“Memories of Barbed Wire: Resilience in the Japanese American
Community” is an emotional portrayal of the concentration camp in
Minidoka used to incarcerate over 13,000 of the 120,000 Japanese
Americans imprisoned during WW II. Through large-scale photographs

printed on vellum, two sculptural pieces and a video installation, multi-
media artist Tama Takahashi revisits her family’s personal experience in

camp. Her father’s family was forced from Seattle to Minidoka, located in
the isolated, wind-whipped eastern side of Idaho.

The Minidoka National Historic Site is one of the best preserved of the 10
concentration camps located in remote areas of 10 states. Takahashi
brings to the gallery evocative images of the guard tower, the fire station,
the barracks and barbed wire; a video installation on the persistent wind
that blew dust through the shoddily built buildings; and a sparkling Memory
Tree standing in tribute to former prisoners and their descendants. Visitors
to the show will be able to leave messages of peace through an interactive
display where you can write and add your prayer for peace.

Educational additions:
1. Please view 4 SHORT FILMS (5-6 minutes) about the incarceration of
Japanese Americans during World War II: https://www.betrayedfilm.com/
education

2. View the DOCUMENTARY “Betrayed: Surviving An American
Concentration Camp” by Northshore Productions (57 minutes), free on

PBS: https://www.pbs.org/show/betrayed-survivng-american-concentration-
camp/

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3. ARTIST’S WALK THROUGH Saturday, June 27th, 1:00 pm: hear about
the processes and meaning behind the work with artist Tama Takahashi.
Free. Refreshments compliments of Nimita’s Cuisine.

4. PANEL DISCUSSION: Saturday, July 18th, 1 pm. $5 donation to help
defray the Museum's costs.

Special Guests:

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SAM MIHARA:

Sam Mihara is a an award-winning lecturer on the history of the mass injustice perpetrated on the Japanese Americans during WWII. His awards include the Biennium Award for Education and Humanities from the Japanese American Citizens League and the prestigious Paul Gagnon Prize as the history educator of the year from the National Council for History Education – the first time to for Japanese American. His speaking engagements have included lectures at the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Congress, Harvard, UC Berkeley and Columbia Law School.

 

From ages 9 through 12, he was a child prisoner Heart Mountain, Wyoming concentration camp. He is the author of “Blindsided: The Life and Times of Sam Mihara”, an autobiography which describes his family's experience with Japanese American incarceration.

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WADE NOMURA:

Wade Nomura was born and raised in Santa Barbara. His parents settled here after their release from the Poston, AZ concentration camp. He is a Carpinteria Councilman and two times Mayor, the President of the Santa Barbara Japanese American Citizens League,  and author of “Creating Destiny” about his early life as a Japanese American after WWII.

 

Nomura is also an international speaker and project coordinator for The Rotary Foundation, having worked on over 50 international project missions, ranging from an ambulance project in Southern Chile to a large-scale water projects in Michoacan, Mexico and Haiti.

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MARK MASAOKA:

Mark Masaoka has been a leader in Little Tokyo (Los Angeles), working for housing for residents displaced by redevelopment, as Policy Director of the Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council, the Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Los Angeles County Children’s Planning Council, as well as helping found the Little Tokyo Community Impact Fund which collects small investment shares to purchase real estate that enables local ethnic legacy businesses to stay in business. He is part of Nikkei Progressives’ current collaborative work on immigrant rights and Black reparations. 

 

Masaoka was a union autoworker and elected UAW officer. He was also active in the National Coalition for Redress & Reparations that led to the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 that granted reparations to Japanese Americans who had been unjustly incarcerated by the government and the formal apology by President George W. Bush. His father Tad was active in the wartime Japanese American Citizens League, and served with four brothers in the highly-decorated 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

Tama Takahashi majored in Art (double major in film) at UCSD and after
graduation worked for almost 20 years as a camera assistant in movies
and TV in Los Angeles. She opened her art studio in Santa Barbara in 2023
and was awarded an Emerging Artist Fellowship from the California Arts
Council and SVCREATES. The same year, she was curated into a show at
the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, winning both an “Award of Excellence”
and the "Gold Award" (the highest honor). She repeated these wins at the
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in 2024 and 2024. Takahashi has also
shown internationally at the Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, in "Art
Woman 2025" in Lecce, Italy, and in “Circle 2025” at the CICA Museum in
South Korea. She is included in the Asian Art Contemporary’s listing of
“contemporary Asian artists, curators, and thought leaders shaping the
global art scene”. Her next solo show in Gallery 825 in Los Angeles will be
of her modern renditions of traditional Japanese 24-karat gold screens.

Her main goal is to increase the visibility of Asian American artists after
growing up in an environment (including college) where art was centered
on European and American art, to the exclusion of other rich traditions. She
hopes that young people of color can study art today and see themselves
as both the subject of and as the creators of contemporary art.

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Special thank you to Nimita's Cuisine for sponsoring the exhibition's opening reception and talks.