Press Release
June 18, 2025
Contact: CJ Budy
Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center, Oklahoma Historical Society
Office: 580-237-1907
[email protected]
csrhc.org
“Resilience—A Sensei Sense of Legacy” Opens July 1 at Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center in Enid
ENID, Okla. — The Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center will host the traveling exhibit “Resilience—A Sansei Sense of Legacy” from Tuesday, July 1, through Saturday, August 30.
In 1942, in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law Executive Order 9066. The law ordered the forced imprisonment of all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast of the United States, which at the time had the second-largest population of Japanese people living outside of Japan. Told from the point of view of Sansei (third generation) Japanese Americans, “Resilience—A Sansei Sense of Legacy” is an exhibition of eight artists whose work reflects on the effect of EO9066 as it resonated from generation to generation.
While several artists employ traditional Japanese methods in constructing their work, others use iconography relating to Japanese culture as a jumping-off point for personal explorations of the incarceration camps. Each in their own way, the artists in this exhibition express moments of deeply felt pain and reluctant acceptance, emotions that were often withheld by their elders.
In the years following the retraction of EO9066 at the end of World War II, Japanese American families and individuals were forced to come to terms with lost property, the shame and indignation of incarceration, and the task of re-integration into a society that had expelled them. After their release from the incarceration camps that dotted the American West and Midwest during the war, Japanese Americans used the phrase “shikata ga nai” — it cannot be helped — and the word “gaman” — to persevere and stay silent — to speak to their resilience against the losses they incurred at the behest of Roosevelt’s order.
The exhibition artists include Kristine Aono, Reiko Fujii, Wendy Maruyama, Lydia Nakashima Degarrod, Tom Nakashima, Roger Shimomura, Judy Shintani and Jerry Takigawa.
Members of the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center and Oklahoma Historical Society are invited to a special members-only preview event at the museum on Friday, June 27, from 5-9 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. Members need to RSVP to [email protected] by Friday, June 20. You can become a member of the OHS by joining online at okhistory.org/join. Your tax-deductible membership supports the mission of the OHS. Membership benefits include free admission to all OHS museums and sites across the state, among other things.
For more information about the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center, please visit csrhc.org or call 580-237-1907.
About ExhibitsUSA
This exhibition is toured by ExhibitsUSA, a national program of Mid-America Arts Alliance. ExhibitsUSA sends more than twenty-five exhibitions on tour to over 100 small- and mid-sized communities every year. These exhibitions create access to an array of arts and humanities experiences, nurture the understanding of diverse cultures and art forms, and encourage the expanding depth and breadth of cultural life in local communities. For more about ExhibitsUSA, email [email protected] or visit eusa.org.
About Mid-America Arts Alliance
Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) strengthens and supports artists, cultural organizations, and communities throughout our region and beyond. Additional information about M-AAA is available at maaa.org.
About the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center
The Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center is a division of the Oklahoma Historical Society. The mission of the Oklahoma Historical Society is to collect, preserve and share the history and culture of the state of Oklahoma and its people. Founded in 1893 by members of the Territorial Press Association, the OHS maintains museums, historic sites and affiliates across the state. Through its research archives, exhibits, educational programs and publications, the OHS chronicles the rich history of Oklahoma. For more information about the OHS, please visit okhistory.org.
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Editor’s Note: Photos of the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center are available upon request.
