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Images and Imaginings of Internment: Comics and Illustrations of Camp

Chris Ishii

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Chris Ishii Painter, animator, illustrator Kishio Christopher Ishii (1919-2001) was born in Fresno, California, on August 11, 1919. He was the fourth of six children born to Koshiro and Naka Ishii, who were farmers. After graduating from Caruthers Union High School in Fresno County, Ishii attended Chouinard School of Art in Los Angeles where he excelled at watercolor painting and commercial art, studying under teachers Phil Paradise, Gyo Fujikawa, Carl Beetz, and Ed Northridge. Upon graduation, Ishii was hired by Walt Disney Studios and worked on numerous animated films such as Fantasia , The Reluctant Dragon , Dumbo , as well as on Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse shorts. In April 1942, following the signing of Executive Order 9066, Ishii was forced to leave Disney and was detained at the Santa Anita Assembly.

When the Pacemaker, the assembly center newsletter, was launched, Ishii joined as the staff cartoonist, producing a regular cartoon that featured a young Japanese American kid. The name of the cartoon, "Li'l Neebo," was chosen through a contest to name the camp newsletter's "mascot." The name itself was fabricated by writer Mary Oyama Mittwer and is derived from "little Nisei boy." When the assembly center closed in September 1942, Ishii was transferred to the U.S. concentration camp in Amache, Colorado. Li'l Neebo continued to appear in the camp's newspaper, the Granada Pioneer, where it was expanded into a comic strip. The cartoon character was intended to chronicle the life of a little Nisei boy living in camp while providing the paper's readers with light comic relief from their grim situation. Li'l Neebo grew so popular that he soon commanded a full-page in the paper and was used as a character in puppet shows held in Amache. When Ishii left in December 1942, the comic strip was continued by Tom Okamoto, another Disney animator and Chouinard graduate, and later by Jack Ito, due to its popularity. Ishii and Okamoto also taught fine art classes at Amache adult night school.

In the fall of 1942, Ishii was among the handful of volunteers from the concentration camps recruited for the U.S. Army's Military Intelligence Service. He ended up working as an artist for the Office of War Information and the Psychological Warfare Unit, illustrating propaganda posters while stationed in India, Burma, and China from 1943–46. He met and married his wife, Ada Suffiad in Shanghai, and brought her to the U.S. with him at demobilization. The couple lived in Los Angeles from 1946–49, where Ishii returned to work for the Walt Disney Studios for a year, before he and a partner started their own commercial art studio in Hollywood. During his years in Los Angeles, Ishii became involved with Nisei for Wallace/Nisei Progressives and did layouts and illustrations for the group's publication, The Independent as well as for The Vanguard , newsletter of the Los Angeles chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League. He also contributed political cartoons to the English language Japanese American newspaper Crossroads . He later covered the trial of Iva Toguri, who was being tried for treason to the U.S. as "Tokyo Rose", for The Independent and was later investigated by the FBI for his association to the Nisei Progressives

He left California for New York in 1949, working first for the Tempo Productions animation studio in New York and later as an independent animator. He also contributed illustrations—including some cover designs—to The Reporter magazine. In 1951 he fulfilled a lifelong dream to travel to Paris and with support from the GI Bill, moved to Paris with his wife and young son to study at the Academie Julian with Fernand Leger. His wife also gave birth to a second child in France. In 1952, the family settled back in New York. Joining with two partners in 1965, he formed Focus Productions and worked as director of live action and animation. From 1975 to 1985, he worked as a freelance artist, designing and directing countless commercials, industrial, educational, live-action and feature films. His designing credits include James Thurber's "A Unicorn in the Garden," Ludwig Bemelmans' "Madeline," Woody Allen's 'Annie Hall' (the Snow White sequence), and the Academy Award winning "Gerald McBoing Boing."

Read more about Chris Ishii here.
Chris Ishii Kishio Christopher Ishii was born in 1919 in either Caruthers, California, or Kobe, Japan. Ishii attended the Chouinard School of Art in 1940 and was one of several Japanese-American animators working for Walt Disney Studios.

Ishii was first incarcerated at the Santa Anita Assembly Center, where he taught art and began his comic “Lil’ Neebo” in the Santa Anita Pacemaker newspaper. The comic continued until the Santa Anita Assembly Center closed in September 1942. The prisoners were transferred to the Granada Relocation Center in Amache, Colorado, where Ishii continued teaching art and drawing for the newspaper. Ishii was accepted for military service in December 1942, where he stayed until 1946, drawing propaganda leaflets for the US War Information Office.

Ishii was married in 1946 and worked shortly as a courtroom sketch artist and Disney animator. In 1949, Ishii moved to New York City to illustrate covers and pages of the Reporter Magazine for Tempo Productions. Between 1951 and 1952, Ishii studied art at the Académie Julian in Paris. After returning to NYC, Ishii worked as a designer and layout artist for about ten years at UPA Studios. In 1965, Ishii and two others founded their own company called Focus Productions. Ishii became a freelance artist in 1975, helping animate sections from Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall.”
Lil' Neebo