DISCUSSION RACE

The I rony of Being American

. Michi Itami

I am an arti st of Jap anese Americ an herit age (third gener ation) wh o expe-

rienced internment, as did man y Japan ese-Am erican s during World War II,

and who teaches at the City College of New York ofthe City University of

New Y ork, p erhaps the m ost culturall y diverse uni versity in the United States .

Th e makeup of the student b ody of the Cit y C oll ege of Ne w York inc orpo-

rates fifty -two langu age gr oups, and many of the students are the first col -

lege -graduates -to-be in th eir re spective fam ilies. The e xperience of t eaching

there i s incredibl y enriching, and I appr eciate w hat I am l earnin g from m y

student s at the same tim e that I am te achin g them printm akin g and art. I

am director of the Graduate Studi o Program as w ell.

I feel obli ged to fir st tell you ab out m y experience s a nd evoluti on as an

artist. In th e past, m y own wo rk had been l argely abstract . The ton e a nd

ambience of th e work was lar gely J apan ese. I say this bec ause the J apanese

in the past hav e eschewed direct r epresentati ons of n ature and u suall y have

repre sented the ir v isions o f n ature in stylized and abstr acted w ays . A m ov-

ing phenom enon, such as a wave in the ocean e xistin g in time and in con -

stant moti on, i s bett er repres ented in abstract form .

In 19 89, I g ot in volved with comput ers a nd thi s has influenced the cur -

rent directi on in m y a rtwo rk. I be gan t o r ealize th at one could ma ke art

from anything. The artist is n o lon ger curtailed by on e's dr awing or repre -

sentati onal skill s. In addition , above all else, the issue of what i s relev ant

to y ou bec ame most imp ortant . My father left m e a treas ure tro ve of phot o-

graphs from his past and hi s family. I had used them bef ore in ph oto-etching s,

but the si ze and scope wa s limit ed. I felt compelled to t ell hi s story visually.

In fa ct, wh en th e gove rnm ent inf ormed me th at I was to r eceive a "redre ss"

payment f or bein g intern ed durin g World W ar II, I was a t first quite am -

bival ent and up set. But when I th ought of makin g a piece about my father

and about our bein g interned at M anzanar, one of th e largest internment

camp s located on w asteland n ear Bishop, C aliforni a, I accepted the m oney

with the int ention of makin g the se pieces. I bought a high -end comput er

20 The Irony of Bei ng American / 21

with par t of the money a nd used it to c reate a rt r elated to the ex perience.

In o ne of the pieces, I pl aced the letter fr om Pr esident G eorg e B ush that

acco mp anied the re dress pay men t next to the piece a nd ca lled it The Irony

of Being Am erican (Figure 3 .1) .

The Irony, as it is nicknamed, includ es three v iews of my fat her-one at

six teen years of age i n J apanese dress, o ne at twe nty-three in a do ubl e-

breasted suit, and one at twen ty-seven in his U.S. Ar my unif orm-superim-

pos ed tra nsparentl y ove r the bac kgro und of Ma nzanar. Th e photog raph of

Ma nzanar was taken b y An sel Ad ams w hen h e was a you ng photographer

in the employ o f the U.S. gover nm ent.' A dams was to ld t o take photo-

gra phs of t he camp, b ut h e was o rdered to leave out the barbed wire a nd

the g uard t owe rs. He t ook m any of the photographs from th e g uard t owers

hopin g that int ellige nt people wo uld as k fro m what vant age p oint these

phot ographs w ere taken. i Ad ams bequeathed the ph otographs to the Li-

bra ry of Co ngress, a nd th ey a re part of the public d omain.

Most re cently, I h ave be en makin g multime dia p iec es using more of m y

father's photographs. I ha ve also used ph otographs of m y moth er, wh o, like

my fa ther, was a lso raise d in J apa n. Both m y pare nts a re Kibei-Nisei, w hich

means the y were born in th e Unit ed S tates b ut ra ised i n J apan. Before

Wo rld War II , it w as possible t o live in a city s uch as Los A ngeles an d n ot

spea k En glish. As a result, I did n ot learn En glish until I was seve n yea rs

old. M y mother and I lea rned En glish toge ther .

My father got us o ut of the inte rnment c amp by vo lunteeri ng fo r th e

United States A rm y. A yea r afte r th e wa r b ega n, the U.S. gover nm ent asked

Japanese Ameri cans to volunt eer f or th e U.S. Arm y, a lth ough th ey co uld

not guar antee c itizenship rig hts for them. In fac t, the gove rnment had proven

that citi zenship c arrie d no rights by inc arceratin g Am eric ans o f Jap anese

des cent. Because my father was flu ent in b oth En glish and J apa nese, he was

chos en to teach l anguage in the Arm y in Savage, Minn eso ta.' We all m ove d

to Minn esota. M y father wa s asked to go to Washin gton, D.C., to form a

gove rnm ent public ation libr ary of Japa nese m ate rials; as a result of hi s e f-

forts, he was awa rded th e Legion of M erit, the highest noncomb at med al.

From t here my fa ther went t o the So uth P acific, a nd a t the end of th e war

he was ap point ed the hea d interpr eter of the Tokyo War Crimes Tria ls. My

mother and I w ere among the first Americ an d ependent s to go to Jap an in

1947. My memories of Japa n at th at tim e have fueled mu ch of my wo rk.

I fee l very fortun ate to be a v isual artist, as we have a nother too l to ai d

us in c ommunic ation. Arti sts o f all kind s of media, w hether it be mu sic,

dance, o r visual art, have a lways had the be nefit of t heir un ique talent s

that superse de racial and ethnic diff erence. I thin k that at thi s particul ar

time , artists ca n c ontribut e most uni quely by info rming the larger soc iety

abo ut their own p art icular ethnic/racia l cultur al hi story.

Figure 3.1. Mi chi It ami, The Iron y o f B eing A merican, 51/1 X 36 /1, compu ter-generated coll age

photo graph and 22" X 29" lith ograph. Prizew inn er in the "Tw enty-fourth Annu al Work s o n

Paper" show, San M arcos, Texas, 1994.

N N

3:: ~ o ::r:

-'I .> 3:: The Irony o f B eing Am eri can / 23

Recently, when I was w aiting t o be called for duty on a jury in New York

City, I was impre ssed with the f act th at in a large jur y-pool r oom , where

mo re than two hundred pe ople were wa itin g to b e c alled, Am y Tan's The

Kit chen God's Wife was bein g read b y four of them. I think th at educ ated

people everywhere are looking to be inf ormed about other cultural experi -

ences. The success of movies such as The Wedding Banquet , Farew ell, My

Co ncubi ne, and Bandit Qu een furth er illu strates my point. The prolifer ation

of ethni c-food re staurants in m ajor cities is another instance of the grow ing

apprecia tion of ethnic di versity.

In the United States, we s hare a common h istor y in th at we all c ame

from o ther places . Because of thi s, we all have much t o contribute t o the

storeho use of shared experience ; we need t o inves tigate o ur o wn pa sts, the

histo ry o f our m others and f ather s and their p arents, to full y a ppreciate and

understand h ow we have shared simil ar tribul ations. A t the same tim e, we

need to a ckn ow led ge the differenc es o f our various backgr ound s. I know

that when I r ead T oni M orrison' s Beloved 4 and M aya Ang elou's many books

and poems, I am struck b y the simil ariti es of hum an n eed and d esire, rather

than by the differen ces .

Often pe ople of color feel th e need to make o bject ive a rt as o ppose d to

nonobjecti ve abstr act art th at is percei ved as m ainstr eam art ; perhap s it is

because they are re -creatin g their presenc e and history f or th e larger world

to see a nd acknowl edge. Bell h ooks, in her Art on My Mind: Visual Politi cs, says

that "camer as g ave to black f olks, irre spective of c lass , a means.by whi ch

we co uld particip ate fully in the p roduction of im ages.l " She furth er states:

Across cl ass bound aries black f olks stru ggled w ith the i ssue o f rep rese nta -

tion. Thi s issue w as link ed with the i ssue of docum entati on; henc e the

importanc e o f ph otography. The cam era was the central in strum ent by

which bl acks could di sprove repr esent atio ns created by w hite fol ks. The

deg radin g ima ges o f bl ackne ss that emerged from r acist w hite i magina-

tion and th at we re circul ated widely in the domin ant cultur e (on salt

shakers, c ookie j ars, pancake b oxes ) could b e co untered b y " true -to-life"

image s."

When I l ook back at m y ow n childh ood in Minn eapolis durin g World

War II (m y mother and I stayed in Minn eapolis w hile my fa ther we nt t o

Washington , D. C., w ith th e Arm y), I r ealize th at the ove rwh elmin g image

for me, as r epresent ed in m agazin e ads and movi es, w as that of V eronica

Lake. As a little girl pla ying with friend s, "dress ing up" in ev enin g gow ns

my mother h ad found in a thri ft store, we posed with one leg pe ekin g o ut

from the f olds o f th e g arm ent in a V eronica Lake pose, hair hang ing ov er

one ey e. Not bein g blond was a m ajor setback in m y o wn self-ima ge, as it

must have b een for many other s. Alth ough I h ad ju st experi enced being 24 MICHl IT AMI

incarcerated in a "relocati on camp" a few year s before, that had not left as

strong a mark on my sens e of who I was as did not having the possibility of

looking like Veronica Lak e.

Only in the year s since d econstruct ion and the analysi s of the authorship

of hi story has ther e emerg ed an interest in the history and realit y o f other s

from dif ferent cultur es. Fortun ately , thi s intere st expand s o ur collecti ve kno wl-

edge of th e wo rld and i s more interesting . Howe ver, I think th at rather

than p oint out the other as the whit e, male -dominated, patriarchal society ,

it is imp ortant to not condone this society' s actions but to try to under -

stand wh at motivates peopl e to follow this attitude . We all came to America

as immigrants , wh ether it was one or t wo hundred years ago. Pe ople rarely

leav e th eir nati ve countri es unless f orced due t o discriminat ion, as with our

earliest immigr ants, the Puritans , or t o econ omic dure ss, as with the Iri sh

during the potat o famin e in their native l and. Becau se of thi s histor y o f

dislocati on from our native countries, we all ha ve a tremendou s need to

belong to a larg er wh ole. In the past, I think that need to assimil ate, to be

"Americ an," has kept us from investig ating our distinct pasts and our own

ethnic tr adition s.

Th e desire t o belong t o a group h as its comfort s, but und erlying thi s

need i s fear: fe ar th at with out gr oup support , we a re vulnerable t o attack ;

fear that we as indi vidu als lack the t alent or stren gth t o sur vive on our

own; f ear that a g roup of p eople w e do not understand will super sede us

economically and deprive us of our sense of st atus and our m eans of liveli -

hood . How often ha ve we seen fear motiv ate irration al behavior ? Since

most of u s a re pre y to fear at some time in our li ves, it should be an em o-

tion w e learn t o confront and under stand. Howe ver, w e d o not have to be

ruled b y fear; we can re alize that each of u s affect s o ne a nother and th at

atrocities such as the H olocaust and the int ernment camps do not have t o

happen if more of us ar e brave and refuse to line up with the m ajority.

In the realizati on that w e live in a society in which racism exists, what

can we d o about it? Focusing on th e discriminatory attitudes and prejudice

of som e individu als disempower s the per son of c olor. It i s necess ary, inste ad,

to pinp oint th e problem and u se m eans to correct it i f pos sible; but t o

spend one's creative ener gies a nd time c ompl ainin g is count erpr oducti ve

and fruitle ss. It i s import ant to step outside o f oneself and obj ectivel y look

at on e's o wn acti ons to se e if one i s a cting p ositively or negativ ely. Every

encounter with another pers on, whether they be friend , enemy, or neutr al

party, i s a n opp ortunity t o interact positiv ely. Ultim ately, the onl y means

we h ave to addr ess the p roblems of society and create a larger multicultur al

world . with equ al opportunit ies for eve ryone i s throu gh a person al commit -

ment t o change. A friend and a ssociate w hom I h ave c ome t o respect very

much in our wo rk togeth er for the Co mmitt ee on Cul tural Di versity of the The Irony of Being America n / 25

CoU ege A rt A ssociat ion (CA A), Moir a Roth," told m e that when sh e is

as e d to serve on a panel, she alw ays asks what th e makeup of th e panel

-- in terms o f diver sity. If the p anel has no one of c olor, she replie s that it

- not possible f or her t o particip ate in p anels that do not r epre sent a cultur ally

div erse reality . The organization of the pan el may b e an innocen t act, and

- may neve r h ave occurr ed to th e moderator that thi s would b e a n is sue.

However, Moira's action s se rve as a rem inder and represent a proacti ve stance .

Th e C AA 's Commit tee on C ult ura l Dive rsity distributed a nineteen -page

ibliography of bo oks a nd video s o n cultural div ersity at the 1995 CAA

conference in S an Ant onio, Texas , in r esponse to sever al reque sts for h elp

- om the CAA i n establishing a m ultic ultural curr iculum . Conseq uently, we

organized a panel called "Working M odel s in Acti on" for the 1996 CAA

conference in Bost on, f or which Joe Lewi s se rved as mod erator. We put out

a call for submissi ons where in artists and ad ministrators would r elate the ir

experience s with actual w orkin g program s that were multicultural . De spite

me fact that the CAA new slett er h as a very wide reader ship , there were no

proposals that fea tured "workin g mod els." Proposa ls were submitted , but they

aain talked ab out what th ey wa nted to do , what re adin g lists and pr ograms

they wo uld offer . No one who actu ally h ad a working progr am submitted a

proposa l. Does that me an that t here are so few?

For artists o f col or, I w ould like t o say that it i s import ant f or u s to be

involved in the larger art wo rld and it s a ctivities. I kn ow th at it is tempt -

ing to sa y that our own ar t is al l that m atter s and th at it is n ot "our bag" to

be invo lved with such thin gs. Som e even think th at it is "not c ool" and

proo f that you are not "rea lly" an artist if y ou do involve y ourself. Prior to

coming to New York , I felt m uch the s ame way; but , New Y ork, with a ll its

complexity a nd den se layering of ec onomic and soci al status and c oncorni -

rant discrimi nation, made me awar e of the power structure in the wo rld. I

am not t he first to state that every act is po litical ; all artwork is political . The

hiera rchy of wh at is considered "goo d art" a nd what i s not, what is suit able

for a museum and what is no t, is all po litical. When I say "po litical," I am

using the word in l arger terms than just "wh o yo u know." B y thi s, I am not

saying that you mu st in clud e a per son of color 's work in a show if y ou do

not think it is at the s ame level of t he work of oth er participants, but I am

saying that if yo u are c ommitted to c hange i t is your obli gation to search

for w ork d one b y "other s" to be in cluded in th e s how. This is n ot about so-

called affirmative action, which in itse lf as a co ncept can be degra ding.

~'\ffirrnativ e action as a pro gram i s complex and need s to be di scuss ed m ore

fully in another venue. But it i s a bout being aw are of the lack of multiethnic

representati on and addressin g it. It is important to search f or qua lified minori ty

people and in vite them to particip ate a nd c ompete in the br oader w orld.

In turn , I ch allen ge cultur ally diverse p eople to particip ate in l arger f orum s 26 / MIC Hl IT AMI

and b ecome active. It i s not enou gh to v oic e cr itici sm: It is imperative for

one t o particip ate, to be proacti ve, and t o create opportunit ies for oth er

peopl e. I am ac tive in s everal Asi an groups, and for one of them , G odzill a:

As ian Am erican A rts Netw ork, I am on the steerin g committee. A s a g roup,

we h ave pick eted th e W hitney Mu seum of Co nte mpo rary Ar t and th e

Gugge nheim Mu seum f or t heir lack of Asian represent atio n in th eir collec-

tions a nd s hows. W e h ave a lso orga nized and presented ex hibiti ons a nd

wo rkshops a t R eed Co llege in P ortland, O regon, a nd at Artists' S pace in

New Yo rk. Th e member ship of Go dzilla i s mu lticultur al within its A sian

identific ation: Ther e are artists from J apan, Chin a, T aiwan, Kor ea, the Phil -

ippin es, Thail and, Burm a, a nd Indi a. Their wo rk repr ese nts the w hole range

of art wor k in th e a rt w orld, from sculpture and pa inting to installation and

perf orm ance.

I also s upp ort and serve o n th e boa rd of A rt in Gene ral , a no npr ofit

galler y a nd ar t center in l owe r M anhattan directed b y Holly Block. Th e

boa rd is multiethnic, and exhibiti ons a nd e ven ts at A rt in Gen eral encom-

pass the whole gamut of the popul ationof th e a rt w orld. Art in General i s

very forwa rd-looking in that it h osts v ide o v iew ing nights as we ll as g uest

lectures, ex hibi tions, and co mmun ity o utrea ch pro jects, a mong ot her ac-

tivities, s taffed and dir ected by a rtists.

Participation in these g roups broade ns my se nse of the r ealities o f our

compl ex wo rld. F ear arises from n ot kn ow ing, fear of the unk now n. W hen

I occ asio nally m eet peopl e from se gregated suburbs who tell m e that th ey

do not know anyone wh o is Afric an Ameri can, I can tell b y the way they

are loo kin g at me th at it is the first tim e the y are co nvers ing w ith an A sia n

as an equal. I fee l empathy fo r the ir condit ion. No wo nder they a re afraid;

their experi ence has be en so limited . We mu st ac t to broade n th eir expe rience.

In 1967 -19 68, when m y ex -husban d, who was a n E ngl ish pro fesso r, re -

ceived a Fulbri ght teachin g g rant, I return ed to Japan with him and our

two d aughters wh o were then six and three yea rs old . I felt th e exp erienc e

of li ving in J apan, w her e the ma jority o f p eople wer e nonwhit e a nd wher e

the cultu re was d istinctl y d ifferent fr om A merica, was a n imp orta nt e xperi-

ence fo r our daughters. I think the ex perience was e mpow ering b ecause

the y realized th at t heir backgro und is a n actual cultur e a nd not ju st so me

pictur e-pos tcard p lace. O ne realizes that peo ple o f color in th e U nited Sta tes,

wher e the m ajority is trul y different in col or and l ooks, ca n in adverten tly

come to feel th at their diff erence i s a neg ative thin g. Howev er, living in

anoth er count ry, eve n when it is one's cultur e o f ori gin, mak es o ne realize

at th e sa me t ime how "A merican" we a re.

What is trul y "Am erican" is to a dopt an at titude of ac tivism t o ensure

the idea ls o f fai r play a nd e qual opport unity for everyone. Th is is the re -

sponsibil ity of eve ryone, rega rdle ss of color or ethni c bac kground . Part of 1. Figure 3 .2. Mic hi l tam i, Sadam e, 22" X 30", comput er-generated litho graph, 1993. Im age o f

arti st's mother at age eighteen c ombined on th e computer w ith one of t he arti st's paint ings and

then c olor separat ed digitally. Orig inal pri nted by D evraj D akoi at Rob ert B lackbur n's

Prin tmaking Works hop, New York, und er the au spices of a Pr ofessional st aff c ongres s-CUNY

resea rch gr ant. Pri zewin ner in th e "Arc ade" digit al-to-print show, Univ ersity of Bright on, En gland

Apr il 1995 .

;

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N --J 28 / MICHl IT AMI

that activi sm is t o relat e o ur ow n pers onal sto rie s and h istori es through our

diff erent m edia and inf orm one a nother of th e complexity o f our n ation.

Mult iculturalism encompass es eve ryone; all of us have a story to te ll, and

und ersta nding a nd e mp athy a re increased w hen we s hare o ur stories .f

NOTES

1. John Arm or and P eter Wr ight, Manza nar, comment ary by John H ersey, phot o- graphs by A nsel Ada ms (Ne w Yo rk: Times Books, Random H ouse, 1988). 2. Ibid.

3. Loni Din g has m ade an intere sting vid eo abou t the Japanese Am erican sol dier s who trained t o s erve in the South Pacifi c interr oga ting J apanes e prisoners of w ar in the battlefi eld. Loni Ding, The C olor of Honor: The Japa nese America n Soldier in Wo rld War II, 90 mins., Vox Pro duc tions, 233 5 Jones S treet, Sa n Francisco, CA 941 33, 1989, vide o.

4. Toni Mor rison, Belove d (New Yo rk: Alfred A. K nopf, 1987 ). 5. bell hooks, Art on My Mind : Visual Politics (Ne w Y ork : New P ress, 195 5), p. 57. 6. Ibid . 7. Mo ira R oth t eac hes at M ills Co llege i n Oa kland, Californi a, w her e she holds the Trefe then Chair. She i s the a uthor of nume rous books a nd a rticles and has been on the b oard of t he CAA s ince 1993.

8. For fu rthe r, related readi ng a nd reso urces, s ee L oni D ing, Nisei Soldier: Sta ndard Bearer f or an E xiled Pe ople, 30 min., V ox Produ ction s, 233 5 Jones Str eet, Sa n Franci sco, C A 94133, 1984, video; K aren Hig a, The Vi ew from Within: Japane se Am erican Art fr om the Internm ent Camps, 194 2-1945 (Los An geles: Wr ight Art Gal lery and the J apa nese A mer ica n Na tional Museum , c. 1992 ); bell hoo ks, Teac hin g to Transgress: Educa tion as the Pra ctice of Freedom (New Yo rk: Routledge, 1994) ; Luc y R. Lipp ard, Mixed Blessings: New A rt in a M ulticultur al A merica (New Yo rk:

Panthe on Book s, 1990); and R onald T akaki, A Dif ferent M irror (Boston: Littl e,

Brown, 1993) .