Tomoko Miho was a Japanese-American graphic and industrial designer. Born Tomoko Kawakami in 1931 in Los Angeles, California, she learned her first design principles from the family flower business. Tomoko lived in LA until her family was forcibly interned in 1942. The Kawakami family spent three years of their lives imprisoned without reason or evidence at the Gila River War Relocation Center. Like most internment camps, Gila River was overcrowded and unhygienic, conditions that contributed to a majority of the 1,862 internment camp deaths. Tomoko and the Kawakami family survived their internment and moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Tomoko took design classes there and later moved back to Los Angeles, California with a full scholarship to the Art Center School. Around graduation she met her future husband, fellow designer James Miho. The couple would travel together often during their lives, moving to different cities for work or taking international trips for both business and leisure. Tomoko Miho met many fellow talented designers of her day, even mentoring under prolific modernist designer Irving Harper. Tomoko Miho would eventually start her own firm, Tomoko Miho Design, where she was known for her creative take on minimalism that would use shape and harmony to create elegant, multilayered worlds. Her unique style has left a lasting impression, especially on catalog design which her innovative minimalism transformed into something stylish and fashionable.

TIMELINE

1931 – b Tomoko Kawakami in Los Angeles, California.
1942 – President Franklin Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9066; Japanese internment begins in America.
1945 – Internment ends; the Kawakami family relocates to Minneapolis, Minnesota.
1958 – Tomoko graduates from the Art Center School of Minneapolis, Minnesota with an industrial design degree.  Around this time, Tomoko meets husband James Miho.
1960 – Tomoko and James take a six-month tour of Europe, meeting several notable European designers.
1974 – The couple opens their own company, Miho Associates.
1982  – Tomoko and James divorce; Tomoko founds Tomoko Miho Design in New York.
2012  – d Tomoko Miho in New York, NY.

REFERENCES

Americans of Japanese Ancestry WWII Memorial Alliance. (2020). Gila River Relocation Center. Japanese American Veterans Association. Retrieved 21 May 2021 from http://www.javadc.org/gila_river_relocation_center.htm

Conradi, J. (2010, September 18). Looking back, thinking forward: A narrative of the Vignellis. The Design Observer Group. Retrieved 21 May 2021 from https://archive.is/20130121113802/http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/looking-back-thinking-forward-a-narrative-of-the-vignellis/15308/

Corley, M. (2018, May 17). Health in Japanese internment camps. Health and medicine in American history. Retrieved 21 May 2021 from https://lewiscar.sites.grinnell.edu/HistoryofMedicine/spring2018/health-in-japanese-internment-camps/

History about. (2015). Gila River Indian Community. Retrieved 21 May 2021 from http://www.gilariver.org

Kedmey, K. (2017, January 14). How Isamu Noguchi’s seven months in a Japanese internment camp inspired his art. Artsy. Retrieved 21 May 2021 from https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-noguchis-seven-months-japanese-internment-camp-inspired-art

Leong, K. J. (2020). Gila River. In Brian Niiya (ed.), Densho Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21 May 2021 from http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Gila%20River/

Maciag, M. (2013). Population Density for U.S. Cities Statistics. Governing: the future of states and localities. Retrieved 21 May 2021 from https://www.governing.com/gov-data/population-density-land-area-cities-map.html

Martin, R. (2015, October 15). California dreaming: Reconsidering the work of Charles and Ray Eames. Apollo Magazine. Retrieved 21 May 2021 from https://www.apollo-magazine.com/california-dreaming-reconsidering-the-work-of-charles-and-ray-eames/

Other resources. (2021, January 5). National Archives. Retrieved 21 May 2021 from https://www.archives.gov/research/japanese-americans/links

Paid notice: Deaths Miho, Tomoko Kawakami. (2012, February 26). The New York Times. Retrieved 21 May 2021 from https://archive.nytimes.com/query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage-9803E1DE113AF935A15751C0A9649D8B63.html

Remembering Tomoko Miho. (2017). Ginkgo Journal. Retrieved 21 May 2021 from https://ginkgojournal.com/home/remembering-tomoko-miho/2017

Takei, G. (2019). They called us enemy. Top Shelf Productions.

Vienne, V. (1993). 1993 AIGA medalist: Tomoko Miho. AIGA: The professional association for design. Retrieved 21 May 2021 from https://web.archive.org/web/20210309014433/https://www.aiga.org/medalist-tomokomiho