visits her apartment, thinking she is the one Fili-
pino nurse who got away from the mass murder.
The one-woman play is a black comedy about a
criminal milestone in Chicago history, but it fore-
grounds the Asian-American identity of some of
the young nurses who were killed, as well as the
courage, wisdom, and survival instincts of the one
who escaped death. The lurid details of the brutal
murder fascinated the public and drew widespread
media attention. Okita’s play makes a subtle com-
parison between the sensation caused by the Speck
murders and the lack of coverage of the govern-
ment’s forced relocation of Japanese Americans
after Pearl Harbor.
Being gay and Buddhist has also influenced Ok-
ita’s writing. His play The Rainy Season is a multi-
cultural gay love story in which Harry, an Asian
American, meets a handsome Brazilian while
waiting at a bus stop. “Flirt” is a short story about
friendship between a gay man and a gay woman.
As a member of Soka Gakkai International, a Bud-
dhist network devoted to peace, Okita follows the
teachings of Nichiren, a 13th-century Japanese
monk who assumed a posture of utmost respect
toward all others, regardless of gender, ability, or
social status. In addition to his poetry, fiction, and
drama, Okita has also written movie scripts and
essays for the radio.
Beverley CurranOkubo, Miné (1912–2001)
Born in Riverside, California, Miné Okubo grew up
in a family of artists including her mother, a grad-
uate of Tokyo Art Institute, and her brother Benji
Okubo, a pioneering nisei painter. Miné attended
Riverside Community College and later completed
an M.F.A. at the University of California, Berke-
ley, in 1936. In 1938 she won a Taussig fellowship,
which allowed her to spend 18 months in Europe
studying art. In September 1939 she returned to
San Francisco and began exhibiting her art in local
venues. In 1941 Okubo won an exhibition prize
for her painting “Miyo and Cat,” which was pur-
chased by the Oakland Museum. Meanwhile, she
assisted the famous Mexican painter Diego Rivera
in the preparation of a mural for San Francisco’s
Treasure Island.
The Okubo family, like 115,000 other West
Coast Japanese Americans, was rounded up and
moved inland by the army during 1942. Okubo’s
father was interned in Montana, while the chil-
dren were incarcerated in different camps. Miné
and one brother were confined at Tanforan As-
sembly Center and later sent to Topaz, where she
taught art classes and helped found a literary re-
view, Topaz Trek, for which she drew cover designs
and illustrations. Meanwhile, Okubo undertook a
series of sketches of camp life. She later explained
that since inmates were not permitted cameras,
such sketches were a necessary documentary re-
cord. She also publicly exhibited work depicting
camp scenes. Her drawing of two military guards
won critical acclaim at a show in San Francisco in
spring 1943 and was reproduced in the San Fran-
cisco Chronicle. Encouraged by the response, the
San Francisco Chronicle commissioned a series of
camp sketches from Okubo, which soon appeared
in the newspaper, along with Okubo’s accompany-
ing commentary, in August 1943.
Okubo’s fame led the editors of the Fortune
magazine to sponsor her release from camp, and
in 1944 Okubo moved to New York City, where
she would live the rest of her life. Hired by For-
tune to design a special issue on Japan, she con-
tributed several camp sketches to an article on
Japanese Americans, “Issei, Nisei, Kibei.” A show
of her camp sketches and other art opened in New
York in March 1945, followed by a national tour.
Over the following months, Okubo collected her
sketches into book form and drafted accompany-
ing texts. Columbia University Press published the
finished work, entitled Citizen 13660, in late 1946.
Citizen 13660 is a record in matched text and
illustration of Okubo’s camp experience, from
the outbreak of war through her confinement
and release. A visual as well as verbal narrator,
Okubo places herself in virtually all her sketches.
Her narrative depicts the hardships of camp life,
including dust storms, lack of privacy, and po-
litical conflict. Although later critics have under-
lined the book’s indictment of confinement and
its subversive nature, Okubo generally presentsOkubo, Miné 227