Fort Ritchie is known for the work performed there during World War II by the German Jewish ex-patriots known as the Ritchie Boys, who served as translators and interrogators of prisoners and military intelligence. What isn’t as well known is that a unit of Japanese Nisei (second-generation Japanese American citizens) was stationed at the fort and helped in a similar way as the Ritchie Boys.
In 1998, while the Pen-Mar Development Corporation was working on restoring what is believed to have been a documents library while the fort was open, a mural painted most likely by a Japanese soldier was discovered.
The roughly 12-foot by 4-foot mural shows four people, who appear to be Asian, creating pottery. It is believed a Nisei painted it in 1944 or 1945.
“The figures are somewhat ambiguous, which is a testament to the style,” said Nick Riley, curator of the Nisei Gallery at Fort Ritchie. It is an artisan gallery that also showcases the mural.
It had been covered over with particles and was discovered when renovation work began on the building.
“It worked because otherwise it may have been covered in graffiti like many of these older buildings are,” said Riley.
Under the new ownership of John Krumpotich, employees have worked to ensure the preservation of the mural and discover who painted it. Krumpotich’s company received a $225,000 grant from the Maryland Division of Housing and Group Improvement’s Group Legacy program to aid in the preservation.
The mural is now lighted behind glass, but it is not without some damage. Holes in the wall show where screws and other anchors used to be. Some of the graffiti from vandals does creep up into the bottom of the mural. Something else dripped down from above, staining part of the top of the mural. One of the figures in the mural is damaged from decaying plaster.
“There was also a figure where a door was cut between the buildings that is now lost,” said Riley.
There is also a blank space between two of the figures that may have another figure under a layer of paint. Riley stated that they would love to have it examined in the way reused canvases are examined to find older paintings beneath newer ones.
However, the question remains: Who painted the mural?
Last year, the Baltimore Sun reported that Nobuo Kitagaki, a Japanese American soldier from California, who was sent to Japanese concentration camps, had been identified as the artist. Kitagaki was an artist and may have been the painter of the mural, but he is not alive to ask. He died in 1984.
According to the Baltimore Sun, “How historians searched for the mural’s artist in December 1944, the War Department, known today as the Department of Defense, announced a National Army Arts Contest to stimulate interest in art as an off-duty recreational activity during the war.”
Of the 9,000 entries submitted to the contest, 1,500 were displayed in regional exhibits, including Baltimore. Some of the art can be found in a book titled, Soldier Art.
“On Page 130 was an illustration, which to me showcases the same kind of artistic style and composition as the Ritchie mural,” Landon Grove, former curator of the Fort Ritchie Museum, told the newspaper.
The art in question, “Design for Ballet — Indian,” was drawn by Pfc. Kitagaki at Fort Snelling in Minnesota.
Historian Beverley Driver Eddy, author of Ritchie Boy Secrets: How a Force of Immigrants and Refugees Helped Win World War II, Kitagaki trained at Fort Ritchie from May 2 to June 15, 1945.
However, Riley said another connection has been found recently that could point to another unknown artist.
“We found plans from 1959 for the building to become a potter’s studio,” said Riley.
The connection between the mural’s pottery theme and plans for the building seem too coincidental.
“It seems like the plans for the building could have inspired someone to paint the mural, or it might have been commissioned,” said Riley.
Both possibilities for the mural have merit. The problem is that there just isn’t enough information available to know which is most likely. Riley and Katy Self, Fort Ritchie Museum Curator, are planning to make a trip to the National Archives to see if they can find more documentation about the origins of the mural.
Until then, the mural is now protected and preserved for people to view a unique piece of Fort Ritchie’s history.
