After Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, about 127,000 people of Japanese ancestry were held in camps across the western United States, most of them American citizens, without charges. Inside, people built furniture and partitions from crate wood, and made art from materials they found: desert ironwood carved into figures, slate carved into teapots, and shells dug from the Tule Lake bed for jewelry. Many drew on the Japanese idea of gaman, meaning the dignity and patience to endure the unbearable. Makers often carried these objects with them when they left the camps. The art became a record of how people kept their dignity under confinement.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.