Urban Gateways Center for Arts Education - Elaine Sayoko Yoneoka Records

In 2000, Urban Gateways Center for Arts Education, a Chicago art program, awarded an artist residency grant to Elaine Sayoko Yoneoka. Yoneoka, an artist from Boston, created an interactive installation displayed at the Disney Magnet School that allowed fourth through eighth graders from both Disney Magnet School and Horace Greeley Elementary School to experience elements of life at a Japanese American relocation center during World War II.
Several months after Pearl Harbor was attacked, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the United States Executive Order 9066 which led to the forced evacuations of Japanese Americans and ethnic Japanese people from designated “military zones” located mostly along the West Coast. These individuals were forced to give up their homes, businesses and possessions with very little notice. Yoneoka’s parents were swept up in the evacuation and were incarcerated at a hastily built relocation center. Their experiences had a profound impact on their lives and remained a mystery to their children until they passed.
Yoneoka recreated a barrack, much like the ones found at relocation centers located throughout the United States, and the students played the role of the internees. They were assigned an identification number and took part in activities that internees were required to do when they arrived at “camp.” Yoneoka states on her website that her purpose was to communicate a message of tolerance.
Urban Gateways was founded in 1961 to provide art programs to Chicago-area schools. The organization offers programs in music, dance, theater, literary arts, visual arts and digital media.

Source: Urban Gateways Center for Arts Education