Willie Ito, who was incarcerated as a child at the Topaz, Utah, camp 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 the Walt Disney Co., Hanna Barbera and Warner Brothers. His iconic images dominated the Disney classic “Lady and the Tramp” and multiple other cartoons.
Willie Ito with animation historian Mindy Johnson at the Spark Animation festival.
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, Wyo., camp during World War II. Yabu, an emeritus board member of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, wrote the text and Ito provided the images.
While in camp, Yabu adopted a baby magpie that became a beloved pet. This touching true story has served as a vehicle to educate the public about the mass incarceration.
“Hello Maggie!” was funded by a grant from the Japanese American Confinement Sites program of the National Park Service and the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation.
The Spark Animation festival noted Ito’s 70-year career, which also includes “What’s Opera, Doc?” with the Chuck Jones unit at Warner Bros.; Bob Clampett’s “Beany & Cecil”; and Hanna-Barbera’s animated series “The Flintstones,” “The Jetsons,” “Scooby Doo” and more.
In July, Ito appeared at the Heart Mountain Pilgrimage, where “Hello Maggie!” celebrated its world premiere. The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation is entering “Hello Maggie!” in a series of film festivals to be held around the world.
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, a Smithsonian affiliate, preserves the site where some 14,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly incarcerated in Wyoming from 1942 through 1945. Their stories are told within the foundation’s museum, the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, and its new Mineta-Simpson Institute located between Cody and Powell. For more information, call (307) 754-8000 or email info@heartmountain.org.