The Apology

Congress signed into law the Civil Liberties Act in 1987-88 apologizing and allocating reparations to Japanese Americans and who were put into concentration camps during WWII. The Act also provided reparations to Aleut residents of the Pribilof and Aleutian Islands who were displaced from their homes and given over to the U.S. military. Activist Yuri Kochiyama was in her early 20s when she and her family were taken from their homes and incarcerated. Actually her father was in the hospital recovering from surgery and they took him from there and he died shortly afterward in the concentration camp. She spend over two years interned. Ms. Kochiyama was instrumental in fighting for the human rights of those people who lost their homes, businesses, health and their freedoms. Many lost their lives and destroyed generations of Japanese Americans including Native Americans in Alaska and the tribes of the Aleuts.

I painted The Apology in response to a call for art for the Women Soaring Project in 2022. The right-hand side of the painting is the entire bill printed in 5 point Helvetica type. A photo of the Sea of Japan is overlaid on top of the bill representing the weight and heaviness of this history. On the left-hand side is a Japanese plum tree, not dead but ready to come to life.

I lived in Japan as a youth and have a very strong affinity to their culture and art.