Ishigo, Estelle

Biography

Estelle (Peck) Ishigo was born in Oakland, California, 1899; attended Otis Art Institute; met and married San Franciscan Nisei, Arthur Ishigo (ca. 1929); following Pearl Harbor, both were fired from their jobs and Arthur ordered to a concentration camp; Estelle voluntarily accompanied him and they were eventually assigned to Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming; Estelle documented life at the camp through her artwork; they lived in poverty for many years following the war; Arthur died, 1957; fellow Heart Mountain inmates helped Ishigo republish her 1972 book, Lone Heart Mountain, ca. 1984; filmmaker Steven Okazaki made a documentary of Ishigo's life titled, Days of Waiting ; she died before seeing the film (1990).

Additional Biographical Narrative

Estelle Ishigo was a Caucasian artist and daughter of a concert singer and portrait and landscape artist. Born in Oakland, California, Estelle was surrounded by music and art. At age four, she showed promising abilities in painting and singing. By age twelve, she learned to play the violin.

While attending Otis Art School in Los Angeles, Estelle met Arthur Shigeharu Ishigo (1902-1957), a San Francisco-born Nisei and aspiring actor. They were married in 1928.

At the outbreak of World War II, husband and wife were placed in the Pomona Assembly Center. Eventually, Estelle accompanied her husband to the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp in Wyoming where she was commissioned by the War Relocation Authority (WRA) to sketch her experiences.

During her three and a half year internment, Estelle helped with the camp newspapers and played violin in the camp's Mandolin Band. When the war ended and the camps closed, the Ishigos left Heart Mountain and returned to Southern California where they lived in a trailer camp and worked in fish canneries in San Pedro. Two years later, Arthur procured work at the Los Angeles International Airport which enabled them to visit New York, Chicago, Dallas, and Mexico City.

After Arthur passed away in 1957, Estelle stayed in seclusion until the California Historical Society asked to show her paintings in their Months of Waiting exhibit.

Discovered by the Hollywood Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), Estelle's Lone Heart Mountain was published in 1972, a book which she wrote and sketched during her encampment years.

Just two years before Estelle's death, Producer/Director Steven Okazaki released the film Days of Waiting about Estelle's life as one of the few Caucasians to be interned with 100,000 Japanese Americans. The film earned the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject and received the prestigious George Peabody Award. Estelle Ishigo's extraordinary artistic talent as well as her devotion to her husband make Days of Waiting a poignant retrospection.

From the guide to the Estelle Ishigo papers, 1941-1957, (University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.)