The guest speaker at our meeting was George Picard who gave an account of the time he spent as a jailer at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo
when he was a member of the United States Occupation Forces. General Douglas McArthur, who was then head of operation,
opted to delegate guard duty to younger soldiers who hadn't fought the Japanese in the trenches - George, just out of high school.
enlisted in the Army in 1945 and was promptly sent to Japan.
Sugamo was where the most notorious was lords, former military heroes, were imprisoned. (Tojo, the most notorious, was one of seven prisoners eventuallt executed in the gallows.) While awaiting trial many of the prisoners spent their leisure time fashioning objects that were offered to the guards as gifts. George received many of these gifts, brought them back to the states and forgot about them. In 1999, his cousin, Bill Barrette, a New York artist and art writer, heard about the collection and became fascinated with the story of the prison and its inmates. It inspired him to embark on a research project offering an insight into the relationships between captor and captive, between the United States and Japan, and the fashioning of art in times of hardship. For five years the collection was part of a series of exhibitions focusing on different aspects of the Occupation of Japan as seen through life at Sugamo prision.
We were priviledged to see some of the collection,
items that included durable little boxes fashioned from American cigarette
packages with the use of paper and rice paste left over from their meals;
small boxes made from
toilet paper twisted until it resembled string, and then woven to form a container; an elegant cylinders and pasted together. One
of the most valued items is a silk Imperial flag autographed by the prisoners.
The people in attendance that evening who served in World War II were especially interested in the presentation. While much of the conversation centered around their own experiences during that time, the plight of the Japanese warlords after the end of the war was not an interesting revelation.
Link To a Site on the subject:
Site dedicated to the men who served at Sugamo Prison also the history of the prison