Lorraine Leiko Miyahara is a self-taught painter, and she paints whatever she likes: flowers, kabuki dancers, even her blue-eyed husky dog Lana.

But her art is more than just a passing fancy for Miyahara. She was 13 years old during World War II, and as a Japanese-American, she was herded up and imprisoned in isolated internment camps along with the rest of her family.

Over 110,000 Japanese-Americans were sent from the West Coast to these camps, leaving their lives and valuables behind, as anti-Japanese sentiment swelled after the Pearl Harbor attack.

Read about how Miyahara used art as an escape from the realities of Colorado’s bleak Camp Amache, in today’s Florida Times-Union newspaper.

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