Photo courtesy Bob Matsumoto

We dropped in on Michelle Katz’s Human Rights Movements in the U.S. course to watch Bob Matsumoto (BFA 63 Advertising) deliver a powerful presentation on his experience being detained as a four-year-old in the Manzanar War Relocation Center—one of ten camps where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II.

“The red, white and blue barbed wire represents us as Americans. The black background represents our darkest period,” said Matsumoto as he passed around a framed poster he designed, which was featured in a recent exhibit on the relocation camps at L.A.’s Japanese American Museum. “I have work in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. But the poster is far more meaningful to me.”

Group photo from Manzanar War Relocation Center. Young Matsumoto is almost dead center with his family behind him. Photo courtesy Bob Matsumoto

He then screened Voices Long Silent, a short documentary he produced using his family’s personal photos and archival images from Manzanar narrated with a voice over quoting high ranking government officials’ explanations for jailing Americans based solely on their ethnicity. His film screened for the congressional committee assembled by President Jimmy Carter, who investigated the camps and recommended the reparation payments eventually made to all interned families.

Young Matsumoto at Manzanar War Relocation Center. Detail from group photo above. Photo courtesy Bob Matsumoto

“What’s happening at the border today is very similar to what happened to us,” says Matsumoto in response to a question about his motivation for making socially impactful art. “Use your talents. Speak up. Do something worthwhile.”