In World-War II America where any and all Japanese-Americans were punished with forced internment, Miné Okubo dared to document her inprisonment. Through each drawing, she captured the collective fear, sadness, and bravery that cloaked her fellow Japanese-Americans. The treatment she received, along with other Japanese-American prisoners, hauntingly parallels the treatment many individuals in migrant camps experience today, in the twenty-first century. Because of Okubo's fearless testimony, the horrors of Japanese internment will never be forgotten.
"Comfort was uppermost in the minds of the people. All were on the lookout for building material for partitions and furniture. Lumber and sheet-rock boards were scarce and well-guarded, but since building material was not furnished to the residents as promised, they became desperate. With the passing of time and the coming of cold weather, stealing no longer became a crime but an act of necessity. Everybody was out to get building material. There were guards everywhere, but the residents became skillful at dodging them; worried mothers were the most skillful of all" (Okubo 137).
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