Densho Encyclopedia
Masao Kondo
| Name | Masao Kondo |
|---|---|
| Born | May 21 1993 |
| Died | May 21 1973 |
| Birth Location | Tokyo, Japan |
| Generational Identifier |
Masao Kondo (1893-1973) was born in Tokyo and immigrated to the United States at the age of twenty. He moved into the Los Angeles area and enrolled at the Otis Art Institute to study painting. During World War II, he continued his art practice, sketching and painting watercolors scenes while incarcerated at the Santa Anita Assembly Center in California and the concentration camp at Rohwer , Arkansas. Some of his surviving work from camp include works with crayon on paper depicting everyday life in camp such as the guardhouse, an amateur theater performance and an art class, although it is uncertain whether he developed any of his drawings into finished paintings. After he was released from Rohwer, he returned to Los Angeles.
Kondo died in 1973.
For More Information
Hirasuna, Delphine. The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942–1946 . Designed by Kit Hinrichs, Pentagram. Photography by Terry Heffernan. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 2005.
The View from Within: Japanese American Art from the Internment Camps, 1942-1945 . Los Angeles: Japanese American National Museum, UCLA Wight Art Gallery, and UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 1992.
Last updated Oct. 5, 2020, 6:24 p.m..