During World War II, Estelle Ishigo was one of the few white Americans incarcerated alongside Japanese Americans. After her Japanese American husband, Arthur Ishigo, was ordered to report to the Pomona Assembly Center following Executive Order 9066, Estelle faced a choice: remain in Los Angeles or go with him and accept the same restrictions as the prisoners. On May 10, 1942, she chose to stay with her husband and entered the camp.
The couple was later transferred to Heart Mountain in Wyoming, where Estelle documented camp life through charcoal drawings, pencil sketches and watercolors.
She captured the harsh weather, families and children living behind barbed wire, and the daily reality of incarceration. She later wrote about her experiences in Lone Heart Mountain.
After the war, Estelle and Arthur returned to Los Angeles and struggled with poverty. Arthur died of cancer in 1957 at age 55. Decades later, filmmakers found Estelle living in difficult circumstances, and her life became the subject of Days of Waiting: The Life & Art of Estelle Ishigo.
The 1990 documentary won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject. Estelle died on February 25, 1990, at the age of 90.
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