This sculpture is part of the California Japantown Landmarks Project. It is made of bronze and stone, stands 9 feet high, and weighs 1000 pounds. The sculpture is by Louis Quaintance and Eugene Daub. It was installed in San Francisco’s Japantown in 2005.
A 20th-century sculptor, Eugene Daub has been an instructor at the Scottsdale Artists’ School and designer of the first Philadelphia Liberty Medal, which the city of Philadelphia awards every year to a champion of world peace. He is also a former vice president of the American Medallic Sculpture Association and a Fellow of the National Sculpture Society.
Louis Quaintance has an MFA in sculpture from Southern Illinois University. He lives in Berkeley, California.
The landmark was funded by the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program with additional resources from Proposition 40 historical and cultural heritage preservation funds.
The story behind the monument:
“From the late 1800s Japantowns began to emerge in California’s port towns and agricultural areas where Japanese immigrants helped build the state’s economy through fishing, farming and other businesses. By the 1930s, as many as forty Japantowns existed throughout the state. The forced evacuation of Japanese Americans during World War II, and later, urban renewal in the 1960s and 1970s, greatly impacted the fate of these unique historic districts. This common landmark resides in three of the remaining japantowns in San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles. It pays tribute to the contributions of Californians of Japanese ancestry and is dedicated to Japantowns that today exist only in memories.”
On the first panel is inscribed:
Footsteps lead to destiny, poem by Janice Mirikitani:
We dance honoring ancestors/who claim our home,/and freedom to pursue our dreams./Our voices carve a path for justice:/Equal rights for all./We prevail./Our future harvested from generations./From my life/opens countless lives./The Journey continues…
This panel reads:
A journey detained
Interned by injustice
What lies before us?
There is also a list of all the internment camps.
The third panel reads:
Sojourners
Visionaries open hands to the earth
Harvest hope for a future in America
I have friends who were interned in British Columbia too. It was a disgraceful thing – these monuments are lovely!
The internment of our Japanese citizens during WWII is a black mark in our historical record! What a shame. So many lives destroyed and/or damaged for no reason.
This is a beautiful memorial. And I thank you for the post and the commentary.
One thousand pounds? That’s half a ton!
These monuments are quite striking. Thanks for sharing, I was unaware of ‘Japantowns’ until your blog posts.