Chizuko Judy Sugita de Queiroz (born 1933) is an American artist and art educator; her paintings depict her memories of a childhood during the

Japanese American internment Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Early life and education

Chizuko Judy Sugita was born in

Orange, California Orange is a city located in North Orange County, California. It is approximately north of the county seat, Santa Ana, California, Santa Ana. Orange is unusual in this region because many of the homes in its Old Town District were built before ...

, the youngest of nine children; her mother died from complications soon after Chizuko's birth. Her

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

-born father owned a nursery. In 1942, her family was sent to

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, as part of the

internment of Japanese Americans 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 ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. They were released from Poston when Chizuko was twelve. After the war, she returned to Southern California with her father, and settled in

Huntington Beach Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 during the 2020 census, maki ...

. Chizuko Judy Sugita earned a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

degree from

California State University, Dominguez Hills California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH, CSU Dominguez Hills, or Cal State Dominguez Hills) is a public university in Carson, California. It was founded in 1960 and is part of the California State University (CSU) system. In 2020, ...

. In 1953, she was chosen as Nisei Week Queen.

Career

Chizuko Judy Sugita de Queiroz worked as an art teacher at

Palos Verdes High School Palos Verdes High School (PVHS) is one of three public high schools on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County, Southern California, USA (the others being Palos Verdes Peninsula High School (formerly Rolling Hills High School) and Rancho ...

, and served as chair of the school's art department. After early retirement following a workplace injury, she turned to

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

painting full-time, and took up her childhood memories of camp life as her theme. Her illustrated memoir, ''Camp Days, 1942-1945'', was published in 2004, with an introduction by

George Takei George Takei (; ja, ジョージ・タケイ; born Hosato Takei (武井穂郷), April 20, 1937) is an American actor, author and activist known for his role as Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the fictional starship USS ''Enterprise'' in the televi ...

. An exhibit of her watercolors about her childhood in Poston, "Camp Days, 1942-1945," was first shown at the Palos Verdes Art Center near her home, in 2009. It has since appeared at the

Japanese American Museum of San Jose The Japanese American Museum of San Jose (JAMsj) is located at 535 N. Fifth Street in San Jose, in the heart of Japantown. The museum's mission is to collect, preserve, and share Japanese American art, history, and culture with an emphasis on th ...

(in 2010-11). She lectures on her life and work, saying "This is what I wanted to leave for my grandchildren, I wanted them to know what their parents and family went through." Montez Productions made a film of her story, "Childhood Memories of Chizuko Judy Sugita de Queiroz," in 2011. Her art also appears in the documentary "Heart Mountain: An All-American Town," by

Raechel Donahue Raechel Donahue is a rock radio pioneer generally associated with her husband Tom Donahue, who died in 1975. She was the original entertainment reporter for CNN, briefly served as VJ for Cable Music Channel and a longtime radio personality in San ...

Personal life

Chizuko Judy Sugita de Queiroz is married to Richard de Queiroz.

References

External links

Chizuko Judy Sugita de Queiroz's website.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Queiroz, Chizuko Judy Sugita 1933 births Living people American artists of Japanese descent Japanese-American internees California State University, Dominguez Hills alumni