By Stuart Walthall
The Sacramento River Delta, with its flowing waterways and rich landscapes, has always been a magnet and a haven for those with vision and a sense of place – plowmen, poets, and Plains Miwok; shutterbugs and sportsmen; dreamers…. and artists. Its allure fosters the imagination and serves as a catalyst for creativity and expression.
Many have put pen and brush to paper to manifest their visions of the Delta – pigment and prose; palette and patois. The Delta breeds visionaries – some whose visions are thoroughly unique, deeply allegorical, and profoundly evocative. One such visionary is Delta artist Alice Murakami.
Alice was an artist whose aesthetic maturity evolved in her later years. Like many of her generation, Alice’s formative years were filled with family, hard work, struggles and triumphs. Small in stature with a quiet countenance, she worked to serve others, endured Internment, lost everything, rebuilt, and ultimately flourished.
Alice Murakami (born Hanako Kato) was Nisei – second generation Japanese whose parents (Issei) immigrated from Japan. She was born in Sacramento in 1912 and attended Sacramento High School. A schoolmate of Alice’s was the famed journalist, Herb Caen. She married Robert Murakami, also Nisei, who was born and raised in Florin, CA.
The Murakamis were living in Santa Monica when the war broke out. Pearl Harbor had been bombed by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service. Following the bombing on December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which approved the relocation of Japanese Americans into internment camps. Alice and Robert subsequently moved to Sacramento to be close to family. Their internment saga was about to begin.
Internment
They were first moved to Tanforan Assembly Center, located at Tanforan Racetrack in San Bruno, CA. Eight thousand Americans of Japanese heritage were incarcerated at Tanforan, 64 per cent of whom were U.S. citizens. About half of the inmates lived in former horse stalls.
The couple were then moved to Tule Lake Segregation Center, CA.. Tule Lake was the largest and most controversial of the 10 War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps established by the U.S. Government. With its prison-like atmosphere and lack of freedom,Tule Lake was truly a prisoner of war camp.
Following Tule Lake, Alice and Robert were moved to Jerome Relocation Center, located in southeastern Arkansas. It was the last concentration camp to open and the first to close. After closing, it was converted onto a holding camp for German prisoners of war.
The Murakamis were finally interned at Heart Mountain Wyoming Concentration Camp. Heart Mountain had the most severe climate of any of the WRA camps. It was both the furthest north and at the highest elevation of any of the WRA camps. Temperatures reached the minus 20s. The West Coast inmate population was not used to this kind of weather. Inmates recalled their wet hair freezing into place while walking from the shower to their barrack. Ten thousand Japanese Americans were held at Heart Mountain.
The Artist
Alice had an interest in and talent for art since her youth. However, long hours of hard work and service to others curtailed her development as an artist. Then, in the early 1970s, she began taking art seriously. She started attending art classes at Sacramento City College where she studied under well-known water-colorist Larry Welden and took private lessons from respected art instructor Jan Miskulin. Alice began taking “art trips” to such picturesque locations as Hawaii, Mexico, Mendocino, and Lake Tahoe. She was developing an outlet other than work – specifically watercolor, pen and ink. She also worked in sculpture.
Alice became a member of the Watercolor Association of Sacramento Horizons (W.A.S.H.), where she won awards for her work. She was also a founding member of the River Road Art Gallery (RRAG) in historic Locke, CA.
Phyllis Crane, member of the RRAG: “Alice was a dear friend. She was such a hard worker. Her art was down to earth and from the heart”.
Operated successfully for over two decades, the RRAG, located on Main Street Locke, was a for-profit partnership consisting of a remarkable group of Delta artists. Membership included such talented painters as Frankie Laney, Chris Dixon, Phyllis Crane, Dorcys Burchell, Frances Armstrong, Connie King, Stuart Walthall, Josephine Lyman, Vickie Ramos (Baumann), Fred Hill, Kisse Pereira, photographer Bert Jones, and others.
Alice was now in her element surrounded by talented artists and immersed in the beauty of the Sacramento River Delta – its environment, architecture, and its people. She became a prolific artist. Her works were extremely popular and always sold well. We are pleased to present some of her images in this article.
Alice lived independently until she was 101. She then moved in with her son Michael and passed peacefully in Berkeley, CA at a care facility at the age of 103.
