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Photo Essay: A Day of Remembrance and Resistance
Last weekend marked the 82nd anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the forced removal and incarceration of more than 125,000 Japanese Americans during World War II….
Author Maggie Tokuda-Hall Takes a Stand Against Censorship and the “Deeply American Tradition of Racism”
Earlier this month, author Maggie Tokuda-Hall received a troubling offer from publishing giant Scholastic: they would license Love in the Library, her acclaimed children’s book based on her grandparents’ experiences…
Densho’s Public Comments on the Lava Ridge Wind Project
The proposed Lava Ridge Wind Project adjacent to the Minidoka National Historic Site would disrupt the site’s historic significance to survivors of WWII incarceration and their descendants. Densho submitted public…
The Proposed Lava Ridge Wind Farm at Minidoka Is Part of a Larger—and Ongoing—Pattern of Erasing Marginalized Histories
A proposal to build a 76,000-acre wind farm surrounding the former Minidoka concentration camp threatens to erase the site’s historic legacy. The Bureau of Land Management is accepting public comments…
How Japanese Americans Fought to Make Sure We Never Forget Manzanar’s History
This National Park Week, we want to uplift the story of how Manzanar became the first of the US concentration camps where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during WWII to become…
Displacement and Resistance in Japantowns: A Resource List
Japantowns in the U.S. have been shaped by a long history of both exclusion and resilience — from the dispossession of Indigenous peoples to the forced removal of Japanese Americans…
How the Asian American Movement Learned a Lesson in Liberation from the Black Panthers
As a musician, artist, and activist, Nobuko Miyamoto has long used art to create social change and solidarity across cultural borders. Her new memoir, Not Yo’ Butterfly: My Long Song…
At 90 years old, Chizu Omori is still fighting for justice
Activist and filmmaker Chizu Omori has spent most of her life advocating for the rights of marginalized peoples. And at the age of 90, she shows no sign of slowing…
This Election Day, Asian Americans must refuse assimilation and loudly dream of a world that serves us all
Guest post by Miya Sommers On December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor, Tatsuro Matsuda commissioned and installed the famous “I AM AN AMERICAN” sign on his family business…
Why Japanese Americans Should Join the Fight for Abolition
Guest post by Sara Onitsuka The last few weeks of protest, sparked by the murder of George Floyd and rising out of 400+ years of slavery, genocide, and other white…
Asian American Anti-Blackness Is Real—And So Is Our Responsibility to End It
We’re holding a lot of grief and anger over the Black lives stolen by white supremacy in recent weeks. For George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Nina Pop, Ahmaud Arbery, and so…
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…
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…
Day of Remembrance, Day of Action
We’re gearing up for our Day of Remembrance, Day of Action at Northwest Detention Center on February 23rd, and we hope to see you there! This event commemorates the 78th…
What #YuriTaughtMe: Lessons from Yuri Kochiyama on Her 98th Birthday
To celebrate what would have been Yuri Kochiyama‘s 98th birthday, we asked next-gen Nikkei artists and activists to share what they’ve learned from Yuri’s revolutionary life — and how they…
How We Remember
Y’all killed it this Day of Remembrance. We were so moved to see all the DOR posts, pictures, and family stories you shared on social media. This is the work…
SANSEI: On Being Japanese American in a Time of Crisis
This guest post is adapted from a speech delivered by Stanley N. Shikuma at the 2019 Day of Remembrance Taiko Fundraiser organized by the Minidoka Pilgrimage Planning Committee and co-sponsored…
The First Day of Remembrance, Thanksgiving Weekend 1978
Guest post by Frank Abe This week marks the 40th anniversary of the very first Day of Remembrance. It was invented here in Seattle, at a pivotal moment when the…
Densho’s Artist-in-Residence Program
Densho is first and foremost a history organization but as we have gotten more vocal about today’s political climate, we’ve become more acutely aware of the fact that art can…
8 Lessons in Resistance from Tule Lake
“Kodomo no tame ni. They’re our children, set them free.” In a protest at the site of the old Tule Lake jail earlier this month, survivors of WWII incarceration pounded…
What We Can All Learn from One Family’s Century of Solidarity
Michael Ishii is a New York based activist and organizer whose deep ties to interracial solidarity began decades before he was even born. In remarks made to a crowd gathered…
The Fred Korematsu Story for Young Readers
January 30th is Fred Korematsu Day! Here in California, we’ve been celebrating it since 2011, and now it has been adopted in several other states (shout-out to New York where…
8 Times Japanese Americans Really Weren’t Having It In 2017
Let’s face it, 2017 has been a real kick in the teeth for woke folks everywhere. Whether you’re suffering from bad news blues or worn out from the seemingly endless…