George T. Tamura was a Japanese American

Japanese American

are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...

 artist.

Tamura was born in Sacramento, California

Sacramento, California

Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...

. In 1942, soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor

Attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...

 (December 7, 1941), Tamura and his family were interned in the Japanese American internment

Japanese American internment

Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...

 camp, Tule Lake War Relocation Center

Tule Lake War Relocation Center

Tule Lake Segregation Center National Monument was an internment camp in the northern California town of Newell near Tule Lake. It was used in the Japanese American internment during World War II. It was the largest and most controversial of the camps, and did not close until after the war, in...

 in Northern California. Tamura was fifteen. While imprisoned in the camp, Tamura painted watercolor landscapes featuring the internment camp as his subject matter. Tamura painted these images on the back of shredded internment notices.

At the end of the war

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, in 1945, the Tamura family was released. Tamura attended the Chouinard Art Institute

Chouinard Art Institute

The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 in Los Angeles, California, by Nelbert Murphy Chouinard .-Founder:...

 in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 and showed in numerous one-man shows in that area. He has been employed as an art director

Art director

The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....

 for southern and northern California companies.

Tamura continued to practice his art throughout his life. Later in life, he also worked as a public relations and advertisement executive.

In 1995, Tamura wrote an autobiography

Autobiography

An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

 entitled Reflections, which recounted his experiences in the internment camp. In 2004, Mr. Tamura was featured on the PBS

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

 television program History Detectives

History Detectives

History Detectives is a documentary television series on PBS. A group of researchers help people to seek answers to various historical questions they have, usually centering around a family heirloom, an old house or other historic object or structure...

. A young Taiwanese

Taiwanese people

Taiwanese people may refer to individuals who either claim or are imputed cultural identity focused on the island of Taiwan and/or Taiwan Area which have been governed by the Republic of China since 1945...

and Japanese American man, Kenji Liu, was working in the archives of the National Japanese American Historical Society, unknowingly found a box that contained Mr. Tamura's paintings. With the History Detectives' help, he discovered that the paintings were indeed those of George T. Tamura.

In 1990, the United States government compensated Tamura for his time at the internment camp. Accompanying the compensation was a letter of apology.