A collection of sculptures representing the losses experienced by Japanese Canadians during the Second World War by multidisciplinary artist Kellen Hatanaka (previously featured here). Currently based in Ontario, Hatanaka is best known for creating vibrant, figurative paintings and drawings that celebrate sport, design, history, and culture. His work often incorporates issues of race, tradition, and heritage specific to the nuances of the Japanese Canadian experience. In “Stolen Heirlooms,” Hatanaka draws on the history of Japanese internment in Canada. Starting in 1942, 22,000 people of Japanese descent living along the coast of British Columbia were forcibly removed from their homes. They were given very short notice and only allowed to take one or two suitcases. As such, many of their belongings were left behind. With these works Hatanaka is attempting to grapple with the loss his own grandparents and others endured:

“This body of work is inspired by my great grandmother’s story of having to leave behind her shamisen, a traditional Japanese string instrument, when she was forced to leave her home with my Grandmother and Great Grandfather. It made me wonder what others had lost and if those items still exist somewhere, orphaned. The concept of the collective loss is abstract and complicated. How do you attempt to quantify and assign a value to a loss that goes beyond simply monetary?”

Hatanaka depicts imagined items that hold cultural or sentimental value. The concept of an heirloom is utilized to draw a parallel between the passing of physical objects and the passing of inherited trauma through generations of Japanese Canadians.