Taneyuki Harada

Taneyuki “Dan” Harada (June 7, 1923 – December 9, 2020) was a Japanese-American painter and computer scientist who was incarcerated at Tanforan Assembly Center, Topaz War Relocation Center, Leupp Isolation Center, and Tule Lake Segregation Center during World War II. His paintings capture the experience of Japanese-Americans in concentration camp life, including the segregation, isolation, and discrimination they faced. He learned to paint at various art schools while detained, and continued studying at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California after being released at the end of the war. He was the recipient of the James D. Phelan Art Award, established to recognize the achievements of California-born artists across many disciplines, in 1949. Today, pieces of his collections are held at the San Francisco Fine Art Museum, the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Early life

Taneyuki “Dan” Harada was born on June 7, 1923 in the “Little Tokyo” sector of Los Angeles, California. In 1930, Harada’s father died of illness and he was sent to live with his paternal relatives in Japan. U.S. natural born citizens who were educated in Japan like Harada are referred to as kibei. In 1932, Harada’s brother also died of illness, and Harada noted increasing militarism in Japan before his mother remarried in 1938 and he returned to Oakland, California to live with his mother and step-father.

Executive Order 9066

Following the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Harada was sent home from school on account of bullying and his step-father’s business was closed after the state revoked their license. On February 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 was issued demanding the detainment and relocation of all Japanese and Japanese-American individuals. In the spring of 1942, Harada and his family moved inland to San Lorenzo, California and come May, Harada and his family were on a bus out of Hayward to Tanforan Assembly Center. Harada and his family remained detained at Tanforan Assembly Center through the summer of 1942, where Harada began painting at the Tanforan art school founded by Issei artists Chiura Obata and George Matsusaburo Hibi and Nisei artists Miné Okubo and Frank Taira. Harada and his family were relocated to Topaz War Relocation Center (Utah) in September 1942 where he continued studying at the Topaz art school with Hibi as his mentor. One of his most famous works, "Barracks" (now held at the San Francisco's Fine Arts Museum's de Young Legion of Honor) depicts an "enigmatic view of the camp, devoid of any of the nine thousand internees...(visualizing) both its physical isolation in the desert and the psychological alienation brought on through unjust detention"

In February 1943, the WRA (War Relocation Authority) distributed a "loyalty questionnaire", a set of questions meant to assess the loyalty of Japanese and Japanese-American individuals. Question 27 asked if Nisei men were willing to enter active combat duty, and asked everyone else if they would serve in other ways (such as the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps). Question 28 asked if individuals would renounce allegiance to the Emperor of Japan. Both questions caused confusion and unrest among those incarcerated. Japanese-American citizens felt resentment for being detained without due process and asked to renounce loyalty to a country they had no ties to, while also being asked to risk their lives in military service. Japanese immigrants were not legally allowed to become U.S. citizens due to racist guidelines, so renouncing their only form of legal citizenship would leave them stateless.

A form of resistance formed in response to the loyalty questionnaire, with the resistors called the “no-no’s” for answering no to both questions 27 and 28. Harada was among those who answered "no-no", as was Harada’s stepfather, who requested repatriation to Japan.

In July 1943, Harada was transferred to Leupp Isolation Center as a response to his answers on the loyalty questionnaire, where he continued to paint in isolated detention. In December, he was transferred to Tule Lake Segregation center where he was initially held in a stockade with several hundred other people before joining the regular barracks. He continued studying with the Tule Lake art school, and was said to have painted and hung a portrait of a 1940s movie star in his barrack. Dr. Marvin Opler (a community analyst) commissioned Harada to paint his daughters and document a few pen drawings of camp life while he was held at Tule Lake and in 1945, Harada held his first solo exhibition in the ironing room of block 5

End of the War

In 1944, Renunciation Act of 1944 was passed which allowed for U.S. born citizens to renounce their citizenship in times of war. Harada, on account of answering no-no on the loyalty questionnaire and under the assumption that he family would be repatriated back to Japan at the end of the war, renounced his citizenship. “As far as I'm concerned, there seems to be no future in the United States,” Harada remarked on his feelings at the time, “you're not really thinking things through”. On March 17, 1946, over three years after initially being detained at the age of 18, Harada and his family were finally given permission to leave Tule Lake. Harada was now 22 years old. They went on to stay in temporary housing with other Japanese families in Richmond, California until relocating

After the war

Harada worked as a fruit picker and gardener while studying at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California. He worked in commercial design and illustration, inspired by Ben Shahn, and held annual exhibitions at the Oakland Art Gallery, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. He received the James D. Phelan Award in 1949 and the following year he held his first two solo exhibitions out of camp, after which he switched to computer programming for the federal government until he returned to painting in retirement. With the help of attorney Wayne M. Collins, Harada had his citizenship restored in 1959. He was a featured artist in the 1998 "Arts After Incarceration" show by the Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland

End of Life

Harada stayed in Berkeley, California until his death on December 9, 2020. Pieces of his collections are held at the San Francisco Fine Art Museum, the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Others have been auctioned off to private owners.