Japanese American experience

Online resources for further study of the Japanese American experience

Japanese American Internment Memorial (San Jose, CA)

• The sculpture was commissioned by the San Jose Public Art Program and was initiated by the Commission on the Internment of Local Japanese Americans. This commission was established by the City Council in 1983 with the goal of educating the public on the internment of local Japanese Americans through a number of public projects.
  http://www.scu.edu/SCU/Programs/Diversity/memorial.html (: ..This is no longer a functioning site.. --CV)

Confinement and Ethnicity: National Parks Service Overview of WWII Japanese American Relocation Sites

• Online edition of out-of-print National Parks Service publication ‘Confinement and Ethnicity: National Parks Service Overview of WWII Japanese American Internment Relocation Sites.’ Included are virtual tours of many of the relocation sites, now National Parks, artwork and writings of internees, and much more.
  http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/anthropology74/index.htm

An Interview with Marielle Tsukamoto: A First-hand Account of Japanese Internment

• Marielle Tsukamoto is currently an educator and administrator in the Elk Grove School District, Elk Grove, California. The above electronic interview was conducted by 5th grade students at Barbara Comstock Morse Elementary School, who were fortunate to attend Ms. Tsukamoto's Time of Remembrance Program - and wanted to learn more about this important chapter in our nation's history.
  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/99/fear/interview.html

Children of the Camps: The PBS Documentary

• More than 120,000 Japanese Americans were interned behind barbed wire during World War II...over half were children. The CHILDREN OF THE CAMPS documentary captures the experiences of six Americans of Japanese ancestry who were confined as innocent children to internment camps by the U.S. government during World War II.
  http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/

A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution

• This site explores a period of U.S. history when racial prejudice and fear upset the delicate balance between the rights of a citizen versus the power of the state. Focusing on the experiences of Japanese Americans who were placed in detention camps during World War II, this exhibit is a case study in decision-making and citizen action under the U.S. Constitution.
  http://americanhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/non-flash/index.html

Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

• Located in the middle of San Francisco Bay, Angel Island Immigration Station was routinely the first stop for immigrants crossing the Pacific Ocean. The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF) is the nonprofit partner of California State Parks and the National Park Service in the effort to preserve, restore and interpret the historic immigration station.
  http://www.aiisf.org

Japanese American Citizen's League

• The Japanese American Citizens League, the nation's oldest and largest Asian American civil rights organization, was founded in 1929 to address issues of discrimination targeted specifically at persons of Japanese ancestry residing in the United States.
  http://www.jacl.org/

National Japanese American Historical Society

• The National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS), founded in 1980 in San Francisco, is a non-profit membership supported organization dedicated to the collection, preservation, authentic interpretation, and sharing of historical information of the Japanese American experience for the diverse broader national community.
  http://www.njahs.org/

Japanese American Documentary Collection, National Museum of American History

• This collection of documentary materials relates to the involuntary relocation of Japanese Americans was collected by the Division of Armed Forces History in connection with the exhibit A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the United States Constitution at the National Museum of American History in 1988. The donors were either members of the Japanese American Citizens League or reached through the League.
  http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d9305.htm

Bishop Museum Exhibit: From Bento to Mixed Plate: Americans of Japanese Ancestry in Multicultural Hawai’i

• The exhibition explores the evolution of Japanese American identity in Hawai’i from the first to the present generation. Through personal artifacts, family photographs and first-person accounts, the role of Japanese Americans in sports, labor, education, religion, politics and business is explored as arenas of sharing and adaptation in our Island society.
  http://www.bishopmuseum.org/exhibits/pastExhibits/1997/bento/bento.html

Japanese American Digital Archive

• Offering easy-to-use search and viewing tools, the OAC organizes images into thematic and institutional collections, such as historical topics, nature, places, and technology.
  http://www.oac.cdlib.org:80/dynaweb/virtual/jarda/@Generic__CollectionView;cs=default;ts=default

Japanese American National Museum

• The Japanese American National Museum is the only museum in the United States dedicated to sharing the experience of Americans of Japanese ancestry.
  http://www.janm.org

Library of Congress

• http://www.loc.gov

Wing Luke Asian Museum

• Located in Seattle, the Wing Luke Asian Museum engages the Asian Pacific American communities in exploring issues related to the culture, art and history of Asian Pacific Americans. Permanent exhibition Camp Harmony D-4-44 features a replica of a portion of the assembly center in Puyallup, Washington, where thousands of Seattle's American-born Japanese were incarcerated without justification during World War II. The Installation incorporates sound dramatizations of the desperate hours before families were forced to abandon their homes.
  http://www.wingluke.org/

Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project

• Densho's mission is to preserve the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II before their memories are extinguished. We offer these irreplaceable firsthand accounts, coupled with historical images and teacher resources, to explore principles of democracy and promote equal justice for all.
  http://www.densho.org/

Go For Broke Educational Foundation

• a division of the 100th/442nd/MIS WWII Memorial Foundation
  In 1989, the 100th/442nd/MIS WWII Memorial Foundation was established. Comprised of Nisei (second generation Japanese American) veterans from World War II, it raised enough capital to build the Go For Broke Monument and establish an education program.
  http://www.goforbroke.org/

Asian American Curriculum Project

• Our mission is to educate the public about the great diversity of the Asian American experience, through the books that we distribute; fostering cultural awareness and to educate Asian Americans about their own heritage, instilling a sense of pride. AACP believes that the knowledge which comes from the use of appropriate materials can accomplish these goals.
  http://www.asianamericanbooks.com/whoarewe.htm

When Americans Were Treated as Traitors: Palo Alto Weekly Article

• http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news_features/centennial/1940SB.html (: ..This is no longer a functioning site.. --CV)

-- List of resources researched and formatted by ‘Misha’ Michaelina C. Zmijewski