Miné Okubo

Contributions and Distinctions

Miné Okubo was a Japanese American artist, author, and educator whose work documented the forced incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. She is best known for her illustrated memoir Citizen 13660 (1946), one of the earliest and most influential visual accounts of incarceration in U.S. history. Through her art, Okubo preserved firsthand testimony of civil liberties violations and everyday life in the incarceration camps.

Biographical Sketch  

Miné Okubo (1912-2001) was born in Riverside, California. She studied art at the University of California, Berkeley, earning her bachelor’s (BA 1935) and both of her master’s degrees (MA 1936 & MFA 1938), where she developed a strong foundation in mural painting and modernist techniques. After graduating, she worked as an artist for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), contributing to public art projects during the Great Depression and collaborating with Diego Rivera in San Francisco.

In 1942, Okubo and her family were forcibly removed from their home and incarcerated at the Tanforan Assembly Center and later at the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah. During her incarceration, she created more than 2,000 drawings documenting daily life in the camps. These works later formed the basis of her 1946 work Citizen 13660, which combined art and narrative to convey the human impact of incarceration.

After World War II, Okubo settled in New York City, where she continued a prolific career as an artist and illustrator. She exhibited widely, illustrated children’s books, and lectured nationally on art, history, and civil rights. Her work remains a powerful record of resilience and resistance, ensuring that the experiences of incarcerated Japanese Americans are remembered.