Since 2022, Modernism Week has presented Stories Untold, focused on the history and narratives of architects and design professionals historically discriminated against or left out of the spotlight.

Amidst discrimination and forced internment during the midcentury period, many Japanese Americans charted prolific careers in the fields of architecture and design. This lecture will discuss the careers of Tomoko Miho, Shoji Sadao, Ray Komai, George Nakashima, Kazumi Adachi, George Matsumoto, S. Neil Fujita, Isamu Noguchi and other Japanese Americans on the West Coast who faced internment in American concentration camps after the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. Unjustly assumed as enemies of the state, West Coast Issei (first generation immigrants) and Nisei (second generation immigrants), about 2/3 of whom were American citizens, were moved off the Coast to land-locked camps.

Other Japanese Americans such as architect Gyo Obata narrowly escaped internment by enrolling in the architecture program at Washington University in St. Louis, while Soichi Sunami, longtime exhibition photographer at The Museum of Modern Art, was spared by his employment in New York City. Meanwhile architect Minoru Yamasaki, while not interned himself, faced intense and unfounded investigation by the FBI following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Despite the ongoing discrimination they faced, many Japanese American designers and architects excelled in their highly competitive fields. This presentation will discuss not only the tribulations of these young architects and designers but will foreground their vast contributions to the legacy of Midcentury Modernism as we now know it.

Bridget Bartal is the co-curator of Cranbrook Art Museum’s 2025 exhibition Eventually Everything Connects: Mid-Century Design in the US and is co-editor of the exhibition companion book of the same name (2025, Phaidon). A book signing will follow the presentation.

Underwriting for Stories Untold and complimentary admission generously provided by Room & Board roomandboard.com