During WWII, MinƩ Okubo (left) and Kay Sekimachi (right) were both forcibly removed from their homes in California and sent to Tanforan Assembly Center, then imprisoned at Topaz Relocation Center. Over 100,000 people of Japanese descent (most of whom where US citizens) were imprisoned in these camps and similar ones across this country. Sekimachi and Okubo met sometime during 1942-1944 when they were at Tanforan and Topaz. They both became artists and maintained a lifelong friendship documented through the letters they exchanged over five decades after leaving the camps. Read more about their correspondence on our blog: https://www.aaa.si.edu/blog/2016/05/epistolary-friendship-min%C3%A9-okubo%E2%80%99s-letters-to-kay-sekimachi Image Credit: Photo of Okubo by Cecil J. Thompson, circa 1980s. Photographer of Sekimachi unknown.
