Focus on Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II and discuss the "Golden Cranes" sculptor, Nina Akamu.
Nina Akamu is a third-generation Japanese American artist and former vice president of the National Sculpture Society. Akamu created the sculpture entitled "Golden Cranes" of two Grus japonensis birds, which became the center feature of the Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II.
Akamu's grandfather on her mother's side was arrested in Hawaii during the internment program. He was sent to a relocation camp on Sand Island in Pearl Harbor. Suffering from diabetes upon his internment, he died of a heart attack three months into his imprisonment. This family connection — combined with growing up for a time in Hawaii, where she fished with her father at Pearl Harbor — and the erection of a Japanese American war memorial near her home in Massa, Italy, inspired a strong connection to the memorial and its creation.
Massa, Italy Grus japonensis Pearl Harbor diabetes World War II Japanese American Japanese National Sculpture Society Nina Akamu Hawaii Sand Island heart attack