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A visit to Tokyo by Tom Ikeda
Below are my daily notes from a whirlwind visit to Tokyo a couple of weeks ago. The purpose of the visit was to see some of the people I met…
Blue Skies and Thunder: WWII Nisei Veteran’s Memoir
Densho is bringing World War II veteran Virgil Westdale to Seattle to give a free author talk on Saturday, May 22, at the Densho building (1416 S. Jackson Street) from…
Imposing the Alien Land Laws: New Documents Discovered
A friend sent us this noteworthy article in a February 2010 issue of the Pacific Citizen. “Japanese American residents in San Joaquin County, Calif. had no idea that they were…
Exceptions That Prove the Rule: Interracial Nisei Marriages
“The first generation was, you might say, narrow-minded…The second generation didn’t marry out. But when it came to third generation and fourth, they had more freedom.” –Takashi Matsui
Revered Canadian Architect Is Honored
We learned about a respected Japanese Canadian architect in this column in The Globe & Mail. Raymond Moriyama is one of country’s greatest architects, the genius behind buildings such as…
Japanese TV Drama Filming in Seattle
“A major film is being made in Seattle, but you’ll probably never see it. It’s a 10-hour movie that will be shown only in Japan.” That’s how a KING 5…
Wartime Irony
A friend told us today about an NPR story of interest. At the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, General David Petraeus honored veterans who helped to liberate the Nazi concentration…
Bad Meat and Missing Sugar: Food in the Japanese American Camps
“Americans are being rationed, and these Japs are getting steaks.” — Frank Kikuchi
Sports Illustrated & ESPN Take a Look at the Japanese American Incarceration
There is a good feature story in Sports Illustrated about the Champion Utah basketball team during World War II. It features Wat Misaka, one of the stars of the team…
Internment 101
A recent action of the Texas Board of Education gives me an opportunity to discuss a topic that confuses some people. On March 12, 2010, the Texas Board of Education…
Japanese American Women Remember the World War II Incarceration
In honor of International Women’s Day, we invite you to read Densho’s latest article, on female memories of the incarceration, featuring selections from our digital archive of interviews, photos, and…
Seattle’s Local Hero
The Densho staff sends congratulations to Seattle’s local hero Apolo Anton Ohno for a successful 2010 Winter Olympics. What an impressive athlete and gracious young man he is. We had…
Day of Remembrance Broadcast: Densho Interviews on C-SPAN
C-SPAN’s American History channel will start to broadcast selected Densho video interviews on February 19, the Day of Remembrance that commemorates the signing of Executive Order 9066 in 1942. That…
Archive Spotlight: Asian American Activist for All
Densho recently interviewed the celebrated civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama, who has devoted her life to promoting equal rights for all races and oppressed people. As a girl, she described…
History, Memory, and the Japanese American Citizens League
Why does the issue of loyalty remain so divisive in the Japanese American community even today? This month’s “From the Archive” article looks at a painful and contentious aspect of…
Archive Spotlight: Kind Neighbors and a Full House
In an interview Densho recently conducted for the Topaz Museum, Chiyoko Yano recalls how her family fared better than many others when the order came to leave their home in…
Beyond the Divide: Japanese American Responses to the “Loyalty Questionnaire”
“The government is asking… a father and a son who have different situations, the same question, and on the basis of your answer your family might be broken up.” —…
Meet Allen Say – Talented Children’s Book Author
Our friends at the Elliott Bay Book Company here in Seattle tell us that Allen Say, a Caldecott Medal winner for the children’s book Grandfather’s Journey, will speak at the…
The Story to the North
Densho is located a few hours from the Canadian border. Hapa speed skater Apolo Ohno is a local hero. So, with the winter Olympics about to descend on Vancouver, British…
KABC news story about Rescue of the Lost Battalion
KABC in Los Angeles did an excellent TV news story about the 65th anniversary reunion of the men who were at the rescue of the Lost Battalion. The 442nd Regimental…
International Lives: The Horiuchi Interviews
“The Nikkei I knew that were involved in the occupation…they were able to work more closely with the Japanese because the Japanese looked upon them as someone that could understand…
Closed Captioning on Densho’s YouTube Channel
Google recently announced new technologies to make Closed Captioning easier on YouTube. The YouTube video player has been able to display Closed Captions for some time but only for those…
Camp Harmony – Author Event
Densho is hosting a book event on December 3 at the Wing Luke Asian Museum in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District neighborhood. Join us for a talk at 6:30pm by Louis Fiset…
Oral History Workshop – Not How, But Why
Last Saturday, Densho executive director Tom Ikeda, with communications director Patricia Kiyono, led an oral history workshop for 15 participants. Unlike how-to trainings, Tom designed this workshop to examine the…