Discover the History ofWWII Incarceration

120,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly incarcerated during World War II. Learn about this unprecedented denial of civil liberties and why it still matters today.

Explore Personal Stories

Learn about Japanese American history and the legacy of WWII incarceration by exploring personal stories from those who lived through it.

Promote Equity Today

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Join us in putting the lessons of Japanese American WWII incarceration into action today.

Densho Catalyst: History, Essays, & Opinion

Dive into hidden histories and learn why these stories matter today with the latest essays and opinions from Densho and other community voices.

Tom Ikeda and Naomi Ostwald Kawamura in conversation seated on stage during filming of the Densho Virtual Gala. Ikeda is handing off a baseball trophy to Naomi that was gifted to him by a Nisei community leader when he first started at Densho.

Highlights from the 2022 Densho Virtual Gala: Telling Our Next Story

Thank you to everyone who joined us on November 3 to make the Densho Virtual Gala a very special event! Even though we weren’t able to gather in person, we...
A Japanese and Japanese American family posing for a photo outside their home in Japan in 1940.

Two Books That Shine New Light on the Nisei Experience in Japan

I’ve always thought of myself as a somewhat atypical Sansei in various ways, chief among them, that one of my Nisei parents—my mother in this case—was a bit more “Japanesy”...
Four teens standing against a brick wall outside the Densho building holding collages they made inspired by Gidra.

Sharing Gidra’s Lessons on Art and Solidarity with the Next Generation of Student Activists

Over the past several months, Densho staff worked with some incredible artists and educators to develop a hands-on zine-making workshop for middle and high school students. Using the radical Asian...

Introducing Naomi Ostwald Kawamura

Densho is excited to share that Naomi Ostwald Kawamura will be our next Executive Director! Naomi brings a rare combination of experience in education, museums, nonprofit leadership, and a passion for Japanese American history and memory work.

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Campu: A Podcast

Campu weaves together the voices of survivors to spin narratives out of the seemingly mundane things that gave shape to the incarceration experience: rocks, fences, food, paper. Follow along as hosts Hana and Noah Maruyama move far beyond the standard Japanese American incarceration 101 and into more intimate and lesser-known corners of this history.

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Encyclopedia

Thousands of articles about the history of the Japanese American WWII exclusion and incarceration experience. Here are a few to get you started:

Hiroshi Kashiwagi

Poet, playwright, memoirist, and actor, whose first book Swimming in the American: a Memoir and Selected Writings, was awarded the American Book Award 2005 by the Before Columbus Foundation.

James Omura

Nikkei resister against the U.S. government's unconstitutional World War II policy of mass involuntary exclusion and incarceration of West Coast Americans of Japanese ancestry.

Martial law in Hawaii

In Hawai'i, martial law was declared within hours of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 , and it lasted for nearly three years, until October 24, 1944.