, he stated that he “taught a painting class of 150 adults at Amache . . . Many people who had always wanted to try their hand at painting found their first opportunity there.”12

Several adults paint at easels in this black-and-white photograph.
Expand Fig. 3 Tom Parker (photographer for the War Relocation Authority), In an adult still life art class, Tokio Ueyama gives a few pointers to one of the students, 1942. Bancroft Library at the University of California, WRA no. E-429. Courtesy of UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library.

The artworks Ueyama and his students produced demonstrate that they worked from what they had at hand, such as household items (fig. 3). One of his charcoal Three vessels, including a kettle, are arranged with with two pieces of fruit on a tabletop draped with a cloth in this black-and-white drawing.still lifes features a bowl, vase, tea kettle, and citrus fruits, while A plate of three fishes sits on a tabletop draped with a dark cloth in this black-and-white drawing.another presents a platter of fish. In a A white sculpture of a head looking to the left is set against a mottled blue background.still life painted in February 1943, Ueyama depicts a large squash, dried corn cobs, and an oil lamp on a table. A large sombrero hangs on the wall flanked by a blue and red plaid fabric. The vegetables refer to the many crops that those at Amache helped grow, both as part of the camp’s work program as well as in their own victory gardens.13 As ShiPu Wang writes in his essay in this publication and elsewhere, the sombrero may also allude to Ueyama’s time in Mexico.14 In another oil from August 1943, Ueyama painted large sunflowers in bloom, with a grasshopper perched on a leaf just above his signature (cat. 27, illustrated below). Rather than pulled around a stretcher or strainer, this oil on canvas is cropped to the image and taped onto a thick compressed board, a technique that Ueyama replicated in other works. It is possible the board is the same material as had been used to build the Amache barracks.15 He made use of what was available and may have approached his challenging situation with shikata ga nai, or “it can’t be helped,” and by practicing gaman, or “accepting what is with patience and dignity.”16

Two sunflower blossoms are cropped tightly against a brown background.
Expand Cat. 27 Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Amache Sunflowers), August 1943. Oil on canvas taped on Celotex (insulation board), 28 1/2 × 22 1/2 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Eric Stephenson, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
A woman with black hair wears a red-and-blue plaid shirt.
Expand Cat. 25 Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Amache Portrait), January 17, 1944. Oil on canvas, 19 1/2 × 17 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Eric Stephenson, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
Three vessels, including a kettle, are arranged with with two pieces of fruit on a tabletop draped with a cloth in this black-and-white drawing.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Amache Still Life), 1943–44. Charcoal on paper, 14 5/8 × 17 3/4 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
A plate of three fishes sits on a tabletop draped with a dark cloth in this black-and-white drawing.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Amache Still Life with Fish and Lemon), 1942–45. Charcoal on paper, 19 1/8 × 25 1/8 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
Corn cobs, a large squash, and an oil lamp sit on a wooden table, with a sombrero hanging on the wall behind.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Amache Still Life), February 1943. Oil on canvas, 30 1/2 × 26 in. Collection of Bunkado, Inc. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Eric Stephenson, courtesy Denver Art Museum.

Portraits created by Ueyama and his students, such as charcoal portraits of a A woman with a button-up shirt and ribbon in her curled hair faces left in this black-and-white drawing.girl and of a A man with glasses and white hair wears a black bowtie and suspenders in this black-and-white drawing.man with glasses, show that classmates and community members took turns posing.17 His A man with glasses holds a stringed instrument that extends above his shoulder in this black-and-white drawing.portrait of Tomoye Sawa (known professionally as Gakuhajo) shows the musician holding a biwa, or short-necked lute. In a vibrant oil portrait, Ueyama painted a woman wearing a plaid top and red lipstick (cat. 25, illustrated nearby). He sketched the A man with a broad military hat and a tie under his coat faces right in this black-and-white drawing.portrait of a stern soldier on February 12, 1943, shortly after President Roosevelt activated the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated Japanese American unit that would ultimately join the segregated 100th Infantry Battalion formed in 1942. Thirty-one members of Amache would be killed at war.18

A basketball hoop overlooks a brown landscape dotted with low bushes. Brown buildings interrupt the skyline in the background.
Expand Cat. 29 Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Barracks with Basketball Hoops), 1944. Oil on canvas, 18 × 24 in. Courtesy Japanese American National Museum: Gift of Kayoko Tsukada, 92.20.7. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama.
A woman with a button-up shirt and ribbon in her curled hair faces left in this black-and-white drawing.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Portrait of a Girl), 1943–44. Charcoal on paper, 19 1/8 × 12 1/2 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
A man with glasses and white hair wears a black bowtie and suspenders in this black-and-white drawing.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Portrait of a Man with Glasses), 1943–44. Charcoal on paper, 19 1/8 × 12 5/8 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
A man with glasses holds a stringed instrument that extends above his shoulder in this black-and-white drawing.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Portrait of Tomoye Sawa [Gakuhajo] with Biwa), 1943. Charcoal on paper, 25 × 19 in. Courtesy Japanese American National Museum: Gift of Arthur Asawa, 2004.35.1. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama.
A man with a broad military hat and a tie under his coat faces right in this black-and-white drawing.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Portrait of a Soldier), February 12, 1943. Charcoal on paper, 25 1/8 × 19 1/8 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.

Landscapes populate Ueyama’s Amache oeuvre. A house and barn overlook a pond, with rows of barracks in the background in this mostly brown landscape.One oil captures the dry plains landscape with barracks in the background, while another features a closer look at life in the camp, complete with basketball hoop made from found materials, transplanted trees, laundry on a line, and figures in jeans and T-shirts (cat. 29, illustrated nearby).19 The organic arcs of dried cornstalks in the foreground, probably part of a victory garden, echo the rounded billow of clouds above. A wooden tower stands tall next to a brown building against a dark and stormy sky.One of Ueyama’s pastels shows dark clouds above barracks, fence, and water tower (which still stands today), while Small figures work a field of crops bounded by green shrubs in the foreground, while the background features a row of trees against a blue sky with billowing white clouds.a brighter composition shows people working in a field, the Amache barracks in the background. In other landscapes, Ueyama depicted scenes outside the camp. Two charcoal drawings feature Leafless trees on an embankment overlook a winding path on the left and a fence on the right in this black-and-white drawing.wintertime trees and fences, while two others present Granada houses and This black-and-white drawing features two buildings and a fence.outbuildings. A horse stands next to a tall, pink barn, with farm equipment in the foreground.One oil shows a bony horse standing in the sun by a faded red barn and part of an antique hitch wagon. Other barns bathed in warm light show up in A long brown building with many windows sits behind a lighter-colored fence and a green patch of grass with three tall trees with green leaves.two A ladder leans against a tree with fall colors in a yard next to a brown building.pastels. A This landscape features a light ground, pale blue sky, and red-orange shrubs on the left.winter landscape, also taped to fiber board, presents a scene of red willows glowing against snow. Ueyama’s landscapes—which seem to celebrate the land, sky, and rural architecture of Granada—rarely allude to the harsh conditions of his forced confinement. In his essay for this publication, Wang provides a deeper dive into some of Ueyama’s wartime work and places it in the context of artworks by other Japanese Americans incarcerated during the war.

A group of people stand in front of a building in this black-and-white photo.
Expand Fig. 4 Unknown photographer, Art students posing in front of a barn, c. 1942–45. Collection of Bunkado, Inc. Photo by Joshua White, image courtesy Collection of Bunkado, Inc.
A house and barn overlook a pond, with rows of barracks in the background in this mostly brown landscape.
Expand Cat. 28 Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Barracks with Pond), 1944. Oil on canvas, 20 × 26 in. Courtesy Japanese American National Museum: Gift of Kayoko Tsukada, 92.20.8. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama.
A wooden tower stands tall next to a brown building against a dark and stormy sky.
Expand Cat. 33 Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Amache Landscape with Barrack and Water Tower), April 1944. Pastel on paper, 9 × 12 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
Small figures work a field of crops bounded by green shrubs in the foreground, while the background features a row of trees against a blue sky with billowing white clouds.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Amache Landscape with Fields), 1943–44. Pastel on paper, 17 × 19 1/2 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
Leafless trees on an embankment overlook a winding path on the left and a fence on the right in this black-and-white drawing.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Stream and Trees), 1943–44. Charcoal on paper, 12 1/2 × 18 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
This black-and-white drawing features two buildings and a fence.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Granada Outbuildings), 1943–44. Charcoal on paper, 12 5/8 × 19 1/8 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
A horse stands next to a tall, pink barn, with farm equipment in the foreground.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Horse and Barn), October 1944. Oil on artist’s board, 15 3/4 × 19 7/8 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Eric Stephenson, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
A long brown building with many windows sits behind a lighter-colored fence and a green patch of grass with three tall trees with green leaves.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Building and Trees), 1944. Pastel on paper, 9 × 12 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
A ladder leans against a tree with fall colors in a yard next to a brown building.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Granada Landscape), November 1944. Pastel on paper, 8 1/2 × 11 1/2 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
This landscape features a light ground, pale blue sky, and red-orange shrubs on the left.
Tokio Ueyama, Desert Brush, March 1945. Oil on canvas, 15 3/4 × 19 in. Courtesy Japanese American National Museum: Gift of Kayoko Tsukada, 92.20.5. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama.

Ueyama’s landscapes indicate that he, like many Amacheans, circulated within Amache’s 10,000 acres as well as beyond its fences. Some of the barns in Ueyama’s landscapes may be part of the infrastructure of the historic XY Ranch, founded by Fred Harvey in 1889 and utilized for Amache’s agricultural enterprise (fig. 4).20 Other structures, as well as some of the river drainages, may be scenes from the town of Granada and its environs. Many Amache residents worked outside the camp, and permits could be obtained to travel further. Similarly, residents of the greater region visited Amache for work, shopping, and social and cultural opportunities. At this time, Amache was the largest “city” in the region, with its own schools, sports leagues, Boy Scout troop, theatrical and musical performances, and art exhibitions, including the 1943 Arts and Crafts Festival in which Ueyama exhibited The Evacuee (cat. 19, illustrated above). Camp boundaries were controlled but porous.21

Three rows of colorful stones.
Expand Cat. 42 Tokio Ueyama, Hand-Polished Stones, 1943–44. Set of 15 polished stones. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Eric Stephenson, courtesy Denver Art Museum.

A set of fifteen stones hand-polished by Ueyama while incarcerated reinforces this fact (cat. 42, illustrated nearby). They are not native to the Granada area, which is composed of sand and limestone, yet they found their way to Amache—perhaps picked up in the drainage of the Arkansas River, sent to Ueyama by friends elsewhere, or selected on travels further afield.22 While their full stories remain unknown, their existence alludes to circulation beyond camp fences.

Polishing these stones released their humble beauty and may have helped Ueyama endure the passage of time. Earlier, when traveling in Europe, he left a reflective note in his journal:

the stone on the road side
begins its history of existence
only when it is kicked or turned.

Over twenty years later, when polishing these stones, Ueyama provided each a history of existence. The stones beg to be held, turned over, and engaged with. In a quiet way, they signal agency (in the choice of stone and in polishing it) and relationality (by unlocking the inner beauty of each stone and, possibly, through a network of people who may have helped source them). They are a reminder that existence is marked through interaction with others and that nurturing beauty plays a central role in creating and sustaining such interactions.

Notes
  1. Robert Harvey, Amache: The Story of Japanese Internment in Colorado during World War II (Scottsdale, AZ: Hawes & Jenkins, 2023), 30. ↩︎

  2. Around 9,000 people voluntarily relocated inland. See ibid., 37 and 41. ↩︎

  3. According to evacuation notices, the belongings they carried had to include bedding and linens, toilet articles, extra clothing, plates and silverware, and essential personal effects. See Robert Y. Fuchigami, Amache Remembered: An American Concentration Camp, 1942–1945 (Parker, CO: BookCrafters, 2020), 15. On March 1 and April 30, 1942, Ueyama made inventory lists of the couple’s belongings in a small black notebook. The sixty-six boxes plus larger items would remain indefinitely with Mr. and Mrs. Wilson in Los Angeles. See small black notebook, Collection of Bunkado, Inc. I am grateful to Noriko Okada for reviewing the lists, much of which is in Japanese, and confirming their contents. ↩︎

  4. Harvey, Amache, 54. ↩︎

  5. For further description, ibid., 53–55. ↩︎

  6. Window shades had to be kept drawn. Trains traveled a variety of routes that usually took about three days and three nights to complete. Stops were short and infrequent, if provided at all. See ibid., 100–03. The first arrivals to Amache on August 27, 1942, were from the Merced Assembly Center. They helped to complete construction on the as-yet-unfinished camp. Eight more trains from Merced arrived between September 3 and 18. Six trains from Santa Anita arrived between September 19 and 30. By the end of September, 7,567 Japanese people had arrived at Granada. See ibid., 104–06. ↩︎

  7. See ibid., 108–09. ↩︎

  8. “Amache Construction,” Amache.org, accessed November 29, 2023, https://amache.org/amache-construction/. For maps, see “Maps,” Amache.org, accessed November 29, 2023, https://amache.org/map/. ↩︎

  9. For resources on Amache gardens, see the University of Denver Amache Research Project, last updated February 22, 2023, https://portfolio.du.edu/amache. ↩︎

  10. To browse issues of the Granada Pioneer, 1942–45, see the Library of Congress digitized archives, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83025522/?st=calendar. ↩︎

  11. See Gordon Chang, Asian American Art: A History, 1850–1970 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008), 401. ↩︎

  12. “Japanese Artists Show Relocation Center Art,” Los Angeles Times, May 4, 1947. ↩︎

  13. The objective of the agricultural project at Amache was to grow adequate produce for Amacheans. The project was so successful that produce was sometimes sent to other camps. See Fuchigami, Amache Remembered, 49; and Harvey, Amache, 169–70. ↩︎

  14. The sombrero takes on increased poignancy “as an image that recalls a happier time—and certainly a freer time.” ShiPu Wang, Chiura Obata: An American Modern (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2018), 38. ↩︎

  15. Regarding the construction of Amache, see “Amache Construction,” https://amache.org/amache-construction/. ↩︎

  16. See Delphine Hirasuna, The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942–1946 (Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 2005), 7; and Harvey, Amache, 57. Family member David Hirai, who knew Ueyama, remembered that, when asked about the camp, Ueyama did not want to talk about it and said that they had made the best of it. Conversation with the author, April 2024. ↩︎

  17. Black-and-white photographs of Ueyama’s Amache portraits show that a variety of sitters, both Japanese and Caucasian, sat for him and, presumably, his classes. See red scrapbook, Collection of Bunkado, Inc. ↩︎

  18. “Granada (Amache) Relocation Center Colorado,” in Report to the President: Japanese-American Internment Sites Preservation (US Department of the Interior, 2001), https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/internment/reporta3.htm. ↩︎

  19. Regarding the trees, see “Amache Construction,” https://amache.org/amache-construction/. ↩︎

  20. J. Burton, M. Farrell, F. Lord, and R. Lord, “Granada Relocation Center,” in Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites (Tuscon, AZ: Western Archeological and Conservation Center, National Park Service, 2000), https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/anthropology74/ce5.htm. ↩︎

  21. I am grateful to Bonnie Clark, professor of archaeology at the University of Denver and leader of the DU Amache Project, for her insight about Amache’s porous boundaries. Conversation with the author, November 29, 2023. ↩︎

  22. Thanks to Clark for talking through these stones and explaining the geology of the Granada area. Conversation with the author, November 29, 2023. ↩︎

A woman sews in a wooden chair in a room next to an open door.
Cat. 19 Tokio Ueyama, The Evacuee, 1942. Oil on canvas, 24 × 30 1/4 in. Courtesy Japanese American National Museum: Gift of Kayoko Tsukada, 92.20.3. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama.
Rows of long, low buildings.
Fig. 1 Unknown photographer, View of Amache (Granada) concentration camp, Colorado, c. 1944. Densho Encyclopedia https://encyclopedia.densho.org/sources/en-denshopd-p159-00002-1/ (accessed January 19, 2024). Courtesy of Densho, the George Ochikubo Collection. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DEED.
A watchtower stands against the sky in the distance as several people paint on easels.
Fig. 2 Unknown photographer, Amache art students working below a guard tower, c. 1942–45. Collection of Bunkado, Inc. Photo by Joshua White, image courtesy Collection of Bunkado, Inc.
Several adults paint at easels in this black-and-white photograph.
Fig. 3 Tom Parker (photographer for the War Relocation Authority), In an adult still life art class, Tokio Ueyama gives a few pointers to one of the students, 1942. Bancroft Library at the University of California, WRA no. E-429. Courtesy of UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library.
Two sunflower blossoms are cropped tightly against a brown background.
Cat. 27 Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Amache Sunflowers), August 1943. Oil on canvas taped on Celotex (insulation board), 28 1/2 × 22 1/2 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Eric Stephenson, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
A woman with black hair wears a red-and-blue plaid shirt.
Cat. 25 Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Amache Portrait), January 17, 1944. Oil on canvas, 19 1/2 × 17 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Eric Stephenson, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
Three vessels, including a kettle, are arranged with with two pieces of fruit on a tabletop draped with a cloth in this black-and-white drawing.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Amache Still Life), 1943–44. Charcoal on paper, 14 5/8 × 17 3/4 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
A plate of three fishes sits on a tabletop draped with a dark cloth in this black-and-white drawing.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Amache Still Life with Fish and Lemon), 1942–45. Charcoal on paper, 19 1/8 × 25 1/8 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
Corn cobs, a large squash, and an oil lamp sit on a wooden table, with a sombrero hanging on the wall behind.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Amache Still Life), February 1943. Oil on canvas, 30 1/2 × 26 in. Collection of Bunkado, Inc. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Eric Stephenson, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
A basketball hoop overlooks a brown landscape dotted with low bushes. Brown buildings interrupt the skyline in the background.
Cat. 29 Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Barracks with Basketball Hoops), 1944. Oil on canvas, 18 × 24 in. Courtesy Japanese American National Museum: Gift of Kayoko Tsukada, 92.20.7. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama.
A woman with a button-up shirt and ribbon in her curled hair faces left in this black-and-white drawing.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Portrait of a Girl), 1943–44. Charcoal on paper, 19 1/8 × 12 1/2 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
A man with glasses and white hair wears a black bowtie and suspenders in this black-and-white drawing.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Portrait of a Man with Glasses), 1943–44. Charcoal on paper, 19 1/8 × 12 5/8 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
A man with glasses holds a stringed instrument that extends above his shoulder in this black-and-white drawing.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Portrait of Tomoye Sawa [Gakuhajo] with Biwa), 1943. Charcoal on paper, 25 × 19 in. Courtesy Japanese American National Museum: Gift of Arthur Asawa, 2004.35.1. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama.
A man with a broad military hat and a tie under his coat faces right in this black-and-white drawing.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Portrait of a Soldier), February 12, 1943. Charcoal on paper, 25 1/8 × 19 1/8 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
A group of people stand in front of a building in this black-and-white photo.
Fig. 4 Unknown photographer, Art students posing in front of a barn, c. 1942–45. Collection of Bunkado, Inc. Photo by Joshua White, image courtesy Collection of Bunkado, Inc.
A house and barn overlook a pond, with rows of barracks in the background in this mostly brown landscape.
Cat. 28 Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Barracks with Pond), 1944. Oil on canvas, 20 × 26 in. Courtesy Japanese American National Museum: Gift of Kayoko Tsukada, 92.20.8. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama.
A wooden tower stands tall next to a brown building against a dark and stormy sky.
Cat. 33 Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Amache Landscape with Barrack and Water Tower), April 1944. Pastel on paper, 9 × 12 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
Small figures work a field of crops bounded by green shrubs in the foreground, while the background features a row of trees against a blue sky with billowing white clouds.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Amache Landscape with Fields), 1943–44. Pastel on paper, 17 × 19 1/2 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
Leafless trees on an embankment overlook a winding path on the left and a fence on the right in this black-and-white drawing.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Stream and Trees), 1943–44. Charcoal on paper, 12 1/2 × 18 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
This black-and-white drawing features two buildings and a fence.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Granada Outbuildings), 1943–44. Charcoal on paper, 12 5/8 × 19 1/8 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
A horse stands next to a tall, pink barn, with farm equipment in the foreground.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Horse and Barn), October 1944. Oil on artist’s board, 15 3/4 × 19 7/8 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Eric Stephenson, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
A long brown building with many windows sits behind a lighter-colored fence and a green patch of grass with three tall trees with green leaves.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Building and Trees), 1944. Pastel on paper, 9 × 12 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
A ladder leans against a tree with fall colors in a yard next to a brown building.
Tokio Ueyama, Untitled (Granada Landscape), November 1944. Pastel on paper, 8 1/2 × 11 1/2 in. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Bruce Fernandez, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
This landscape features a light ground, pale blue sky, and red-orange shrubs on the left.
Tokio Ueyama, Desert Brush, March 1945. Oil on canvas, 15 3/4 × 19 in. Courtesy Japanese American National Museum: Gift of Kayoko Tsukada, 92.20.5. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama.
Three rows of colorful stones.
Cat. 42 Tokio Ueyama, Hand-Polished Stones, 1943–44. Set of 15 polished stones. Private collection. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama. Photo by Eric Stephenson, courtesy Denver Art Museum.
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