Chinese Camp at Lake Merritt in Oakland

Within days of the earthquake, most of San Francisco’s Chinatown had burned to the ground. Thousands of people of Chinese descent sought refuge across the bay in Oakland. There they were assigned to a racially segregated section of the refugee camp at Lake Merritt. Called the Willows, the Chinese camp was on the estuary channel along the south side of the lake. This rare surviving depiction of the Willows camp shows a crowd dressed in colorful loose-sleeved jackets and tunics, beside a row of tents. The tree in the foreground is likely one of the willows that gave the site its name.

The scene may depict a visit to the camp by the Chinese ambassador. On the back of the sketch Obata writes,

“According to one Chinese person, Ambassador Liang Cheng visited San Francisco, by decree of the [Chinese] Emperor after the earthquake.” On May 23, the San Francisco Call newspaper reported that the ambassador had inspected refugee camps in both San Francisco and Oakland, commending the relief organization for “looking after the welfare of the Chinese.”

Watercolors from the series San Francisco after the Earthquake
The watercolors in this series begin on April 25, exactly a week after the earthquake and three days after the fires subsided. Binding holes across the top show that the pages were once part of a sketchbook. This group includes several locations of special significance to Asian Americans living in San Francisco at that time.