Roll with us to Pasadena for JANM’s new exhibition, Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community(free admission, reservations recommended)! Curated by writer and scholar, Dr. Oliver Wang, this exhibition dives into the people, places, and stories of Japanese American car scenes throughout Los Angeles.
At the center of the exhibition are five classic cars that highlight the themes of Speed, Style, Work, and Community: George Nakamura’s 1940s “Meteor” hot rod; Brian Omatsu’s custom 1951 Mercury coupe known as the “Purple Reign”; a 1956 Ford F100 pickup truck owned by Kirk Shimazu; Tod Kaneko’s 1973 Datsun 510, one of the models that launched the import car craze; and a hot pink 1989 Nissan 240SX from professional drift racing driver Nadine Sachiko Toyoda-Hsu’s days with the Drifting Pretty team.
Over one hundred objects—including rare photographs and home movies and memorabilia from car clubs, service stations, race car drivers, and collectors—show the breadth and depth of the Japanese American community in the hot rod, import tuner craze, drift racing, and low rider scenes as well as the central role that cars and trucks played in the working lives of Japanese Americans.
The Atomettes’ Karlene (née Nakanishi) Koketsu and Sadie (née Inatomi) Hifumi in sitting in the backseat of Susan Uemura’s Bel Air enroute to San Francisco, 1956. Japanese American National Museum, Gift of The Atomettes, 2023.48.9
Cruising J-Town will be on view from Thursday, July 31 through Friday, November 12, 2025, at the ArtCenter’s Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery (1111 South Arroyo Parkway, Pasadena, CA 91105). The gallery will be open from Wednesday through Sunday from 12 p.m.–5 p.m.
So come out to Pasadena and enjoy the sights and sounds of American car culture in Los Angeles through the lens of the Japanese American community! You can also take the exhibition home with you when you purchase the companion book and other fun gifts online from the JANM Store’sCruising J-Town Collection.
JANM’s Discover Nikkei is also working with Wang on a new series of articles and testimonials related to the personal, family, and community stories and histories covered in the exhibition and the companion book. Check out stories from the new Cruising J-Town: Side Trips and stay on the lookout for a new story every week or so that dives into the rich history and ways that Southern California Nikkei engage in the world of cars and trucks.
Car club jackets from the Paladins, courtesy of the Nagai Family; the Shogans, courtesy of Roy T. Yanase, D.D.S.; and the Apostles, courtesy of Howard Isasaki.
Related Public Programs
And don’t forget to mark your calendars for these exciting Cruising J-Town public programs and special events for JANM Members at JANM and ArtCenter too! Check janm.org/CruisingJTown/events for updates and we’ll see you there!
Saturday, August 30, 2025 2 p.m.–3:30 p.m. Admission: $5 (free for youth under 18 and JANM Members)
Join exhibition curator Dr. Oliver Wang and special guests in the world of import tuners from the 1970s through today for an insightful panel discussion about how street racers shaped the future of American car culture through their adoptions and innovations with Japanese import cars.
Saturday, September 13, 2025 10 a.m.–12 p.m. Admission: Free
Grab a cup of coffee and join the street racing and import tuner scene reunion featuring a selection of a dozen cars that reflect the merging of two scenes that many Japanese Americans and Asian Americans participated in from the 1970s through the 2000s. This event is organized in partnership with Darin Dohi, a former street racer with Gardena’s KMA.
Brian Omatsu’s 1951 Mercury Coupe, the “Purple Reign.” Courtesy of Brian Omatsu.
Saturday, October 25, 2025 2 p.m.–3:30 p.m. Admission: $5 (free for youth under 18 and JANM Members)
For over forty years, Nikkei fish trucks delivered fresh seafood, rice, and other Japanese goods to homes across Los Angeles. They also provided a valuable community service by bringing a taste of home six days a week to Nikkei throughout the greater Los Angeles area. This special event features testimonies from the families of half a dozen former fish truck operators, with rare photographs and home movies. Read more about fish truck history with Chelsea Shi-Chao Liu’s Discover Nikkei article, “Remembering the L.A. Retail Fish Association.”
Saturday, August 2, 2025 10 a.m.– 12 p.m. Admission: Members only. Interested in becoming a Member? Join now!
Join exhibition curator Dr. Oliver Wang for an exclusive morning preview of Cruising J-Town and a conversation about car culture across the generations of Southern California Nikkei.
Join exhibition curator Dr. Oliver Wang for an in-depth conversation about car culture across the generations of Southern California Nikkei.
Featured image: A photo collage of images from JANM’s exhibition, Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community. The exhibition is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities with additional support from the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, Sunco Industries, Co. Ltd., and Don & Ellen Mizota. The media sponsor is The Rafu Shimpo, and the promotional partners are Formula DRIFT, Japanese Classic Car Show, Mooneyes, and Toyota Owner’s and Restorer’s Club. Photo collage by Doug Mukai.
On March 14, 2025, JANM’s Democracy Center welcomed the Smithsonian’s Lonnie G. Bunch III and Lisa Sasaki as special guest speakers for its inaugural Irene Hirano Inouye Distinguished Lecture Series. Bunch is the fourteenth secretary of the Smithsonian and is devoted to enhancing diversity in the museum field. Sasaki is the deputy under secretary for Special Projects at the Smithsonian. She elevates the stories of women and Asian American communities and their impact around the world. Their life work and careers embody the essence of leadership, collaboration, inclusivity, and diversity that Inouye represented. She was JANM’s inaugural executive director and its president and CEO.
“Irene understood the importance of the lessons of history and how relevant and urgent they are in contemporary America.”
— Ann Burroughs, JANM President and CEO
“It was that spring in her step that propelled the museum forward. She understood, before it was widely recognized, that memory and history are not static artifacts of the past but powerful contemporary lessons, acts of resilience, and acts of resistance which are now more important than ever before. Irene understood the importance of the lessons of history and how relevant and urgent they are in contemporary America,” said Ann Burroughs, JANM President and CEO.
As Inouye steered JANM from a dream without funding or a site to an official affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, she led with the vision to empower communities, uplift women, and build bridges between the US and Japan. Bunch and Sasaki, both dear friends and colleagues of Inouye, reflected on Inouye’s leadership and insights into the museum field.
“Museums force people to engage with each other and encounter real learning and real barriers being broken.”
— Lonnie G. Bunch, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
“Irene made all of us believe that museums could be more than things that looked towards yesterday. They could be places that are central to today and tomorrow. In essence, what good museums are are really tools or weapons to fight for democracy, weapons to make a country better, weapons to make people understand that it’s important to give people not just what they want but what they need to know. Museums force people to engage with each other and encounter real learning and real barriers being broken. They remind us that America at its best is aspirational and that we must fight the good fight to make sure that those stories aren’t erased,” said Bunch.
Featured photograph: The Smithsonian’s Lonnie G. Bunch III speaks at the Democracy Center’s inaugural Irene Hirano Inouye Distinguished Lecture Series. Photo by Mike Palma.
Nikkei Progressives Community Press Conference
On March 18, 2025, JANM participated in a press conference organized by Nikkei Progressives condemning the use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to enforce mass deportations of Venezuelan men accused of being Tren de Aragua gang members. The press conference was held in front of the Historic Building, the Museum’s oldest and largest artifact. Built in 1925, the former Los Angeles Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple was a site of grave injustice for the bustling Little Tokyo neighborhood.
“On the corner of First and Central behind me is where Japanese Americans boarded buses to be taken to camps. This place serves as a reminder that this dark chapter remains one of the most egregious violations of civil liberties in American history, later condemned by Congress and acknowledged as a grave mistake. We must not repeat it,” said Kenyon Mayeda of JANM.
Today, the Historic Building is hallowed ground—a site of conscience and a gathering place for civic engagement and social justice. The press conference also included speakers from the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, Los Angeles Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, the Manzanar Committee, National Japanese American Citizens League, Nikkei Progressives, and Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition.
“This place serves as a reminder that this dark chapter remains one of the most egregious violations of civil liberties in American history, later condemned by Congress and acknowledged as a grave mistake. We must not repeat it.”
— Kenyon Mayeda, JANM Chief Impact Officer
“Immigrants helped build this nation and contribute daily, not only to our economy, but to society at large. They are our friends, our co-workers, our neighbors, and our family members. Nikkei Progressives will continue to stand in support of immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and all people whose rights are being violated and who are under attack by the Trump administration,” said Hope Nakamura of Nikkei Progressives.
“The Tuna Canyon Coalition’s mission is to preserve the stories so it doesn’t happen again. We are here to uncover unknown diaries, letters, or like June Berk, interviewing the children and great grandchildren of the detained. Clearly the separation of the family was horrible then, and still [is] today,” said Kyoko Nancy Oda of the Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition.
“The Manzanar Committee will continue to challenge the lies being told about immigrants and refugees. We will not stand by and watch while other communities are attacked like we were. We will remind America of what can happen when our Constitution is tossed aside or where the rule of law no longer matters. Our story tells us our country is stronger, our democracy more vibrant, when the Constitutional rights of all people—immigrants and citizens alike—are protected and that the rule of law prevails,” said Bruce Embrey of the Manzanar Committee.
Alex M. Johnson moderated a panel with Mario Fedelin, Cielo Castro, and James E. Herr at the Democracy Center. Photo by Doug Mukai.
On March 28, 2025, JANM and the Democracy Center once again hosted the Smithsonian’s National Conversation on Race. During the inaugural Conversation in December 2023, panelists and guests alike established a strong foundation around the intersection of race with issues of wealth, health, and the arts.
“Our work for the reckoning with our Racial Past initiative is to support and amplify the work of organizations like JANM, like the Chinese American Museum, like LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes. These were the first institutions we reached out to to launch our national work, because they’re such exemplary models—not only in what they do and how they do it, but in collaborating with each other,” said Deborah Mack, associate director for strategic partnerships at the National African American Museum of History and Culture.
“How do we support young people? We listen. We trust, we act with urgency and not caution, and we get out of the way and make room and space for those coming behind.”
— Alex M. Johnson, California Wellness Foundation Vice President of Public Affairs
When the Los Angeles wildfires devastated the cities of Altadena and Pacific Palisades, this year’s Conversation examined the urgent contemporary forces shaping the issues. With a focus on youth empowerment and the role of creative practice in equitable natural disaster recovery, this year’s panels illuminated pathways toward systemic change.
“When people ask me the question, how do we support young people? Right now, my answer is clear. We listen. We trust, we act with urgency and not caution, and we get out of the way and make room and space for those coming behind,” said Alex M. Johnson, the vice president of Public Affairs for the California Wellness Foundation.
Johnson moderated a panel with Mario Fedelin, CEO of Changeist; Cielo Castro, chief officer of policy and programs at California Community Foundation; and James E. Herr, director of the Democracy Center. Together they explored ways to give young people opportunities to make the positive changes that they envision for the nation’s future.
“Hope is so important, especially for our young people right now. If we’re going to hold space, it’s one of the spaces we need to hold for them, because we need to find moments of joy in this world today.”
— James E. Herr, Democracy Center Director
“I’m glad that you talked about hope, because I think hope is so important, especially for our young people right now. If we’re going to hold space, it’s one of the spaces we need to hold for them, because we need to find moments of joy in this world today,” said Herr.
“It really is grounding myself in the long arc of moral history. The long arc of justice, remembering that we’ve been as a country through so much worse, how we have grit ourselves up, right, to make sure that we brace ourselves for the impact and protect young people from having to bear so much of it themselves,” said Castro.
“What I found to be some of the best strategies during this time is just holding space without prescription, holding space without some sort of mastery or some sort of intervention,” said Fedelin. “Give them the room to say whatever the hell they want. And then as the adult in the room, do the thing that I think my parents struggled to do for me, which was tell me it’s going to be okay and allow them to believe me. And then act in a way that shows them this is going to be okay because I got you.”
“Arts recovery projects can address the impacts of disasters on democracy by promoting empathy, connection, and agency in affected communities.”
— Anna Kennedy-Borissow, Keynote Speaker
The Democracy Center also welcomed Anna Kennedy-Borissow from the University of Melbourne as the keynote speaker. A leading voice on the intersection of creative practice and disaster recovery, Kennedy-Borissow talked about her extensive research on wildfires that have devastated Australia over the past two decades and how her research is transferable to the LA wildfires.
During her presentation, she discussed how arts recovery projects can contribute to a culture of democracy. Creative projects can be cathartic for disaster-affected individuals and communities. They promote partnerships, build trust, and strengthen connections. Most importantly, they can foster a sense of hope for the future and be calming places where individuals and communities can fully express themselves.
“Ultimately, arts recovery projects can address the impacts of disasters on democracy by promoting empathy, connection, and agency in affected communities. But for this to occur, it is essential that both the arts, emergency management, public and private sectors recognize the value of these initiatives and resource arts-based recovery projects, artists, community and cultural organizations accordingly,” said Kennedy-Borissow.
“I really see the fires as a metaphor for this opportunity that we have to move forward, to build the world that we want to live in.”
— Karen Mack, LA Commons Executive Director
She was then joined by a panel of local experts to explore how Los Angeles could adapt and implement these models to enhance its own recovery initiatives. The panel was moderated by Leticia Rhi Buckley, CEO of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, and also included Karen Mack, executive director of LA Commons, and Alvaro D. Marquez, program officer for Arts and Culture at the California Community Foundation.
“I really see the fires as a metaphor for this opportunity that we have to move forward, to build the world that we want to live in. One of the things that we were focused on is giving artists the resources to do what they do best, which is to imagine, dream, world build. And that’s the moment that we’re in. As painful as it is, we are building a new world for ourselves,” said Mack.
“The arts is every single funding area that we do. It is economic development. It is youth development, it is health, it is housing. It is all of those things,” said Marquez. “One of the things I want to invite us to think about is to get outside of Eurocentric conceptions of art, which involve a gallery and a white cube, and to think about cultural expression writ large and in an expansive sense. We need to learn from our indigenous neighbors and cousins that land stewardship is a form of cultural practice that can teach us how to respond to these crises and hopefully prevent the next one.”
Clockwise from top: Alvaro D. Marquez, Leticia Rhi Buckley, Anna Kennedy-Borissow and Karen Mack. Photos by Doug Mukai.
Each year on or around February 19, Japanese American communities and allies across the US commemorate the Day of Remembrance(DOR). On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which directed the US military to uproot 125,000 persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast and incarcerate them without due process in America’s concentration camps during World War II. Each year, DOR programs around the country highlight the lessons of incarceration to ensure that the American public understands the consequences of failed leadership and injustice when those lessons are disregarded.
As JANM renovates its Pavilion, the Museum is bringing its programs to the people in communities throughout California, across the US, and in Japan with JANM on the Go. This year, JANM was a part of DOR programs in Los Angeles; Washington, DC; and Omaha, Nebraska.
Los Angeles DOR
On February 15, 2025, JANM partnered with the Los Angeles DOR Committee to host this year’s commemoration with the theme, A Legacy of Courage: Nikkei Women Persevering Through Incarceration and Beyond, at the Los Angeles Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple. The program celebrated Nikkei women’s stories, their determination to rebuild and thrive after World War II, and their contributions to community and culture.
Concentration camp survivors and descendants carry banners representing ten concentration camps, Tuna Canyon temporary detention center, Crystal City Department of Justice internment camp, and the 100th/442nd/MIS. Photo by Evan Kodani.
The Los Angeles DOR Committee is a coalition of organizations that includes Go For Broke National Education Center, Japanese American Citizens League—Pacific Southwest District, Japanese American National Museum, Little Tokyo Service Center, Manzanar Committee, Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress, Nikkei Progressives, and Organization of Chinese Americans–Greater Los Angeles.
The program opened with Girl Scouts, concentration camp survivors, and descendants carrying banners representing ten concentration camps, Tuna Canyon temporary detention center, Crystal City Department of Justice internment camp, and the 100th/442nd/MIS.
“Each year we’re reminded of the need to honor the enduring legacies and stories of those who experienced America’s concentration camps during World War II,” said Matthew Weisbly of the Japanese American Citizens League.
“In the camp roll call we honor those of Japanese ancestry who were impacted by Executive Order 9066 and forcibly removed from the West Coast and taken to one of ten War Relocation Authority concentration camps or thirty Department of Justice and INS camps,” said Elizabeth Morikawa of JANM.
Dr. Kelsey Iino moderates A Legacy of Courage: Nikkei Women Persevering Through Incarceration and Beyond with Sarah Omura, Yesenia Cardenas, Nobuko Miyamoto, Karen Magaña, and traci kato-kiriyama. Photo by Evan Kodani.
The roll call was followed by a moving and multigenerational panel discussion moderated by Dr. Kelsey Iino with Yesenia Cardenas, a paralegal in the Air Force National Guard; traci kato-kiriyama, poet and multi-and transdisciplinary artist; Karen Magaña, UCLA PhD candidate in Education with a focus on the family separation and reunification experiences of Central American immigrant students; Nobuko Miyamoto, songwriter, dancer, and theater artist; and Sarah Omura, a senior at Whitney High School who is active in the Japanese American community. Together they talked about the generational impact of unjust incarceration and parallels between Japanese American and Japanese Latin Americans’ experiences and that of today’s immigrant communities.
“I really saw camp from the view of my mother who had stories, who had anger, and felt so helpless, but she also wanted to protect me. I’m a songwriter and I want to present stories through video and music. They want to erase us from here but we’re still here. We have become storytellers. We have become poets. We have become filmmakers. We have written books to tell and keep these stories alive. We bring people together like this every year. It’s very important what we’re doing now,” said Miyamoto.
“What strikes me the most is the ongoing legacy of state violence against immigrant families, how the US government has repeatedly justified forced separation, displacement, and incarceration in the name of national security. The Kudo family was forcibly removed from their home in Peru, incarcerated in a US concentration camp, and stripped of their legal rights. Unfortunately, that story is not just a historical tragedy. It is a pattern that continues today. Immigrant families are experiencing the same state-sanctioned violence in the form of deportations, incarceration, and family separations,” said Magaña.
Washington, DC DOR
On February 18, 2025, JANM and the The Irei Project commemorated DOR in Washington, DC by launching the national tour of The Ireichō and partnering with the Japanese American Citizens League, JACL-DC Chapter, National Japanese American Memorial Foundation, National Archives Foundation, and the National Museum of American History for the panel discussion, The Ireichō: Day of Remembrance, at the US Navy Memorial, directly across the street from the National Archives, which houses the original Executive Order 9066.
“Side by side, these two artifacts tell a story of loss and resilience of exclusion and remembrance. One represents the machinery of state-sanctioned injustice, and the other the power of a community that refuses to let its history be erased,” said Ann Burroughs, JANM President and CEO. “Today, as we launch the national tour of the Ireichō, we reaffirm our responsibility to ensure that remembrance is not passive but that it’s an active force for justice and that it’s an active force for the social good.”
The Ireichō: Day of Remembrance was moderated by Dr. Anthea M. Hartig, the Elizabeth MacMillan Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and featured Burroughs, Duncan Ryuken Williams, the director and founder of The Irei Project, and Shirley Ann Higuchi, the chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation.
Dr. Anthea M. Hartig moderates The Ireichō: Day of Remembrance with Duncan Williams, Shirley Ann Higuchi, and Ann Burroughs during the 2025 Day of Remembrance in Washington, DC. The poster of Bob Matsumoto’s iconic work, Remembrance, is on the right. Photo by Jenn Vu.
“It’s not just about consoling the spirits of those who’ve passed on but it’s about the spirits of those who remain and that idea has been at the heart of what we’ve been doing at The Irei Project,” said Williams.
“The reason why this project is so important is because for us—the descendants and current survivors—it gives us the opportunity to step into the shoes of our parents and grandparents and say that we are here. We were here, and we matter, and that’s why this research is so important,” said Higuchi.
“[The Ireichō] challenges us to think about what we choose to commemorate, who we choose to honor, and whose names we refuse to forget. In so doing we’re challenged to take responsibility for ensuring that history is told fully and truthfully, and that its lessons endure,” said Burroughs.
Visitors also got the opportunity to stamp the book at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History from February 19–21, 2025. Now the Ireichō is traveling on a national tour with stops in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Hawai’i, Idaho, Illinois, North Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming through July 2026. At the close of the tour in August 2026, The Irei Project will gift the Ireichō to JANM, where it will remain as part of the Museum’s permanent collection and a lasting monument to the formidable strength of the Japanese American community.
“The book will touch the ground of those incarceration sites but it will not return as a relic but as a living Monument, as an act of repair not only for individuals and families but for the nation itself,” said Burroughs. “Each name stamped is an answer to the questions: What do we carry forward? What do we refuse to forget? What is our obligation to history? Because in the end, monuments are not just about the past they’re about the future we choose to shape.”
After the event, Burroughs gave posters of artist Bob Matsumoto’s iconic work, Remembrance, to Hartig, Williams, and Higuchi on behalf of Matsumoto. An advertising art director and a Manzanar survivor, Matsumoto created this image to honor those who were incarcerated in the ten concentration camps after the signing of Executive Order 9066. His advertising work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and his artwork was recently accessioned into the Smithsonian.
Omaha DOR
On February 19, 2025, JANM’s Director of Collections Management & Access and Curator, Kristen Hayashi, spoke at the DOR event co-hosted by the Omaha chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League and Creighton University in conjunction with the exhibition All Aboard: The Railroad in American Art 1840 – 1955 at the Joslyn Art Museum.
Kristen Hayashi gives her presentation, Art as Agency through the Henry Sugimoto Collection, at the Day of Remembrance event in Omaha, Nebraska. Photo by Kristen Hayashi.
JANM lent Henry Sugimoto’s painting, When Can We Go Home?, for the exhibition as a way to talk about the role that the railroad played in the forced removal and mass incarceration of Japanese Americans and their families during World War II. Created in 1943, the painting depicts Sugimoto’s wife, Susie Tagawa Sugimoto, and their daughter on their first day at the Fresno temporary detention center in Fresno, California. Its title stems from the question that his daughter asked that same day after what she believed was a picnic lunch. Hayashi gave a presentation about World War II incarceration through the lens of Sugimoto’s work.
“I learned so much about this rich Japanese American history in Nebraska. It was this wonderful coincidence that this exhibition, which included this Henry Sugimoto artwork, was in Omaha. It was an opportunity to share Henry Sugimoto’s life and career as well as the Japanese American community through his artwork. I think he would be really pleased to know that his artwork continues to educate people about the incarceration experience and the experience of Japanese immigrants,” she said.
Henry Sugimoto, When Can We Go Home?, 1943, oil on canvas, 33.5 × 24.25 in. Japanese American National Museum, Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, 92.97.3
Every fall, our volunteers host a See’s Candies fundraiserthat supports the Kokoro Craft Show Committee and the volunteers’ activity fund. This fund helps pay for volunteer-led programs, including Together events and field trips to the Holocaust Museum of Los Angeles, the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, the Chinese American Museum, and a walking tour of Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo.
On January 5, 2025, JANM will begin renovating its Pavilion and launching JANM on the Go. During this time, the volunteers’ activity fund will be essential to keeping our volunteers connected to JANM and to one another.
Please share this fundraiser with your friends and family, and order some sweet gifts for the holidays! This fundraiser is open until Friday, December 6, 2024.
Please note that the price of See’s Candies online is the same as it is in stores. The Kokoro Committee and JANM will receive a percentage of each order. Your order will be delivered directly to your home or to the home of your family or friends.
If you need assistance with your orders, please call See’s Candies customer service at 877-599-7337 and mention that you are supporting the Kokoro Craft Show at JANM. Customer service is available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.–4:30 p.m. PT.
Image Gallery: JANM volunteers take a field trip to the Shoya House at the Huntington. Mike Okamura, a JANM volunteer and the president of the Little Tokyo Historical Society, leads volunteers on a walking tour of Little Tokyo (photos by Tomoko Takasugi).
Image Gallery: Shoppers enjoy the Kokoro Craft Show and a performance from Bombu Taiko. Photos by Ben Furuta.
Image Gallery: JANM volunteers enjoy Together events at the Museum (photos by Joe Akira and Ben Furuta) as well as a field trip to the Chinese American Museum followed by lunch in nearby Olvera Street.
When John Esaki was growing up during the 1950s, his father, George Teruo Esaki, ran a camera shop in their hometown of Monterey, California. Esaki’s Photo Shop stood on Alvarado Street where Portolá Plaza is today.
“My earliest memories of going to visit him at his photo shop was him in the dark room in the back. He would be developing photos in chemical trays. It was the old-style photography where you expose the light on a sheet of paper,” said Esaki.
Watching his father develop photographs in his dark room was Esaki’s introduction to a career behind the lens. When his father’s shop was demolished in the 1960s to make room for the plaza as part of the city’s urban renewal movement, all of the dark room and lighting equipment was stored in his grandmother’s basement.
George Teruo Esaki with his camera.
“In high school I did have an interest in photography so my friends and I set up a dark room in my grandmother’s basement and we would have a little weekly—almost like a club—where we would go in and we’d take our photos and develop them in this big closet in the basement of my grandmother’s house,” said Esaki.
His grandmother’s house was a hub of activity and the place where his father’s family lived before World War II. When his grandfather passed away before the war, his father and uncle were raised by their grandmother. Meanwhile, Esaki’s mother, Michi Jean Esaki (née Oishi), grew up with her sisters on their family farm in Gardena, California, and they later met at the Gila River concentration camp in Arizona.
“I remember him advising me that in my own career I should think about sales as a professional option because he said he always made more income in his new job as a car salesman than he ever made running a photo studio or a camera shop,” said Esaki, laughing as he recalled the memory. “You don’t really process advice from your parents that deeply when you’re younger.”
But something about his parents did strike a chord with him. Neither of them graduated from college, but they encouraged Esaki to continue his education. His mother graduated from high school at the time of her family’s forced removal from their family farm. His father earned a teaching certificate and became certified to teach at Gila River.
Gila River, one of America’s concentration camps. Japanese American National Museum, Gift of George Teruo Esaki, 96.25.8
“Maybe that kind of subconsciously influenced me into wanting to go into teaching,” he said. After earning his BA in English from the University of California, Berkeley, he was accepted into the university’s teaching credential program. He taught in Berkeley and Walnut Creek and earned his teaching credential at twenty-three. He went on to teach middle school for five years, including classes in reading, typing, health, and art.
“There was an art teacher who did photography. He had a dark room in his part of his art studio and I got assigned to pick up one of those classes. This is very challenging because you have twenty-five to thirty kids and you can only have two or three in the darkroom at a time. At that age, mischievous behavior happens all the time, so I was trying to juggle going into the dark room to give some instruction and then coming back and making sure everyone is still working on some kind of project,” he said. “One of the activities that I devised for them involved a Super 8mm movie camera I discovered in a classroom closet. I would assign people to make little animated films where they would have to take single frame shots of an object in motion, so it’s very time consuming. Hopefully it absorbed them for a while, while I could go into the dark room. These classes were very imaginative, and they whetted my interest in both photography and the moving image.”
After five years, his school district gave him a leave of absence to explore other options, including traveling or applying to graduate school. At first, he thought that he would apply for his master’s in education but instead he decided to apply to graduate programs that were more fulfilling to him on a personal level.
“On a lark I applied to the UCLA and USC film schools in addition to applying to some education departments. I did get accepted to both options. I said, ‘What the heck, I should go to film school.’”
John Esaki on the set of Hito Hata: Raise the Banner.
His first film project at UCLA was with Robert Nakamura, founder of Visual Communications and the UCLA Center for EthnoCommunications and cofounder of JANM’s Media Arts Center (MAC). The first film that Nakamura showed the class was Wataridori: Birds of Passage, a documentary about his own Issei father. Nakamura’s class and film was not only a turning point for Esaki but an inspiration for him to make his own film, Oshogatsu, about his grandmother.
“Bob is a tremendous, inspirational teacher,” Esaki recalled. “He was working at the time for Visual Communications, and they were doing the film Hito Hata, which was the first Japanese American historical drama produced as a fictional feature film. He encouraged us, after we finished our Project One, to volunteer for Visual Communications (VC) because they had to shoot over spring break. I wanted to learn as much as I could so he and the VC crew were shooting up near Manzanar.”
Founded in 1970, VC supports and mentors Asian American and Pacific Islander film and media artists who challenge perspectives, empower communities, and foster connections among people and generations. Esaki was at VC for almost twenty years working on all aspects of filmmaking including sound, videography, and editing. When JANM’s Pavilion opened in 1999 he documented the huge milestone with multiple cameras and joined the Museum’s staff.
“It looked like there were going to be a lot of possibilities here for interesting work so I left VC and I came here,” he said.
At JANM he rose from media arts specialist to the director of MAC, where he made documentaries, exhibition media, and life history videos with the team in support of the Museum’s mission. He served as the vice president of programs and transitioned into development, where as senior philanthropy officer he worked with members, volunteers, and donors to raise funds and awareness for the Museum’s comprehensive campaign.
The John Esaki Band (JEB) playing at his retirement party.
Esaki recently retired from JANM with great fanfare from the Japanese American and Little Tokyo communities. Over 200 guests—family, friends, and community members—came to celebrate his career and the contributions that he made to JANM and the Little Tokyo community. Throughout the evening, colleagues praised him as calm, gracious, and compassionate, and as an extraordinary mentor for young filmmakers. A man who could wear many hats in the worlds of community and media, he was dependable, dedicated, playful, with a deep personal belief in JANM’s mission.
JANM is also an institution and historic place that holds a special place in his heart. Back in 1946, his parents were married in the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, now known as JANM’s Historic Building. “That’s always been a special connection for me, to walk by that building every day knowing that they got together as husband and wife there,” said Esaki. “There was always some interesting aspect of Japanese American history, culture, and sports that was important to document.” As he embarks on his retirement journey, he’s also beginning a new adventure: Becoming a treasured JANM volunteer. Congratulations, John!
A rewarding career in film and media arts was just one of the ways that Esaki contributed to the Japanese American and Asian American communities in Los Angeles. His family also donated artifacts to JANM’s collection, including a scrapbook and other personal objects. Find out more about his family history on Discover Nikkei.
Featured image: John Esaki and Chief Development Officer Kelly-Ann Nakayama with their playful hats at JANM’s Natsumatsuri Family Festival. Photo by Kazz Morohashi.
I recently got a chance to sit down with JANM’s new Chief Impact Officer, Kenyon Mayeda, to talk about what he has learned so far on his own professional journey and advice he has for young professionals as they navigate their own careers.
During the summer of his first year at the University of San Francisco, he was accepted into the Nikkei Community Internship program, a paid two-month internship program for undergraduate students to gain valuable work experience, establish their network, and meet leaders in the Japanese American community. He was placed in JANM’s Development department, where he was able to make connections with other Japantown leaders and executive directors.
“In particular Jon Osaki was really trying to see how I could get more involved with the Japanese Community Youth Council in the Japantown up there. That was a really formative experience for me as a jump-off point from going to the internship working at JANM to continuing to do the work and working with kids at JCYC,” said Mayeda. “You really have to take initiative and be a self-starter, especially in community organizations. It was an interesting experience to be at an intersection of my own personal identity and history and learn how to work in a professional environment.”
Upon graduating college, he lived and worked in San Francisco’s Japantown, where he discovered a need for boundaries between his personal and professional lives.
“I was spending so much of my personal time in Japantown. I was so intent and motivated to learn about the issues that were going on in the neighborhood that I sort of forgot to take care of myself,” he said. “When I found myself at an intersection of burnout, I really had to make a choice to see if I could explore another facet both of my own identity and continue to learn professionally about different environments.”
His decision led him to work at Cathay Bank, where he made his way from trainee to overseeing the bank’s regional branches in Seattle. Over time, he settled into the city and was able to connect community organizations’ issues, projects, and programs with the bank’s resources. While in Seattle, he also learned the importance of volunteering at the community level to discover and better understand who was being served by community organizations.
“Once I started volunteering it really fast tracked me to meeting folks that grew up there and I think that was a really important milestone. There’s something called the Seattle freeze, where it’s notoriously difficult to get a social network of people in Seattle. I can attest that it’s pretty true. In the early years of me being there I really only interacted with other California transplants but after I started doing more community work and I participated in a leadership development program that was planted in Chinatown International District, that’s when my network really opened up to meeting folks that had spent their whole lives in the area and knew a lot about the history and the community.”
With a deep knowledge and understanding of West Coast communities, he transitioned into marketing and advertising at TDW+Co where he applied a community-minded perspective to strategies that helped clients make authentic connections with communities. One of those examples he gave was the work that the agency did as part of Team Y&R, the advertising and communications team of thirteen agencies who have worked with multicultural and historically undercounted groups, for the 2020 Census’s “Shape Your Future. Start Here.” advertising campaign.
“It’s such a critical issue to count everyone here in the United States and activate in these communities where nonprofits and other community organizations can see the critical importance of ensuring accurate population numbers are guiding budgeting and funding decisions that support the Asian American community.”
He rose from senior account executive to vice president of operations and established the agency’s Los Angeles branch on 2nd Street, just two blocks away from JANM.
“Surprisingly, when I came back I sort of came home in several different ways. I came home because of the physical city I grew up in but I also came home in the sense that I was hired to open and expand this agency. I knew that because they started in Chinatown International District in Seattle and I knew and learned the identity of that neighborhood. I knew that the closest possible community to that experience and that level of connection was Little Tokyo.”
Today, Mayeda brings over twenty years of leadership, strategy, and institution-wide performance and impact to his current work with JANM and he continues to hone his leadership experience through board service including the Chinese Information Service Center, the California Japanese American Community Leadership Council, and the US-Japan Council, where he is the Southern California regional chair.
“As the chief impact officer, thinking about things in the long range format is really to think about how we can continue to deepen those connections in public places. We are the Japanese American National Museum, so for me it’s about really considering how we bolster the conditions of a national Japanese American community when we are very much an institution at a local level in LA that’s very familiar and known. Then there’s the international layer of it where we consider how we’ve been forging sister museum relationships with the Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama as well as considering how we can grow our connections with Japanese companies because there is interest in Japanese Americans and the Japanese American experience which is at the core of our mission at the Museum.”
Images from top left:
The 2004 class of the Nikkei Community Internship program. Photo courtesy of NCI program via Discover Nikkei.
Kenyon interning in JANM’s Development department in 2004. Photo courtesy of Kenyon Mayeda.
Kenyon today as JANM’s Chief Impact Officer. Photo courtesy of Kenyon Mayeda.
Do you love capturing the world in unique and creative ways? Do you have a passion and talent for photography? If you have your own equipment and are available on weekends and evenings, we’d love to hear from you!
We’re expanding our crew of volunteer photographers to capture our exhibitions, public programs, and more at JANM. Volunteer photographers work with the Marketing and Communications department to shoot photographs that document and illustrate JANM’s events, initiatives, and mission to promote the understanding and appreciation of America’s diversity through the Japanese American experience.
Volunteers’ photographs are featured on our website and blog; highlighted in institutional reports, presentations, and outreach materials; used across social media; and archived at JANM. Their work conveys the powerful stories of the Museum and its mission to the public on a global stage.
JANM Volunteer Richard Watanabe captures the excitement of mochitsuki at the 2024 Oshogatsu Family Festival. Photo by Doug Mukai.
JANM Volunteer Nobuyuki Okada snaps photographs of visitors stamping the Ireichō. Photo by Doug Mukai.
Volunteer Opportunity: Photography
Reports to: Marketing and Communications
We’re looking for photographers who:
Have experience photographing events, exhibitions, people, and/or buildings at a quality level
Own photography equipment and a computer
Can select, edit, and digitally transfer photographs
Can attend at least one on-site event a month, usually on weekends or evenings
Are comfortable working in a fast-paced environment with visitors, staff, and volunteers
Have keen visual and compositional judgment
Are professional and flexible in meeting needs and circumstances of events
Can be appropriately dressed for the occasion
Can communicate with staff about their schedule in advance
Physical demands include:
Standing (10%)
Walking, including stairs (80%)
Sitting (10%)
Lifting (up to 5 pounds)
Sound like you? Submit your volunteer program application! Once we receive your application we will schedule a phone call with you to discuss volunteering at JANM and request a sample of 3–5 photographs.
On Friday, March 1, 2024, JANM hosted the opening celebration of Giant Robot Biennale 5with exhibition curator and Giant Robot founder Eric Nakamura; artists Sean Chao, Felicia Chiao, Luke Chueh, Giorgiko, James Jean, Taylor Lee, Mike Shinoda, Rain Szeto, and Yoskay Yamamoto; and music with Dan the Automator.
The new exhibition welcomed nearly 1,300 visitors in a few hours, with a line that wound through JANM’s core exhibition, Common Ground: The Heart of Community. Visitors enjoyed engaging with the art, listening to music, and chowing down on food from Kogi BBQ and MANEATINGPLANT food trucks.
Since 2007, the Museum has partnered with Nakamura to produce the Giant Robot Biennale, a recurring art exhibition that highlights diverse work and celebrates the ethos of Giant Robot—a staple of Asian American alternative pop culture and an influential brand encompassing pop art, skateboard, comic book, graphic arts, and vinyl toy culture.
“These exhibitions champion the spirit of collaboration and welcome you into a unique space with a DIY attitude. They create a vibrant culture for future generations to see themselves and their interests on the national stage. And they continue to fuse the past with the present to create a trailblazing community for you,” said Ann Burroughs, JANM President and CEO.
Nakamura and the artists also contributed to the Giant Robot Biennale 5 audio tour, now available on JANM’s digital guide. Hear directly from the artists anytime, anywhere, and come down to JANM to check out the exhibition. It’s on view through September 1, 2024, and it’s an experience you don’t want to miss!
JANM is excited to release its new podcast, Japanese America, today. Coinciding with the annual Day of Remembrance, the Museum’s new podcast explores unique experiences, challenges, and triumphs of Japanese Americans and illuminates their contributions to the mosaic of American life.
From historical milestones to contemporary perspectives, cohosts Michelle MaliZaki and Koji Sakai will take listeners on an insightful journey through JANM’s collection that showcases a diverse community that shapes the American story in extraordinary ways.
In the first episode, learn how Yuri Kochiyama’s concentration camp experiences transformed her into a civil rights icon. Listen and subscribe at your favorite podcast app!
On January 26, 2024, JANM ushered in a new era for its campus by naming its plaza after the late JANM Board of Trustees Chair and Secretary Norman Y. Mineta and hosting the namesake distinguished lecture at the Daniel K. Inouye National Center for the Preservation of Democracy (Democracy Center). On Friday afternoon, guests gathered at the Museum to witness the unveiling of the new sign as the sun began to set behind the buildings of Little Tokyo and downtown LA. The Norman Y. Mineta Democracy Plaza connects the Museum’s Pavilion, Historic Building, and Democracy Center together. It’s a place that creates a sense of transparency and access between all buildings on campus and is a reminder that democracy is shaped through the involvement and engagement of individuals.
“We all feel Norm’s presence here. This is hallowed ground, a place where American families were taken to concentration camps,” said Ann Burroughs, JANM President and CEO. She described how Mineta used his imprisonment experiences at the Santa Anita temporary detention center (about fifteen miles away from the Museum) and the Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming to lead the US in Congress and the White House. “Few better understand that this union could be more perfect than Norm and few worked as hard to make it so.”
“Norm lived his life for the democracy of his country,” said Deni Mineta, widow of the late Secretary. “It is important for the community at large to understand these lessons and pass them on. I see memories, love, and compassion, and I am so grateful that you’re here.”
Mayor Karen Bass described her mother’s experience of seeing her classmates’ empty chairs when she was going to school in Los Angeles and emphasized the importance of acknowledging the darker periods of US history to create a more inclusive democracy. “This is our shared history of folks of color,” she said. LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis added, “He’s a beacon of hope for us, and a reminder for why we’ve been fighting for all voices around the world.”
The newly named plaza brings Mineta’s values and vision for democracy to new generations and reflects the evolution of the Japanese American community. His extraordinary legacy, lifelong commitment to democracy, and profound impact on the Museum was also recognized with the inaugural Norman Y. Mineta Distinguished Lecture Friday evening. The lecture is a signature series of the Democracy Center focusing on Mineta’s leadership values and principles, including his commitment to public service, social justice, and strengthening US-Japan relations.
Mitch Landrieu, former senior advisor to the President and former mayor of New Orleans, was the special guest speaker. From 2010–2018 he served as the 61st Mayor while New Orleans was still recovering from Hurricane Katrina and in the midst of the BP oil spill. Similar to Mineta, Landrieu’s father, Moon, championed integration while serving in the Louisiana House of Representatives, as mayor of New Orleans, and as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Jimmy Carter. Throughout Moon’s time in office, the Landrieus and Minetas became friends. Like them, Landrieu also dedicated his life to public service. His speech and subsequent conversation with Mineta’s son and JANM Board of Governors member David Mineta discussed their fathers’ friendship, the power of the vote, and why it is important to fight for democracy every day.
“Our fight today starts by reclaiming our democracy and continuing to uplift our ideals in this country. We cannot allow our history to be erased. We cannot shrug our shoulders at the past,” said Landrieu. “When so much has pulled us apart, we must work together to answer the question: Who are we? This is a time for us to come together as patriots. Every generation in America has faced a moment where they had to defend democracy. This is ours. Do not close your eyes to what is happening around you. Do not think for a moment that the fight for democracy is over there. It’s happening right here.”
