Family History & Genealogy

Collections containing over 100,000 oral histories and historical materials. There is a good chance you may find stories or photos about your relatives in these collections. But even if you don’t find direct evidence of their lives here you may find records of the places they lived, neighbors they knew, or events that affected their lives.

A searchable database of the over 120,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II. If your relative was incarcerated you will find entries for them with information from the WRA Form 26, the Final Accountability Rosters, Japanese American military databases, and you will also find links to objects in the Densho Digital Repository.

Articles covering a wide range of topics in Japanese American and World War II incarceration history. An essential aspect of learning about your family history is to understand the context around your ancestors’ lives. Knowing about places, events, and laws that affected them will lead you to new discoveries and more nuanced understandings of their lives.

An invaluable resource for learning about the World War II incarceration facilities. Explore maps of the camps, look at the location of the barracks where your ancestors lived, the mess halls they were assigned to, and other details—like how far they had to walk to school or the hospital.

Any person looking into Japanese American genealogy must understand the history of incarceration during World War II. If your ancestor spent time in any incarceration facility during the war, you should work on gathering all the relevant records related to this time period.