Signs of Home: The Paintings and Wartime Diary of Kamekichi Tokita

Issei artist Kamekichi Tokita emigrated from Japan in the early twentieth century and settled in Seattle’s Japanese American immigrant community. By the 1930s he was established as a prominent member of the Northwest art scene and allied with the region’s progressive artists. On the day Pearl Harbor was bombed Tokita started a diary that he vowed to keep until the war ended. In it he recorded with expressiveness and insight the events, fears, rumors, and restrictions-and his own emotional turmoil-before and during his detention at Minidoka.

This beautiful and poignant biography of Tokita uses his paintings and wartime diary to vividly illustrate the experiences, uncertainties, joys, and anxieties of Japanese Americans during the World War II internment and the more optimistic times that preceded it. It contextualizes Tokita’s paintings and diary within the art community and Japanese America and introduces readers to an amazing man who embraced life despite living through challenging and disheartening times.