Sam Nakahira ’19, Getty Publications, March 2024
This graphic biography delves into the early years of Japanese American artist Ruth Asawa (1926–2013), who was a teenager in Southern California when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Asawa’s father was incarcerated, and she and the rest of her family were sent to a detention center in California, and later to a concentration camp in Arkansas. Even so, Asawa managed to nurture her dreams of becoming an artist and creator of groundbreaking sculptures. Featuring illustrations and photographs of Asawa’s artwork, this story demonstrates the transformative power of making art. Nakahira is a comic artist and cultural worker from Los Angeles, who makes comics about overlooked histories, the natural world, dreams, and more.