Toyo Miyatake Studio / Rafu Shimpo collection online

Come see the latest addition to the Japanese American National Museum’s online collections! We’re very excited about the Toyo Miyatake Studio / Rafu Shimpo collection, which is part of the permanent collection and documents Los Angeles’ Japanese American community from 1950 to 1988. The images were taken by photographers of the Toyo Miyatake Studio for the Los Angeles-based Rafu Shimpo, one of the oldest and most widely read Japanese American newspapers in the country.

The collection features one-of-a-kind images, featuring community events, political candidates and movements, religious institutions, sporting events, theater and musical performances, business openings and closings, visiting dignitaries and celebrities, local education, and day to day life throughout Los Angeles and serves to document a remarkable period of Los Angeles history, including, in particular, the rebirth and transformation after World War II of Los Angeles' Japanese American community as families returned to the area and rebuilt their shattered lives after incarceration in wartime concentration camps.

Currently there are 381 records online, but more will be coming in the future, so be sure to keep visiting the JANM website! You can now access it directly from the Museum’s homepage (www.janm.org), through the online collections link, or directly at janm.org/collections/toyo-miyatake-studio-rafu-shimpo-collection/.