Interviews

1. Getting measles at the camp

2. His sister’s reaction to the camp

3. His mother’s money belt

4. Differences between Parents

5. His father’s American Dream

6. Allyship after camp

7. Coming back from camp

8. Being an outsider

9. Running Japanese store

10. Starting out in Art

11. About Orange Crate Label

12. His mother’s experience of the camp

13. “I did what I wanted to do”

Ben Sakoguchi

(b. 1938) Japanese American painter & printmaker

“I did what I wanted to do”

I did what I wanted to do. That’s why, people say, well he’s a happy guy for the kind of art he does. Yeah, ’cause I’ve no regrets.

You got, you don’t wanna be my age and say, you know, I shoulda done this, I shoulda, I shoulda done painting. Because where is this leading to? If you think about it and you’re in San Bernardino, you know, um, just got out of camp, and you wanna be an artist? Like in some families that may make sense but—I was playing over there.

But it don’t make sense in my family. No one thought of art, no one plays an instrument, no one—so, why I became this, I don’t know, but, I’m glad I did it. Because we’re gonna go through this, as I said, whatever happens next, happens next, you ain’t got no control over it. But, this I do have control over, and it’s mine.

arts graphic arts painting postwar World War II

Date: September 8, 2011

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki, Kris Kuramitsu

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Ben Sakoguchi, born in 1938, is a painter and printmaker who has lived in the Los Angeles area his entire life, except for the time when he and his family were incarcerated in Poston Arizona. After studying painting in the 1960s at the University of California, Los Angeles, he developed a distinctive style that is rooted in pairing a narrative painting tradition with a pop culture vocabulary. He is best known for his long running “Orange Crate Label” series, using the classic crate label format to explore diverse subject matter and to combine them in a way that allows for both sharp critique and wry humor. His work is deeply and politically engaged, and he takes a deep delight in the craft and beauty of painting itself. Sakoguchi was a professor at Pasadena City College for nearly 35 years. Visit his website at bensakoguchi.com. (Oct. 2011)