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Photo Essay: Japanese Canadian Internment Field School
In this photo essay, Densho’s communications and public engagement director Natasha Varner shares images and some of what she learned during a two-week immersive learning experience about Japanese Canadian internment…
Arrested for Selling Poetry: Shig Murao, Howl, and the Erasure of a Beat Scene Bookslinger
Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti are household names among the leftist literati, but you’ve probably never heard the name Shig Murao. You’re not alone. Despite the fact that Shig…
50 Years Ago, Asian Americans Took a Stand at Wounded Knee
In February of 1973, American Indian Movement activists began the occupation of Wounded Knee. Over the course of the 71-day occupation, Indigenous activists and allies – including a delegation of…
What an 80-year-old cake can tell us about love – and loss – in Japanese American concentration camps
When Frances Nishimura died in 2019 at the age of 102, she left behind a mystery that might never be solved. On a warm spring day in May 2021, Elaine…
In Conversation: Artist and Author Katie Yamasaki
Artist and children’s book author Katie Yamasaki has traveled around the world creating murals and stories that explore issues of identity and social justice. Her latest book, Shapes, Lines, and…
Remembering Roger Daniels
Roger Daniels passed away on December 9th, shortly after celebrating his 95th birthday. Daniels was regarded by many to be the pre-eminent historian of his generation on the Japanese American…
Manzanar Children’s Village: Japanese American Orphans in a WWII Concentration Camp
Kenji Suematsu was living with his parents and siblings in Costa Mesa, California at the outbreak of World War II. His father, an immigrant farmer from Japan, was apprehended by…
Social Science as a Tool for Surveillance
In the wake of inmate unrest at Poston and Manazanar in the winter of 1942, the War Relocation Authority decided they needed to better understand what they dubbed a “trouble…
Announcing Densho’s 2021 Artists-in-Residence
We are thrilled to introduce you to Lauren Iida and Molly Murakami, the talented artists who will be joining Densho for our third annual artist residency program. Both Lauren and…
The Karma of Becoming American
In this guest post, scholar and Soto Zen Buddhist priest Duncan Ryūken Williams reflects on celebrating his first 4th of July as an American citizen in the midst of a…
Epidemics in American Concentration Camps: From the “White Plague” to COVID-19
On the afternoon of April 15th, detainees at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington filled the narrow triangle that serves as the facility’s recreation area. In a carefully choreographed…
Announcing a Virtual Teach-In on the History of Xenophobia (and what we can do to combat it)
Join us for a virtual teach-in that will deepen your understanding of American xenophobia and racism, using Japanese American WWII incarceration and the current crisis of immigrant detention as case…
Announcing a New Digital Genealogy Series
Densho is pleased to announce a new digital genealogy series with Linda Harms Okazaki, noted expert in Japanese American genealogy. All sessions will be held on Zoom and advance registration…
7 Ways To Learn Japanese American History From the Comfort of your Home
As we navigate this new world of mandatory home time, many of us are finding ourselves suddenly having to set up makeshift schools for our kiddos, engage students online, or…
So Who is Miller Freeman Anyway?
The name Miller Freeman has been in the news this past week after a Day of Remembrance installation at Bellevue College by artist Erin Shigaki was defaced by a school…
Photo Essay: Day of Remembrance, Day of Action
Despite torrential rains in Tacoma this weekend, Tsuru for Solidarity supporters showed up in droves to raise their voices in opposition to immigrant detention. They gathered outside the Northwest Detention…
A new book claims WWII incarceration wasn’t about racism. It’s wrong.
Guest post by Eric Muller, Dan K. Moore Distinguished Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Cambridge University Press recently published Roger W. Lotchin’s Japanese American Relocation in World…
10 Little Known Facts of Life at Minidoka
Located in Southern Idaho, Minidoka concentration camp opened on August 10, 1942 and held some 13,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. The incarcerees — most of whom hailed from…
Photo Essay: Minidoka National Historic Site Unveils New Visitor Center
Earlier this month, about 325 people gathered in southeast Idaho for the 17th annual Minidoka Pilgrimage. Over the course of four days, pilgrims learned about the history and legacy of…
The “Loyalty Questionnaire” of 1943 Opened a Wound that has Yet to Heal
The Japanese American Citizens League is considering a resolution that proponents say would help heal a decades-old wound. The conflict stems from the disastrous “loyalty questionnaire” administered by the US…
Fort Sill is a Site of Ongoing Trauma
The Trump Administration’s plan to use Fort Sill, Oklahoma as a concentration camp for immigrant and refugee-seeking children is just the latest in a long legacy of violent incarceration and…
Return to California: Japanese Americans in the Post-War Golden State
This month, Densho Content Director Brian Niiya and Japanese American National Museum Collections Manager Kristen Hayashi will present two public lectures in California focusing on the experiences of Japanese Americans…
36 Hours in Japanese American Seattle
This year’s Densho Dinner is on November 2, 2019 and we’re encouraging friends and supporters from all over the country to make a trip out of it! With Satsuki Ina…
Densho Community Listening Tour
2042 will mark the 100th anniversary of Executive Order 9066 and Densho is already making some ambitious plans for what we want to accomplish by that date. We recognize that…