In 1943, one of the most important artists in the world got arrested for the second time in two years.

His name was Hashimi Muriami.

He was a 64-year-old scientific painter who'd been living in the United States for 37 years,

and he was doing vital research on stopping cancer in women.

But as a Japanese citizen during World War II, he ran afoul of the alien enemy hearing board, whose job it was to root out supposed spies.

So in 1943, the board seized Muriami to drag him to an internment camp.

For Muriami this was a stunning fall from Grace after his idyllic early years in America.

After studying art in Kyoto, he moved to New York City in 1906,

where he found work painting cells and preparing anatomical slides

for Cornell University Medical College.

In his spare time, he worked on exhibits about Japanese armor at the Metropolitan Museum.

At Cornell, he also became friends with a cell biologist and fellow immigrants named George Papernicolow.

Papa Nicolau worked on, of all things, the menstrual cycle of guinea pigs.

Despite having little in common, the two men had neighboring offices and became

fast friends. Papinicola was especially impressed with the artistry of the cells that

Muriami painted.

But Muriami's real passion was wildlife art.

Whenever possible, he'd spend a day at the New York City Aquarium.

There he'd watch the fish slink through the water and capture their rich colors on canvas.

His watercolors perfectly suited their dreamy underwater world and he sold several pictures to different

publications.

Eventually Miriami's work caught the eye of editors at National Geographic, which hired him as an illustrator in 1921.

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