Author Delphine Hirasuna presented a slide show at Sacramento State on Tuesday to promote her new book, “The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from Japanese American Internment Camps.”

“Gaman” is a Japanese word meaning “enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity,” she said.

She told the audience that Sac State has done a lot of research concerning Japanese internment camps and has one of the best collections of camp artifacts.

“You guys should be very proud,” Hirasuna said.

She spoke to an audience of about 20 people, made up mostly of off-campus visitors who were interested in the topic. Some of them had even been in two of the internment camps, Tule Lake, which was in Northern California, and Heart Mountain, which was in Wyoming.

Hirasuna discussed how she came up with the idea for the book.

“About six years ago, when my mom had just died, I found a dusty wooden box in a storage room that was full of small trinkets that looked like they dated back to World War II,” Hirasuna said.

She added that she found a small bird pin with a safety pin clasp in the box and determined that it was made “in camp.”

“That got me to thinking about the other (internment camp art) objects I saw when I was growing up,” Hirasuna said. “I started thinking that people should know about it, and that it might make a good book.”

The Japanese-American internment camp art exhibit will be on display in the Library’s Department of Special Collections and University Archives through Saturday.

Tom Roberts can be reached at [email protected]