Exhibit on Japanese-American internment opens Friday

MOSES LAKE — A story of lives blown apart by war, fear and prejudice will be on display at the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center, beginning with opening reception Friday.

“Uprooted” tells the story of Americans of Japanese descent living on the West Coast who lost their homes and businesses as a result of actions by the United States government in 1942. It’s a traveling exhibit from the Oregon Cultural Heritage commission. “Paul (Hirai) made (museum officials) aware of it about two years ago," said museum director Freya Liggett.

The opening reception begins at 5 p.m. Friday. Writer Mayumi Tsutakawa will talk about the experiences of her family and others in a lecture at 7 p.m. in the Moses Lake Civic Center auditorium. “The Pine and the Cherry: Japanese-Americans in Washington” traces prewar, wartime and postwar experiences.

Admission to the museum, the lecture and exhibit are free. 'Uprooted’ will be on display through Sept. 8.

The exhibit features photographs taken by Russell Lee, a photographer with the Farm Security Administration, who recorded the work done by internees at internment camps in Nyssa, Ore. and Rupert, Shelley and Twin Falls, Idaho.

It was, and is, called Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and ordering the removal of about 120,000 people from areas of the West Coast, forcing them to move further inland. It was signed in February 1942, in the immediate wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The feds justified it on the grounds of possible sabotage and espionage. It was a common worry at the time, affecting everything from pop culture to governments all around the world. It wasn’t true of Japanese-American internees, and in fact it wasn’t true anywhere.

The internees, about two-thirds of them American citizens, received neither the chance to contest the order nor compensation for their lost property. Internees could and did volunteer for war work, which included working in the sugar beet fields throughout the West. That brought internees to eastern Oregon and southern Idaho.

Tsutakawa’s family was part of that odyssey, she said, her mom from Sacramento, Calif. and her dad from Seattle. She uses her family’s century-long history in the state to illuminate the experiences of Washington natives of Japanese descent.

Paul Hirai and his family, who lived near Toppenish in 1942, were part of that story too. Museum officials have recorded Hirai’s story, and that of George and Doris McIntyre, whose families helped administer an internment camp. They’ve collected stories from five different families, Liggett said, who were involved with EO9066 in one way or another. “What we’d like to do is continue to collect those stories,” she said.

The reception also includes the “Adult Swim” program, crafts and projects for adults, in the tradition of public swimming pools that reserve time for adults only. Participants will use Sumi ink to paint a contemporary forest scene.