The internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II remains undiminished as a national disgrace, even with the passage of 70 years. They were not alone among the groups rounded up as "enemy aliens" or otherwise perceived as a security threat, but they were by far the largest population to be targeted in this way.
Such treatment of American citizens represents an abuse of government power that must not be forgotten, a page from American history that must be preserved. That story is recorded in various forms, but a collection of physical artifacts of the time comprises one of the most powerful reminders of the sacrifices made.
So it would be tragic to have such a collection scattered to the four corners of the globe, a dispersal driven more by the lure of financial gain than the pursuit of historical preservation. But that is what seems to be happening now, through the auction, slated for Friday, of some 450 items that once belonged to Japanese-Americans incarcerated in "relocation centers" during the war.
Both the collection’s seller and the auction house, Rago Arts and Auctions of Lambertville, N.J., should heed the call of many to do the right thing: Delay the sale, to enable a way forward to keep the collection intact for public viewing and education.
That call has come from the Japanese American Citizens League’s Honolulu chapter and other groups making up the Ad Hoc Committee to Oppose the Sale of Japanese American Artifacts.
According to the committee’s written request, the group wants time "to properly examine issues including provenance, ethics, and the propriety of disposing of our cultural patrimony by selling it off to the highest bidder."
The issue of provenance is an important one, because the items were given to the original collector, Allen H. Eaton, as folk art. Rago Arts will not disclose the name of the client putting them up for sale; his or her father, a friend of Eaton’s daughter, acquired them through purchase and inheritance.
None of this was what the creators of the artifacts — ranging from watercolors to tiny hand-carved sculptures — would have wanted, the senior Eaton wrote in his book, "Beauty Behind Barbed Wire: The Arts of the Japanese in Our War Relocation Camps."
One of the other groups to speak out — the Manzanar Committee, sponsors of an annual pilgrimage to the famous internment camp of that name — noted a pertinent quote from Eaton’s book.
"They offered to give me things to the point of embarrassment, but not to sell them," Eaton wrote.
The Manzanar group denounced the sale, rightly adding that it "reignites the anger, frustration and humiliation that our community, our families felt during the forced removal."
There is a clear way out of this clash over personal property rights, one that would avoid a potential legal battle over the items. The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, an organization chronicling the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, issued a statement this week that it has made a cash offer well above the estimated auction value of the items.
The correct action for the unnamed client is to entertain this offer, because it would keep the collection intact and available for public viewing.
An ideal outcome for Hawaii would be an opportunity to showcase some of the collection, for the short or long term, at the Honouliuli National Monument, which will be developed at the site of the Oahu-based internment camp.
But that’s a campaign for another day. The main concern is to preserve the artifacts, which remain as testament to the resolve of this population.
There are lessons Americans today can learn from their pain — and perseverance.
