identity en

Nisei

A little over two years ago, at a cafe in Burbank, CA, I sat down with Richard Allen and Taran Gray to talk future projects ...

culture en

Writing-to-Rediscover & Writing-to-Redress—Mira Shimabukuro Visits JANM

  “FIRST OF ALL, DO I THINK THAT IT WAS CONSTITUTIONAL? NO I DO NOT… DO I THINK RACIAL PQEDD PREDJUDICE WAS INVOLVED? YES I DO ...

war en

From Beets to the Battlefield: How WWII Farm Laborers Helped the War Effort

Museum volunteer and docent James Tanaka thought something was missing from an exhibition and it bothered him. The Japanese American National Museum’s long-running exhibition ...

community en ja

Imagine Little Tokyo Short Story Contest III

The Last Master of Go

In the last edition of The Rafu Shimpo newspaper it was written, “Kazuki Tsukuyomi, the Last Master of Go, lived just long enough to witness ...

war en ja

Paper and Peace: Seeing Hiroshima's Origami Cranes Through Japanese American Eyes

“I always like to tell my friends that every little thing in Japanese culture has some symbolism and meaning,” Richard Watanabe says. The 15-year volunteer ...

community en ja

Voices of the Volunteers: The Building Blocks of the Japanese American National Museum

James Michiya Yoshinaga

James Yoshinaga was born in 1929 in downtown Los Angeles as the eldest son of a mother from Fukuoka and a father from Kagoshima. His ...

community en ja

Voices of the Volunteers: The Building Blocks of the Japanese American National Museum

William “Bill” Hiroshi Shishima

Bill Shishima grew up eating gohan along with lingua (tongue), seso (brain), and menudo (tripe soup). His father ran a grocery store near Olvera Street ...

community en

Preserving our Japanese Canadian History & Heritage

The Centennial of 1977 celebrating the arrival of Manzo Nagano, the first Japanese to land in Canada, inspired many younger Nisei to start learning about ...

culture en

Masashi Shimotsusa (1885–1959): The Samurai Photographer of San Diego

A note on names: The names of the Issei photographers, including Shimotsusa even though he returned to Japan, are presented in Western order, that is ...

community en ja

Voices of the Volunteers: The Building Blocks of the Japanese American National Museum

Richard Michio Murakami

Richard Murakami’s wartime experience was an odyssey that saw his family moved from one camp to another. By the end of WWII, they had ...