Mine Okubo

About the Author

Mine Okubo (1912–2001) was a pioneering Japanese American artist and writer whose work powerfully documented the harrowing experiences of internment during World War II. Born in Riverside, California, she studied art in Berkeley and Europe before the outbreak of war upended her life. In 1942, Okubo and her family were forcibly relocated to the Tanforan Assembly Center and later to the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah, where she sketched the daily indignities and resilience of her fellow internees. Her seminal memoir, Citizen 13660, illustrated with her own evocative drawings, offers an unflinching firsthand account of this dark chapter in American history, blending personal narrative with visual artistry to humanize the over 120,000 Japanese Americans affected by Executive Order 9066. Okubo's legacy endures as a vital voice against injustice and a testament to the strength of the human spirit.