The mission of the Japanese American National Museum is to promote understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience.
The Japanese American National Museum is the first museum in the United States dedicated to sharing the experience of Americans of Japanese ancestry as an integral part of U.S. history. Through its comprehensive collection of Japanese American objects, images and documents, as well as multi-faceted exhibitions, educational programs, documentaries and publications, the National Museum shares the Japanese American story with a national and international audience.
The National Museum was established in Los Angeles to preserve the rich heritage and cultural identity of Japanese Americans. In 1982, businessmen in L.A.’s Little Tokyo began exploring the possibility of building a Japanese American museum, as did a separate group of highly decorated World War II veterans. A representative from the financial group proposed incorporating a museum into a planned Little Tokyo residential complex, while veterans of the famed 442 nd Regimental Combat Team sponsored a “Japanese American Soldier” exhibition at the Los Angeles Country Museum of Natural History.
The two groups soon joined forces, and in 1985 the Japanese American National Museum was incorporated as a private, nonprofit institution. Over the next several years, volunteers sought backing from community groups. In 1985, California State Senator Art Torres introduced a funding bill that acknowledged the major contributions Japanese Americans have made to the social, cultural and economic spheres of California, and the state legislature soon appropriated $750,000 toward the Museum on the condition that Los Angeles provide matching funds. At the urging of the volunteer corps, the City of Los Angeles granted a $1 million match the following year.
Seeking to safeguard the rich oral histories of first generations immigrants, or Issei, and the artifacts, photographs, written records and other materials documenting the lives of Japanese Americans before, during, and after the World War II mass incarceration, National Museum founders enlisted the support of the Japanese American community. In 1992, the Japanese American National Museum opened its doors to shed light on the Japanese American experience—a process of immigration and re-settlement common to so many Americans.
Built by Japanese immigrants in 1925, the National Museum’s renovated historic building was the first structure designed specifically in Los Angeles to house a Buddhist place of worship, the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple. The ornate building incorporates elements of a temple in Kyoto, combining Japanese and Middle Eastern influences in its striking façade. The temple originally served as a house of worship, social hall and rental office space. A central gathering place in thriving Little Tokyo, the structure was later used to store the belongings of Japanese Americans sent to U.S. concentration camps during World War II. The building eventually fell into disrepair after the Nishi Hongwanji moved to a new facility in 1969, and was sold to the City of Los Angeles in 1973. Declared a landmark by the City, it became the long-awaited space for the Japanese American National Museum.
Since the opening of its historic site in 1992, the Japanese American National Museum has continued to fulfill its mission through historical exhibitions (Issei Pioneers: Hawaii and the Mainland, 1885-1924) and art exhibitions (The View from Within: Japanese American Art from the Internment Camps, 1942-1945). As a community-based institution, the Museum has developed numerous regional exhibitions and programs in partnership with other communities and museums, including In This Great Land of Freedom: Japanese Pioneers of Oregon, developed with the Oregon Japanese American community, and shown at the Oregon Historical Society and numerous museums throughout the Pacific Northwest. Other examples include The Kona Coffee Story, which was developed in partnership with the Japanese American community in Kona, Hawai‘i, and toured throughout Hawai‘i and in Brazil. The exhibition From Bento to Mixed Plate: Americans of Japanese Ancestry in Multicultural Hawai‘i was developed with the National Museum’s Hawai‘i Advisory Council and included a community education component in partnership with the Hawai‘i State Education Department. The Museum’s exhibitions have traveled to the Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York City (America’s Concentration Camps: Remembering the Japanese American Experience-1998), the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. (From Bento to Mixed Plate: Americans of Japanese Ancestry in Multicultural Hawai‘i-1999), and to Brazil (The Kona Coffee Story-1998). From Bento to Mixed Plate also toured Japan.
The National Museum opened its new 85,000 square-foot Pavilion to the public in January 1999. The City of Los Angeles contributed a one-acre site for the Pavilion at $1 per year on a 55-year lease. The contemporary stone, steel and glass Pavilion bridges East-West aesthetic traditions by adjoining with the Museum’s original building. With the opening of the Pavilion, the National Museum premiered two major exhibitions: Common Ground: The Heart of Community andBruce and Norman Yonemoto: Memory, Matter and Modern Romance. The former provides the broad outline of the history of Japanese Americans, while the latter represented the strong commitment to the arts. With generous grants from the Ford Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation and the Norton Foundation, the National Museum has broadened its activities in the presentation and preservation of Japanese American art, highlighting little known Nikkei artists such as Hisako Hibi, Henry Sugimoto, Hideo Date, Toshiko Takaezu and Ruth Asawa.
