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This is What We Talk About When We Talk About Community Archives
Stereotypes of archivists as bespectacled introverts navigating unending caverns of file cabinets and stacks are largely exaggerated. But it’s true that, as a lot, we generally enjoy our quiet time…
Of Spies and G-Men: How the U.S. Government Turned Japanese Americans into Enemies of the State
On December 7, 1941, Sumi Okamoto, then 21, was busy getting ready for her wedding. Oblivious to the reports of bombs falling on faraway Pearl Harbor, Sumi put on her…
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…
So How Many Assembly Centers Were There Anyway?
Relative to what we know about the concentration camps run by the War Relocation Authority (WRA), we know little about their predecessors, the so-called “assembly centers” run by the Wartime…
Photo Essay: Fairground Detention Facilities
Fairgrounds in Fresno, Merced, Pomona, Puyallup, Salinas, Stockton, Tulare, and Turlock have a dark common history. Seventy five years ago, they served as sites for the temporary detention of Japanese…
As We Fight for DACA, We Must Remember These Four Things
This week, President Trump turned the futures of 800,000 young immigrants, many of whom know no life outside the U.S., into gambling chips in a toxic political climate. Aside from…
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…
Picturing Incarceration: The WWII Sketches and Paintings of Kango Takamura
Photographs and moving images of World War II incarceration have helped keep memories of that era alive for decades. But since cameras were largely forbidden inside the camps, few images…
Five Bestsellers with Japanese American Incarceration Plot Lines
Did you know that at least five novels with Japanese American incarceration plot lines have made national best-seller lists in the past twenty or so years? Densho Content Director Brian…
What Both Sides Get Wrong On ‘Muslim Internment Camps’
In the wake of the horrific terror attacks in Manchester and London, calls for “rounding up” Muslims in WWII-style “internment camps” are once again rearing their ugly head. Thankfully, these…
Book Review: Honor Before Glory
The world is seemingly filled with media about the exploits of the Nisei soldiers during World War II. While it is certainly true that there are still many out there…
25 Times Gidra Was Goddamn Glorious
From 1969 to 1974, Gidra, the unofficial voice of “the Movement,” chronicled changing tides and unfolding dramas within the Asian American community. Taking its name from a giant three-headed dragon…
Resistance and Resilience in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District
The Chinatown-International District has been the center of Seattle’s Asian and Asian American community life for more than a century. But the region is defined as much by protest and resistance as…
Book Review: The Little Exile
Perhaps because there are so many oral history accounts of Japanese Americans imprisoned in American concentration camps during World War II (including many hundreds on our website), it’s always seemed…
The Niʻihau Incident: Déjà vu All Over Again
A new film based on the Niʻihau Incident is stirring up anger over its misrepresentations of Hawaiian and Japanese American history. Densho Content Director Brian Niiya breaks down what the…
Photo Essay: Japanese American Mothers During WWII
Mothers’ Day is around the corner—which means most of us are busy getting ready to show some love and affection to the women who raised us. (Y’all should really be…
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…
More Japanese American Incarceration Documentaries You Can Watch Online For Free
Last year’s roundup “10 Documentaries About Japanese American Incarceration You Can Watch Online for Free Right Now” has been one of our most popular blog posts to date. Since its…
Exceptions to the Rule: How Caretakers Helped Some Japanese American Families Minimize WWII Property Losses
Japanese Americans subject to forced removal seventy-five years ago suffered tragic losses of property, business assets, family heirlooms, and more. But there were some notable exceptions—cases where non-Japanese Americans stepped…
Sold, Damaged, Stolen, Gone: Japanese American Property Loss During WWII
Imagine being told you had a week to pack up all your belongings. You can bring all the bedding, clothing, and toiletries you can carry, but you better find a…
Photo Essay: Exclusion Order No. 1, Bainbridge Island
March 30, 2017 marks the 75th anniversary of the removal of Japanese Americans from Bainbridge Island, Washington. The community of almost 300 was the second in the country targeted for…
4 Bad Ass Issei Women You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
If you’re into strong women who like to color outside the lines and aren’t afraid to take what’s theirs, then you came to the right place, my friend. Following the…
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…
Yonsei Woman Takes (Digital) Pen to Paper in her Support for Black Lives
Sara Onitsuka is a 20-year-old junior at The College of Wooster. She’s also a yonsei whose grandparents and great grandparents were incarcerated during World War II. She never spoke to…