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Mary Mon Toy and the Nisei Entertainers Who Became “Chinese” During World War II
Mary Mon Toy (1916-2009) was many things. Singer, showgirl, Broadway performer, activist, thespian. The New York City based actress is best remembered for her break-out role as Minnie Ho in The…
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…
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…
Remembering the Manzanar Riot
December 6, 2017 marks the 75th anniversary of the best known instance of mass unrest in the one of the WWII concentration camps. The Manzanar Riot, as it was called,…
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,…
Twelve Novels by Japanese American Authors Centered on WWII Incarceration
When we think about literary works that incorporate the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans, most of us probably think of either one of the bestsellers by non-Japanese authors (e.g. Snow…
Photo Essay: Hikaru Iwasaki’s Sunny Views of Resettlement Americana
While the photographs of Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange have helped shape visual understandings of World War II incarceration, there are many lesser known photographers who documented the Japanese American…
Tule Lake Pilgrimage, 1974
In this American Archives Month guest post, Densho Digital Archivist Caitlin Oiye Coon looks at a recently published collection of photos by Gerald Kajitani. The photos document the second pilgrimage…
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…