On Thursday, May 22, 2025 at 6:30 PM there will be a presentation about Arts & Crafts of Japanese Americans Incarcerated during WWII. This virtual talk will be given by the Essex Library Association only on Zoom. It will be presented remotely by Nancy Beck, Secretary/Treasurer of the Japan Society of Fairfield County. For details and to register, go to:

https://engagedpatrons.org/EventsExtended.cfm?SiteID=1314&EventID=555301&PK=

During World War II, the United States forcibly relocated and incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese descent in ten concentration camps, mostly in the western interior of the country. About two-thirds were U.S. citizens.

For her presentation Nancy will show pictures of objects made in the camps. She will also show footage from the 2011 documentary, Art of Gaman, in which Delphine Hirasuna, author of the book “Art of Gaman”, discusses the history of the camps, and the Japanese word gaman, meaning “enduring what seems unbearable with dignity and grace.”

Nancy is a third-generation Japanese American (sansei). Her mother and many other relatives were incarcerated during World War II because of their Japanese ethnicity.