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Meet Erna P. Harris: Writer, Dissident, and Ally
Through stories of remarkable people in Japanese American history, The Unknown Great illuminates the diversity of the Nikkei experience from the turn of the twentieth century to the present day….
Memorializing a Shared History Between Native and Japanese American Communities at Fort Lincoln
In September, I had the privilege of attending the ground blessing ceremony for the Snow Country Prison Japanese American Internment Memorial on the campus of United Tribes Technical College (UTTC)…
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…
Ask a Historian: How Did Alaska Natives Wind Up Inside Japanese American Concentration Camps?
Brian Niiya delves into the hidden history of a group of Alaska Natives caught up in the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans in our first “Ask a Historian” entry of…
We Need Critical Race Theory in our Schools Now More Than Ever
Here at Densho we talk a lot about the importance of preserving the history of WWII Japanese American incarceration. But we are well aware that this one moment in history…
Inventing the “Model Minority”: A Critical Timeline and Reading List
The idea of Asian Americans as a “model minority” has a long and complicated history. By focusing on cherry-picked indicators of “success” like income, education level, and low crime rates—while…
How 9/11 Changed Us
In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of September 11th, Executive Director Tom Ikeda shares his recollections of the aftermath of the attacks and how it radically reshaped Densho’s focus.
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…
Japanese American Incarceration on Indigenous Lands
Japanese American incarceration, like all of American history, took place on occupied Indigenous land. These threads of displacement, confinement and forced assimilation are rooted in a much larger history of…
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…
Immigration Bans are Object Lessons in Weaponized White Fears
The Immigration Act of 1924 created a national origins quota for the first time in U.S. history, and a complete and total ban on Japanese immigration. Building on a half-century…
This Isn’t The First Time White Supremacists Have Tried to Cancel Birthright Citizenship
In the latest in a long string of attacks on immigration, this week Trump declared he would issue an executive order ending birthright citizenship. Established by the 14th amendment in…
Ship Jumpers, Border Crossers, and Other “Illegal” Issei Immigrants
Here at Densho, we often draw parallels between the forced removal and subsequent incarceration of Japanese Americans from the West Coast and the treatment of marginalized groups today. Sadly, the…
In the Belly of the Monster: Asian American Opposition to the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War, which officially commenced on November 1, 1955 and lasted for nearly twenty years, cost the lives of over 58,000 Americans and more than 3 million Vietnamese, Cambodian,…
The Muslim Ban Is Racial Profiling—And We’ve Seen It Before
On October 10, the Supreme Court will hear two cases contesting President Trump’s Executive Order 13780, which threatens to ban travel to the U.S. from six Muslim-majority countries and halt…
Strikers, Scabs, and Sugar Mongers: How Immigrant Labor Struggle Shaped the Hawai‘i We Know Today
Hawai‘i is touted as a multicultural paradise, but the history of the sugar industry in this occupied Native land tells us otherwise. The industry played a central role in the…
Yellow Power: The Origins of Asian America
Prior to the social and political upheavals of the 1960s, there was no “Asian America”—at least not as we know it today. While Americans of Asian descent had joined forces…
Immigrants Do Not Need to Prove Themselves Worthy of Inclusion
2017 is shaping up to be a rough year for immigrants—which is saying a lot, considering that building a new life in a new country is, by definition, pretty damn…
Exiled: The Anti-Immigrant Roots of Mass Deportation in Mexican and Japanese American Repatriation
Following a blueprint laid out by the Depression-era Mexican Repatriation, Japanese Americans were subjected to deportation during WWII as a punitive measure for their supposed disloyalty. This practice has been…
Japanese Americans Incarcerated During WWII Could Still Vote, Kind Of
This article was co-published at PRI.org. During World War II,120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were stripped of their rights and property under the guise of national security. They were packed…
Family Detention, Then and Now
As the 2016 election cycle ramps up – with a Republican nominee who has described Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers, and a Democrat who supports deporting child migrants…
Over More than a Hundred Years of Farm Labor History, Japanese and Mexican Americans Have Been Both Allies and Adversaries
Berry season is in full swing, with farmer’s markets and produce departments across the country overflowing with these quintessential summer fruits. But the story isn’t always so sweet for the migrant…
Rooted in Japanese American Concentration Camps, “Model Minority” became Code for Anti-Black
By now most of us have heard the news: former NYPD officer Peter Liang will serve no jail time for killing Akai Gurley. Liang was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter…
Intersections of Black and Japanese American History: From Bronzeville to Black Lives Matter
During World War II, Black and Japanese American fates crossed in ways that neither group could have anticipated. While Japanese Americans were being forced to abandon the lives they’d built…