community en

Ten Days of Cleanup

Chapter Two—The Curse of Mottainai I

While many post-World War II Japanese families were all about discarding old tansu and kimono, my mother closely held to the value of mottainai, that …

migration en

Robert Walker Irwin (1844–1925)

Part 5: Seeing Irwin

Read Part 4 >> Here are places where you can see exhibits, artifacts, documents, etc., related to Robert Walker Irwin. * * * * * …

war en

The MIS: Boots on the Ground in the Pacific

Collections Management staff at the Japanese American National Museum often provide photographs and scans of items from the museum’s collections to highlight anniversaries, holidays, and …

war en

Memories on the Open Market

For scholars of Japanese American history, telling the story of incarceration is important yet difficult. Doing justice to the complicated narrative of camp life and …

community en ja

The Sakamoto-Sasano Collection: Bringing New Meaning to Family Mementos

As staff of the Collections Management and Access (CMA) department at the Japanese American National Museum, my colleagues and I make little rediscoveries in JANM’s …

community en

A Summer at the Nikkei National Museum

I spent the summer of 2017 in the Fuji Room at the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre (NNMCC), along with fellow interns Nathan Yeo and …

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Uncovering a “Lost” Japanese American Village in Bainbridge Island, Washington: A Behind the Scenes Interview with Archaeologist Floyd Aranyosi

Readers here may already be familiar with the fascinating story of Yama and Nagaya, a Japanese sawmill village settlement on Bainbridge Island, Washington. From 1883 …

culture en

The Legacy of Heart Mountain - Part 2

Read Part 1 >>  Identifying the Copier  If we were to imagine the copier and burier of the Lotus Sutra Stone Scripture based on the …

culture en

The Legacy of Heart Mountain - Part 1

Introduction The Los Angeles “Little Tokyo” neighborhood, built by Japanese immigrants before WWII, is home to the Japanese American National Museum. Founded in 1985, this stately …

identity en

Producing Japanese American History: An exploration through the JANM archives

Part 5 of 5 – History is Found: Sumi and Masao Shigezane

Over the previous four installments of this series, I have attempted to demonstrate many of the ongoing issues here behind-the-scenes at the Japanese American National …