Japanese American National Museum
Site: http://janm.org
As the national repository of Japanese American history, the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) creates groundbreaking historical and arts exhibitions, educational public programs, award-winning documentaries, and innovative curriculum that illuminate the stories and the rich cultural heritage of people of Japanese ancestry in the United States. JANM also speaks out when diversity, individual dignity and social justice are undermined, vigilantly sharing the hard-fought lessons accrued from this history. Its underlying purpose is to transform lives, create a more just America and, ultimately, a better world.
Densho and JANM have a long history of working together to preserve and tell the stories of the Japanese American incarceration. They have partnered on digital collections and oral history projects which can be found in the Densho Digital Repository. This work was generously funded by the National Park Service Japanese American Confinement Sites program.
16 Collections
Collection
Mollie Wilson Murphy Collection (ddr-janm-1)
Mollie Wilson Murphy was an African-American woman who lived in Boyle Heights during World War II. She had many Japanese-American friends who were forced into concentration camps during the war. This collection comprises of the correspondences between Mollie and her friends in camp. The Mollie Wilson Papers include correspondence, school photographs, and miscellaneous photos in Boyle …
Collection
Fumio Nakamura Collection (ddr-janm-2)
One panoramic photograph of Corporal Edward Nakamura's military funeral. Taken in 1946 in Puʻunēnē, Maui, Hawai'I, when the remains of Corporal Edward Etsuzo Nakamura were finally returned to the family (KIA in November 1943). The photograph was taken in front of the family's home in a plantation village, McGerrow Camp, which no longer exists.
Collection
Tsuyako Kitashima Collection (ddr-janm-4)
Various materials from Topaz, Redress, the National Coalition for Redress and Reparations (NCRR), and the Japanese American Citizens' League (JACL) by Tsuyako "Sox" Kitashima. Kitashima was born in Hayward, California in 1918. Her and her family were among the 120,000 Japanese Americans forcefully interned in war relocation camps during World War Two. They were first taken …
Collection
Santa Anita Pacemaker Newspapers Collection (ddr-janm-5)
The Santa Anita Pacemaker was a newspaper published for approximately 19,000 Japanese Americans who were relocated to the Santa Anita racetrack turned assembly center for the temporary internment of Japanese Americans. The newspaper ran for six months in 1942 and was the longest running newspaper out of all the Japanese American assembly centers. It was published …
Collection
The Rohwer Outpost Newspapers Collection (ddr-janm-6)
Newspaper of the Rohwer Incarceration camp located in McGehee, Arkansas which had a peak population of 8,475 in November of 1943. The Rohwer Outpost ran from October 24, 1942 to July 21, 1945 and was published twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It was then renamed the Rohwer Relocator released by the WRA to provide …
Collection
Japanese American National Museum Collection (ddr-janm-13)
This collection consists of interviews conducted in by the Japanese American National Museum of Los Angeles, California in partnership with Densho.
For more information about the museum, please visit www.janm.org.
Collection
Hideo Kobashigawa Collection (ddr-janm-14)
This collection contains pieces by restaurant worker Hideo Kobashigawa over a period of 50 years, including oil, ink, and watercolor paints. He was incarcerated at Manzanar and Tule Lake concentration camps.
Collection
Toshiki Hamaoka Collection (ddr-janm-15)
Toshiki "Dick" Hamaoka was hired by an anthropologist and community worker to create watercolor sketches of life at Tule Lake concentration camp, rather than hiring a more expensive photographer. His 17 watercolor paintings and ink drawings are vibrant and detailed and show a different perspective than straightforward photographs.
Collection
George Yoshida Collection (ddr-janm-16)
This collection includes George Yoshida’s prized 78 RPM records, which he couldn’t leave behind when his family was forcibly removed from Los Angeles and incarcerated at Poston concentration camp.
Collection
George Nakamura Collection (ddr-janm-17)
This collection chronicles the experience of George Nakamura (1918-1949), a Hawaiian-Japanese American who enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1940. The photographs and letters capture Nakamura’s military service in the 100th Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team, and references the mental health of veterans.
Collection
Sohei (John) Hohri and Harold Landon Letters Collection (ddr-janm-18)
This collection contains handwritten, illustrated letters sent from Sohei (John) Hohri while incarcerated at Manzanar in California to his friend, Harold Landon. The bulk of the documents are dated from 1941 to 1943. A few letters date from the postwar period, ranging from 1972 to 1982 and 1997 to 2011.
Collection
Crusaders Collection (ddr-janm-19)
Mary Yuri Nakahara (later known as Yuri Kochiyama) founded a young women's social organization while at Santa Anita Assembly Center called the Crusaders. The members later spread out to multiple incarceration sites, and many members wrote letters to Japanese American servicemen. The Crusaders assembled scrapbooks of letters received, including this one compiled by Rinko Shimasaki. Also …
Collection
Crystal City Times and Los Andes Newspapers (ddr-janm-20)
This is a small collection of newspapers from the Department of Justice facility in Crystal City, Texas, collected by the Imamura family. There are issues of the Crystal City Times in English, and of Los Andes in Spanish. The Spanish-language newspaper content was likely written by Japanese Peruvians.
Collection
John Bonomi Papers Collection (ddr-janm-21)
John Bonomi worked for the Brunswig Drug Company and supplied pharmaceutical materials to Japanese Americans in concentration camps. This collection contains approximately 50 letters from Japanese Americans who requested medicine and household materials, discussed payment methods, shared camp life, and other messages.
Collection
Fukuda and Whitney Families Collection (ddr-janm-22)
Approximately 115 letters from the Fukuda family to the Whitney family, sent primarily from Fumiko and Louise Fukuda at Poston to their friend Mrs. Olive Whitney of Upland, California.
Collection
Paul Masuo Hiratzka Diaries Collection (ddr-janm-23)
Diaries of Paul Masuo Hiratsuka from 1941-1943.