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

Gary Ono

The Rafu Shimpo

Gary Ono’s sunny Little Tokyo apartment is a monument to the things he loves.

Asian American Yale Alumni Remember Nakanishi

The Rafu Shimpo

NEW YORK—The Association of Asian American Yale Alumni (AAAYA) issued the following statement on March 27, 2016.

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

May Fujino

The Rafu Shimpo

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

Yasuyuki Suzuki

The Rafu Shimpo

“Working as a volunteer guide at the Japanese American National Museum is such an interesting experience. I’ve taken a class about the history of Japanese Americans, but there’s no manual for my work. So I have to study constantly,” says Yasuyuki Suzuki.

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

Richard Michio Murakami

The Rafu Shimpo

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

Kenneth “Ken” Hamamura

The Rafu Shimpo

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

Mary Karatsu

The Rafu Shimpo

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

Robert “Bob” Uragami

The Rafu Shimpo

“I am not a museum type of person,” says Bob Uragami. He had his first encounter with the Japanese American National Museum in 1991 when it was looking for artifacts for its first exhibition, Issei Pioneers: Hawaii and the Mainland, 1885–1924.

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

Kihachiro Tajima

The Rafu Shimpo

Kimio Tajima was an American-born Nisei, but he died a Japanese soldier, while at war in New Guinea. He was 28 years old. His son, Kihachiro, was only ten months old when Kimio was drafted. Kihachiro grew up being called a war orphan, not remembering his father’s face.

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

Nao Magami

The Rafu Shimpo

When Tokyo native Nao Magami was a student at California State University in the 1970s, he wondered why his Japanese American friends only spoke English, unlike the Chinese and Korean American students, many of whom spoke their parents’ languages. One day in an Asian American studies class, he watched a …