November 26 - Remembering Gyo Fujikawa

nPosted on November 26, 2017

Key Points

nThe beloved illustrator and children’s author Gyo Fujikawa was an American. She was born in California on November 3, 1908, and she died in New York City on this date in1998.

Still, her family was uprooted from their home and sent to an internment camp in Arkansas during World War II!

nGyo Fujikawa didn’t have to live in an internment camp, because she was living in New York at the time. Most of the 110 to 120 thousand Japanese Americans who were forced into internment camps lived near the Pacific coast.

Fujikawa went to art school in Los Angeles, spent a year in Japan (before WWII), and taught art school. She worked for Disney, creating promotional art, and she illustrated children’s magazines and books.

nFujikawa’s 1963 book Babies was one of the earliest children’s book to feature characters of different races. She illustrated multi-racial children consistently through her career – and now that’s a common thing for most illustrators.

So, she was a trend-setter, in the best possible way!

nAside from all the ads and programs and magazine covers and everything else Fujikawa drew in her long career, she created more than 50 books for kids. Millions and millions of her books have sold in the U.S. alone – plus they have been published in 21 other countries and 17 languages. Her books are regularly reprinted.