Ben Sakoguchi (born 1938) is a Japanese-American artist who was born in San Bernardino, California. At age five, his family was

interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

at the

Poston War Relocation Center The Poston Internment Camp, located in Yuma County (now in La Paz County) in southwestern Arizona, was the largest (in terms of area) of the ten American concentration camps operated by the War Relocation Authority during World War II. The sit ...

in Arizona following the enforcement of

Executive Order 9066 Executive Order 9066 was a United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. This order authorized the secretary of war to prescribe certain ...

Education

In 1960, Sakoguchi earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. In 1964, Sakoguchi earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from

.Artist's website
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Career

Sakoguchi was an art instructor at

Pasadena City College Pasadena City College (PCC) is a Public college, public community college in Pasadena, California. History Pasadena, California, Pasadena City College was founded in 1924 as Pasadena Junior College. From 1928 to 1953, it operated as a four- ...

from 1964 until his retirement in 1997. Sakoguchi is best known for his small paintings that were created in series, often with socially relevant themes, such as slavery and the internment of Japanese Americans. Sakoguchi is known for his Orange Crate Label series. ''Aphrodisiac Brand'', in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art, is a mock orange-crate label. It shows a rhinoceros slaughtered for its horn, which is erroneously believed to be an aphrodisiac or a cure for cancer in

Traditional Chinese Medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...

as ''Cornu Rhinoceri Asiatici'' (犀角, ''xījiǎo'', "rhinoceros horn").

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sakoguchi, Ben 1938 births 20th-century American painters American artists of Japanese descent Japanese-American internees Living people Pasadena City College faculty University of California, Los Angeles alumni 21st-century American painters People from San Bernardino, California