June 17, 2026
Densho is honored to be among five Japanese American organizations selected to receive a major award from the Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation, in recognition of our shared commitment to preserving and sharing Japanese American history and culture. This generous support is helping to fund Densho’s Public Index Project, a first-of-its-kind effort to identify, map, and connect Japanese American archival materials across institutions and communities. Densho is deeply grateful for this award and for our longstanding partnership with the Takahashi Foundation, whose generosity and vision continue to help ensure that these histories remain accessible for present and future generations.
Read the Takahashi Foundation’s full press release on their website.
—
Densho is honored and grateful to be among five Japanese American organizations who recently received major awards from the Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation. The Foundation selected Densho—along with the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California, National Japanese American Historical Society, Nichi Bei Foundation, and Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival—because of our shared commitment to the preservation, amplification, and dissemination of Japanese culture and the Japanese American experience.
Densho deeply appreciates and values the Takahashi Foundation for supporting organizations like Densho to safeguard our community’s stories and voices, especially with ongoing threats of historical erasure, censorship, and forgetting.
As Densho Executive Director Naomi Ostwald Kawamura states: “Our partnership with the Takahashi Foundation has made it possible for Densho to think bigger about how Japanese American history can be preserved, shared, and connected in the digital age. Through this support, we are able to launch a first-of-its-kind effort to identify, map, and connect Japanese American archival materials across institutions and communities, which will help ensure that these histories remain visible, accessible, and meaningful for generations to come.”
This new effort to create Densho’s Public Index of Japanese American Collections is now underway. By connecting fragmented holdings scattered across the country and world, and by digitizing high-impact collections—all while engaging community partners, descendants, and advisory groups—the Public Index will make Japanese American history more discoverable and resilient for educators, researchers, and the general public alike. Complete this submission form to nominate a collection for inclusion in the Index!
The Takahashi Foundation’s recent awards to Densho and other organizations marks a shift in the Foundation’s grantmaking. The Takahashi Foundation will pivot from accepting applications for review, to making grants directly to select nonprofit groups.
Going forward, the Takahashi Foundation will no longer accept unsolicited letters of inquiry, proposals, or nominations for grants. “The focus during this next phase is to ensure the grants we make will have a lasting impact on the preservation of Japanese and Japanese American history and culture,” said Masako Takahashi, president of the Takahashi Foundation. “It is our hope that these grants, as have many of the activities we have supported in the past, will resonate for generations to come.”
In light of this transition, Densho feels particularly grateful to have received this generous award, and we are determined to continue promoting the Takahashi Foundation’s mission alongside our own.
Yet, our gratitude and admiration for the Takahashi Foundation extends well beyond this award and monetary support. Densho has been partnering with the Foundation for years, and we even had the pleasure of working with the family to preserve some of their historical materials, including family photographs as well as letters and personal papers.
Additionally, Densho has benefited immensely from collaborations and conversations with the Foundation’s president Masako Takahashi. Densho’s Naomi Ostwald Kawamura shares personal reflections about the value and meaning of their relationship and past conversations:
“My conversations with Masako Takahashi have been both very meaningful and energizing. She has a deep insight into the Japanese American cultural and historical landscape and recognizes not only who is doing important work but also where the needs are, and where greater investment can have lasting impact. Densho is profoundly grateful to the Takahashi Foundation but also to Masako for her partnership and belief in Densho.”
—
About The Takahashi Foundation
Established in 1986 by Henri and Tomoye Takahashi, together with Tomoye’s sister Martha Masako Suzuki, the Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation is dedicated to honoring Japanese American culture and fostering understanding of Japan.
During WWII, over 125,000 people of Japanese heritage were incarcerated in concentration camps throughout the county. The Takahashi family was sent to Topaz, Utah, where the current Foundation president, Masako Takahashi, was born. The Foundation has devoted the last 40 years to the truthful dissemination of that period of history, and to the support of Japanese and Japanese American culture and traditions.
—
This article was edited by Jennifer Noji, Densho Senior Development & Communications Manager.
Learn more by reading the Takahashi Foundation’s full press release on their website.
