July 13, 2015
Nineteen years ago, Tom Ikeda led a small team to pursue a dream of preserving the stories of World War II incarceration that had been told to him by his parents and their generation. They named the organization Densho, which means to pass stories on to the next generation, and built a robust digital program to do just that.
Today, Densho has become a major force in documenting the history of Japanese American WWII incarceration with more than 800 oral history interviews; 50,000 digital photographs and historic documents; an extensive encyclopedia; and resources for teachers. In order to continue making our services available for free to everyone, we have to occasionally ask for financial support from the Densho community.
If you believe that the story of Japanese American incarceration should be documented and shared widely, please donate what you can to help support our efforts. And now is an especially important time to make a contribution…
Special appeal: In June, we received a grant from the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program of the National Park Service to expand our digital encyclopedia and to develop curriculum that links the story of Japanese American incarceration with other social injustices. We are required to raise matching funds before we can begin work on the funded projects, but every dollar you give will be tripled by NPS.
What’s in it for you?
In addition to joining our wonderful community of supporters, you’ll also receive some thank you gifts from us:
1. All donors will receive a set of five custom-made valid first class postage stamps. These stamps were designed by Densho to commemorate the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans.
2. Make a donation of $125 or more and receive a copy of either No-No Boy or Citizen 13660, plus a set of commemorative stamps.
3. Donate $200 or more and receive BOTH books, as well as a set of commemorative stamps.
Click through to our PayPal campaign page now—we appreciate whatever you can give!