Images and Imaginings of Internment: Comics and Illustrations of Camp

Bennie Nobori

Bennie Nobori was a Japanese American animator and comic artist active during the 1940s. Before being incarcerated Nobori worked as an animator for a “Hollywood film studio,” who many believe was Walt Disney Studios.

While incarcerated at The Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah, Nobori drew a weekly comic strip called “Jankee Reporter” for the camp newspaper, The Topaz Times. In 1943, Norbori moved to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in California and created a new comic strip "Zootsuo" for the pages of the Heart Mountain Sentinel. Like many Japanese American comic artists, Nobori used humor to critique the absurdity of camp life. 


Jankee


Zootsuo


 

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