Japanese American National Museum
Japanese American National Museum
- Location: Los Angeles, CA
- Phone: 213-625-0414
- Email: collections@janm.org
- Website: http://www.janm.org/
Since its inception in 1985, the Japanese American National Museum has chronicled more than 130 years of Japanese American history—from the first Issei generation through the World War II incarceration to the present-day. In 1999, the museum established the Manabi and Sumi Hirasaki National Resource Center (HNRC) to ensure that the story of Japanese Americans remains accessible to everyone. Located within the heart of JANM, the HNRC serves more than 8,000 researchers, writers, students, family historians, filmmakers, and other museum visitors annually both onsite and online through its reference, research and reproduction services.
Collections at this institution
Hayami (Stanley) Diary
Stanley Hayami was a Japanese American student from Los Angeles who attended high school at the Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming.
Institution: Japanese American National Museum
167 Items
Hibi (Hisako) Collection
Sixty-three oil paintings painted by Hibi at Tanforan Assembly Center in California and Topaz concentration camp in Utah from 1942 to 1945. Subjects include various daily activities, still lifes, and landscapes....
Institution: Japanese American National Museum
63 Items
Iwata (Jack Masaki) Collection
This collection consists of 166 photographs and copy negatives of photographs taken at Manazanar and Tule Lake concentration camps between 1942 and 1945. Subjects include scenes of daily life, group portraits, and landscapes....
Institution: Japanese American National Museum
166 Items
Muramoto (Walter) Collection
361 black and white photographs of daily life in camp in Rohwer, Arkansas....
Institution: Japanese American National Museum
361 Items
Nance (Afton Dill) Papers
This is a collection of roughly 265-300 letters written by Japanese American students who were incarcerated in American concentration camps, including Heart Mountain, Wyoming and Poston, Arizona during World War II and all addressed to their pre-war teacher, Ms. Afton Dill Nance. Also included in this collection are pictures of Ms. Nance and her students, probably taken in the late 1970s to early 1980s. Ms. Nance taught English and Social Studies at Malaga Cove School in Palos Verdes, California shortly before the war. The student letter writers range from 12 to 15 years of age and most of the letters …
Institution: Japanese American National Museum
115 Items
Oiye (George) Album
One 34-page album of black and white photographs taken by George Oiye and Susumu Ito....
Institution: Japanese American National Museum
1 Item
Selected oral histories
Selected oral history transcripts from the Japanese American National Museum.
Institution: Japanese American National Museum
5 Items
Shimada (Moriyuki) Scrapbook
Moriyuki Shimada was twenty-two years old when he and his family were forcibly removed from their home in Santa Clara, California to the Heart Mountain Concentration Camp in Wyoming. Shimada created a scrapbook after the war with the photographs he had taken and collected during his incarceration.
Institution: Japanese American National Museum
110 Items
Sugimoto (Henry) Collection
130 paintings by Henry Sugimoto, a Japanese American artist who flourished in the 1930s and continued to paint well into the 1990s. An Issei, or immigrant from Japan, Henry Sugimoto defied convention to pursue a career as a painter. Talent and a persevering drive brought him early success in the 1930s. His rising career came to a halt during World War II when he was confined to American concentration camps. What is striking about Sugimoto is the way he responded to his incarceration. The experience initiated a deeply personal exploration that transformed how he viewed himself and his art.
Institution: Japanese American National Museum
133 Items
