Willie Ito, who was incarcerated as a child at the Topaz, Utah, incarceration site for Japanese Americans during World War II, received a lifetime achievement award for his career in animation from the SPARK ANIMATION festival in Vancouver, British Columbia, last month.
After returning to California after World War II, Ito began an animation career that included working for Walt Disney, Hanna Barbera and Warner Brothers. His images dominated the Disney classic Lady and the Tramp and multiple other cartoons.
Most recently, Ito created the images for Hello Maggie!, an animated short adapted from the memoir by Shigeru Yabu, who was incarcerated at the Heart Mountain, Wyoming site during World War II. Yabu, an emeritus board member of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, wrote the text for Hello Maggie!and Ito provided the images.
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation preserves the site where some 14,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly incarcerated in Wyoming from 1942 through 1945.
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