A former prisoner of the World War II Japanese American confinement camp in Arizona will talk Thursday at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center about her experience and her work as an artist.

Hatsuko Mary Higuchi’s exhibit, “GAMAN: Surviving the Nikkei Gulag and Diaspora in World War II,” is on display through the end of May. It features 22 scenes from the 10 “relocation camps” that were erected throughout the country to confine Japanese Americans during World War II.

The artist’s talk and reception will take place at 6 p.m. May 21 at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center.

“We are extremely pleased to have Ms. Higuchi’s powerful works on display,” said Brian Liesinger, the center’s executive director. “We are especially excited to hear her speak about her experiences and how they inform her work.”

Higuchi was born in Los Angeles in 1939. On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the mass removal and incarceration of “all persons of Japanese ancestry” on the west coast. Her family was imprisoned in the U.S. War Relocation Authority’s Colorado River camp at Poston, Arizona, from 1942-45.

Higuchi went on to earn a teaching credential from UCLA and a master’s degree from Pepperdine University. She taught as an elementary school master teacher from 1962 until her retirement in 2003. Always interested in the arts, she took evening classes at UCLA and California State University Long Beach. Since that time, she has won several awards, and her work has been featured in various publications.

Higuchi paints a variety of themes such as landscapes, figures and abstracts. She uses watercolor, acrylic, mixed media, collage and calligraphy. Her “EO 9066” paintings depict faces with anonymous features or none at all, symbolizing the mass anonymity to which more than 110,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were reduced — denied due process and judged guilty solely by reason of their race.

Mary Higuchi’s haunting portraits are a warning that what happened to Japanese Americans is a precedent for similar actions against other groups, unless we remember the lessons of the past. Some works will be available for sale at the close of the exhibit.

The event will be free for students and Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation members, and a reduced admission rate will be offered to others. The museum will also remain open for visitation.

Located between Cody and Powell off U.S. Highway 14-A on Road 19, the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center’s hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and by special appointment.

For more information call 754-8000 or visit www.HeartMountain.org.