Sadayuki Thomas Uno

Born in Hiroshima Prefecture. In 1917, at the age of 16, Uno joined his father in California. After attending Oakland High School, he received a scholarship and briefly attended the California School of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. At this school, he became friends with Henry Yuzuru Sugimoto. Dreaming of working as a cinematographer in Hollywood, he moved to New York and studied at the New York Photography Institute, while working at a photography studio in Long Island. However, as his father fell ill in the late 1920s, he returned to the Bay Area and settled in Alameda. There he kept painting while working as an interior decorator and later as a gardener. During World War II, he was initially sent to the Fresno Assembly Center in California, then to the Jerome camp in Arkansas, and finally to Rohwer. During the internment, he started experimenting with woodcarving with a sharpened butter knife, even though he never tried the technique before, creating wooden sculptures and masks. He also painted portraits and landscapes and served as an art teacher with his longtime friend, Henry Sugimoto.