Lacking a camera to take photos of her classmates for the high school yearbook, the then-teenage prisoner drew caricatures of them instead. Incarceration forced Ruth Asawa to be resourceful, while giving her a lifetime of artistic inspiration and fearlessness to challenge convention.
A window into Asawa’s life and work is part of the documentary, “Masters of Modern Design: The Art of the Japanese American Experience,” an hour long program directed by former San Juan Bautista resident Akira Boch which was recently nominated for a Los Angeles Area Emmy Award. The awards ceremony is July 18 at 7 p.m. and will be livestreamed at emmys.com.
In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066. The decree resulted in the internment of “all persons of Japanese ancestry” living throughout the Western United States. Asawa’s family was quickly uprooted from its Southern California farm, living temporarily in a horse stable at the Santa Anita Race Track before being deported to a new home—the Rohwer War Relocation Center in Arkansas.
While at the racing grounds, Asawa met three Japanese American animators who had previously worked for Walt Disney Studios.
“This was the beginning of a string of lucky coincidences that Asawa had throughout her life,” Boch told BenitoLink, adding, “She had the opportunity to learn from these Disney illustrators, and they gave her a glimpse into what a professional artist could be.”
Through contributions made to the class yearbook or venturing out of the camp with her white American teacher and fellow classmates to sketch the landscape, Asawa continued refining her artistic skills in Arkansas.
After leaving a teacher’s preparation program, she enrolled in Black Mountain College, a small North Carolina campus that became “the place for the most progressive art teaching in the world,” according to the documentary. Never shy to buck convention or authority, Asawa thrived in this environment, experimenting with various forms and materials.
Debuting in September 2019, “Masters of Modern Design” was co-produced by the Los Angeles-based public television station KCET’s “Artbound” series and the Japanese American National Museum’s Watase Media Arts Center, where Boch serves as director.
In addition to Asawa’s story, the documentary explores the lives and work of four others, including architect Gyo Obata, art director S. Neil Fujita, furniture designer and woodworker George Nakashima, and sculptor Isamu Noguchi.
And though the five cast members’ stories differ—not all were interned like Asawa—there is a unifying theme.
“The WWII experience greatly impacted each of their artistic approaches and informed their later work,” Boch said, adding that despite the loss of freedom and the trauma they endured the artists “were very optimistic and resilient people.”
For example, Asawa never allowed the internment camp’s barbed wire fences to confine the personal and creative freedom she saw lying beyond it.
Asawa became a prolific artist, raised six children, received several public commissions, established a Bay Area arts school, and created signature looped wire structures that fetch millions at auction today. She died in 2013.
The Television Academy established the Emmys in 1949 to recognize Los Angeles-produced programming, eventually extending the awards nationally, according to its website.
In an email to BenitoLink, the academy’s Vice President of Marketing Laurel Whitcomb said that “Masters of Modern Design” is competing in the Arts category for News and Programming and was nominated based on “content, creativity, and execution.”
Humbled by his first LA Area Emmy nomination, Boch hopes that viewers of the show see the value and relevance in telling such stories and walk away inspired.
Referring to the 1942 executive order that interned 110,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans, Boch said, “The U.S. government did a great injustice to a group of people, creating both trauma and hardship.”
He described that a similar story continues to unfold along the southern border, citing the Trump administration’s immigraton policy that resulted in family separations.
And of the five artists featured in “Masters of Modern Design,” Boch believes their experiences will motivate aspiring artists.
“Ruth Asawa and the others are incredibly inspirational, especially for young artists who may have advantages they were all deprived of,” Boch said.
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