Miné Okubo

Miné Okubo (; , June 27, 1912 – February 10, 2001) was an American artist and writer. She is best known for her book Citizen 13660, a collection of 198 drawings and accompanying text chronicling her experiences in Japanese American internment camps during World War II.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Okubo and her brother Benji were interned to the Tanforan Assembly Center and then the Topaz War Relocation Center from 1942 to 1944. There she made over 2,000 drawings and sketches of daily life in the camps, many of which were included in her book. After her release Okubo relocated to New York to continue her career as an artist, earning numerous awards and recognitions.

Early life Born in Riverside, California, Miné Okubo attended Poly High School, Riverside Junior College, The transferred items include approximately 25 banker boxes of reference materials, photographs, slides, books, writings, letters, printed material, and a host of paintings, many unmounted as either loose canvas or rolled.

Okubo became the subject of a play, Miné: A Name For Herself, written by Riverside authors Mary H. Curtin and Theresa Larkin. The play, interwoven with reminiscences about Okubo's later life as a New York artist, portrays her experiences in the camps of Tanforan and Topaz and shares her artwork and aesthetic principles with the audience. is located on the campus at Riverside City, near the Landis Performing Arts Center. Mary H. Curtin, friend of Okubo and co-author of the play, "Miné: A Name for Herself," had recommended Miné for the renaming.

As of August 2009, the school was working to catalog, archive, and curate its collection of Okubo's personal writings, sketches, and paintings. The collection has since been completed. It can be viewed at the Center for Social Justice and Civil Liberties in Riverside, California.

In February of 2024, a traveling exhibition produced by the Japanese American National Museum called Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo featured Okubo's work in a broader American context through the lens of her Japanese American identity. The exhibit was shown at the University of Utah, Utah Museum of Fine Arts (February 24–June 30, 2024) and will travel to the Smithsonian American Art Museum (November 15, 2024–August 17, 2025), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (October 2, 2025–January 4, 2026), Monterey Museum of Art (February 5, 2026–April 19, 2026), and Japanese American National Museum (late 2026). The accompanying catalog, Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo, edited by ShiPu Wang, was published in December 2023.