Artist’s grandfather, Kuneo Jack Sakai, ID photograph, 1941
SPRING
Artist’s grandmother, fourth from left, Spring Dance Recital, Buddhist Temple, Seattle, Washington, c. 1930
Artist’s grandmother, Mariko Sakai, Uncle Larry, and Aunt Gayle
Sakai great-uncles playing baseball in Poston Internment Camp, Poston, Arizona, 1942
National Archives document, naval dispatch announcing the bombing of Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941
Sakai great-uncles and internees, Poston Internment Camp, Poston, Arizona, 1942
The Sakai home, Lakewood, Ohio, 1992
Postcard from artist’s grandmother, Mariko Sakai, during a road trip, 1992
SUMMER
Sakai family home, Lakewood, Ohio, 2022, now vacant
Artist’s father, John Sakai, with “Uncle” George Ikuta, Lakewood, Ohio
Jack Kuneo Sakai and Mary Mariko Sakai at the Grand Canyon, during a road trip west returning to the family farm and homes they lost during WWII
Mary Mariko Sakai (far right) at the annual Sakai “Steak and Bake” picnic, Lakewood, Ohio
Left: Sakai family in their fruit orchard, California, pre-WWII. Right: Peach blossoms; Yeizo and Shige Sakai, artist’s great-grandparents, with children, including Kuneo Jack Sakai, San Luis Obispo, California, c. 1920
Artist with her grandfather, Jack Sakai; Uncle Larry Sakai (born in Poston Camp); and Aunt Nancy Sakai
Right: Jack Sakai in the desert on a pilgrimage back to the West Coast.
Left: National Archives photograph near Poston Internment Camp
Postcard from Mariko Sakai while traveling to her granddaughter
“The Green Machine,” Buick Skylark, owned by Sakai grandparents. After release from Poston Camp, Jack Sakai and his family moved to the Midwest and worked in the automotive field, applying their experience maintaining farm machinery to build their postwar lives.
Sakai family home, with Jack Sakai on the front porch, Lakewood, Ohio, c. 1988
Left: The Ireichō (Sacred Book of Names), a comprehensive record documenting the 125,284 persons of Japanese ancestry incarcerated in U.S. detention camps during WWII.
Right: Blue stamp mark made by the artist next to her grandmother’s name, Mariko Mary Sakai, honoring her and all incarcerated individuals during a Smithsonian event.
Artist’s grandmother’s brother, lost during the war. Only known family photograph, date unknown
Artist’s grandfather’s first photograph. Born in Watsonville, California, United States, September 24, 1914
Artist’s grandfather’s rejection of claim of loss against the United States government, October 13, 1953, discovered in the National Archives
Artist’s great-grandfather and great-grandmother on the family farm overlooking hills in California, 4th of July 1937
Sakai great-uncle’s bird hunting trip, Great Lakes, date unknown
Poston Internment Camp, 1941
U.S. government photograph, National Archives
Kuneo (Jack) and Mariko (Mary) Sakai, 1973, during a pilgrimage back to California to see the farm and land they lost during WWII
Artist with grandfather and cousin, Lakewood, Ohio
Jack Kuneo Sakai walking the farm and land the family once owned, postwar, c. 1970s
Burning the fields near where the Sakai family farm was located, California, 2025
WINTER
Hotel room during Jack and Mary Sakai’s road trip west, July 1972
Aunt Gayle and Uncle Larry Sakai in a snowstorm, Lakewood, Ohio, c. 1950s
Sakai great-uncles on the family farm, pre-WWII
Right: Artist with her grandfather in front of her grandparents’ Lakewood, Ohio home, where they lived for 52 years.
Left: The home as it stands now, painted by the last owner and currently unoccupied
U.S. government photograph of Poston Internment Camp, postwar, overgrown, National Archives
1422 Wayne Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio, Sakai family home of 52 years, now vacant
