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.
Does your mouth start to water when you see a steamy bowl of ramen or udon? Is your go-to snack Spam musubi or onigiri? Same here! Food plays a huge role in our cultural identities. This summer, Discover Nikkei is making a video that highlights how Nikkei around the world share a community through food. We’d love for you to participate!
If you’re handy with a camera—or a smartphone—we’re asking you to take a video with your favorite cultural food (or perhaps your Oba-chan’s signature dish?), and then “pass it” to the virtual person next to you. Plus, take a picture of your plate to show us the delicious Nikkei cuisine you prepared! We’ll be editing all the submissions together to form one longer video of Nikkei sharing food around the worldwide dinner table. The video will be shared on our website, YouTube channel, and social media platforms.
The final video will be a celebration of the incredible diversity of our global community. No acting experience necessary! Just be yourself and have a great time. If you’re feeling extra creative, put something in the frame that represents where you live. Maybe a favorite team jersey, a photo of a special place, or a national flag in the background—the more creative, the better!
For all the details on how to shoot and submit your video, visit 5dn.org/pass-the-food. We can’t wait to see your videos!
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!
Oshogatsu kicked off with dance performances by the Nippon Minyo Kenkyukai, Hoshun Kai, an all-volunteer Japanese folk dance group in Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo that preserves the traditions of Japanese folk dance while introducing contemporary interpretations of those same dances. Their performances were dedicated to the late Hashimoto Hoshunbi Sensei and included folk dances about entertainment, fishing, and coal mining. The “Tanko-bushi” or coal miners’ song was especially interesting because the dancers explained that the dance steps symbolize digging for the coal, shoveling it over your shoulder, looking back to check the mine, and pushing the mine cart forward.
Cold Tofu, the nation’s longest-running Asian American improv and sketch comedy group, regaled the crowd with four improvised skits based on the audiences’ suggestions. In Standing, Sitting, Squatting, Leaning, four comics created different scenes with the theme of birthdays while assuming one of the four postures. In Pillars, two young volunteers helped three comics ad-lib a story set at the Parthenon using their suggestions, and in Pop-Up Storybook, four comics improvised a story called “The Velvety Dragon.”
“That book will be available in the JANM lobby at the end of our show,” joked the emcee, Mike Palma.
Longtime volunteer Hal Keimi led a beginner taiko lesson with children and adults of all ages. From children under seven years old to adults in their sixties and seventies, everyone had fun following Keimi’s lead on the drums. Guests also enjoyed Kodama Taiko’s unique mochitsuki demonstrations. The best part? Learning to make freshly made mochi!
Thank you for celebrating the new year with us! We hope that we will see you at our next family festival. Sign up for our email list or follow us on social media to learn about upcoming family festivals.
Photo captions and credits: Guests explore Aki’s Market and The Bias Inside Us, watch Cold Tofu and Shan the Candyman, go on a scavenger hunt, and make paper crafts. Photos by Joe Akira, Kazz Morohashi, Doug Mukai, and Richard Watanabe.
Hal Keimi leads a taiko lesson for all ages. Photos by Kazz Morohashi and Mike Palma.
Nippon Minyo Kenkyukai embellish their dances with fans, sashes, and castanets, and lead a Tanko-bushi dance lesson. Photos by Joe Akira, Ben Furuta, and Tsuneo Takasugi.
Kodama Taiko performs their traditional and unique mochitsuki (Japanese rice pounding ritual) for a cheering crowd. Photos by Doug Mukai and Mike Palma.
Celebrate the Year of the Dragon at JANM’s Oshogatsu Family Festival on Sunday, January 7, 2024 from 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Admission to the festival and Museum is free all day.
Families and kids of all ages can enjoy cultural performances, crafts, and activities. You’ll get to watch candy sculpture demonstrations, take souvenir photos, make dragon puppets and daruma dolls, shop for some fukubukuro (lucky grab bags), watch Kodama Taiko’s mochitsuki (rice pounding) demonstration, relax with the Los Angeles Public Library’s storytime session, and more!
To ensure swift entry to the festival, we encourage everyone to register for their free tickets at janm.org/oshogatsufest2024. After you register, you will receive a barcode (to print or display on your smartphone or other mobile device) that confirms your spot and provides quick access at the door.
JANM Members will have access to a Members-only entrance for expedited entry and can take advantage of the special perks throughout the festival including priority seating and Members-only giveaways.
You can view the full festival schedule online or on our free digital guide on Bloomberg Connects. Printed schedules will also be available at JANM.
Photos by Daryl Kobayashi, Tracy Kumono, and Doug Mukai.
On September 12, 2023, the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), Little Tokyo Historical Society (LTHS), and other Little Tokyo partners celebrated the upcoming 100th anniversary of JANM’s Historic Building with a new plaque and street signs marking the building’s significance and its City of Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument designation.
JANM’s Director of Collections Management and Access and Curator, Kristen Hayashi, welcomed the group and introduced Michael Okamura, president of the Little Tokyo Historical Society, who spoke about the LTHS’s efforts to raise the visibility of historic sites throughout Little Tokyo, including the Koyasan Buddhist Temple, the Kame Restaurant, the Finale Club, Sei Fujii and J. Marion Wright Memorial Lantern, Toyo Miyatake Way, Reverend Howard Toriumi Plaza, and the Aoyama Tree.
“You could tell that throughout Little Tokyo these are significant. We honor these legacy people who were before us and it’s very important. When you walk throughout Little Tokyo please take a moment and absorb all these people and the naming sites,” said Okamura.
Rev. William Briones of Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple then spoke about how the site played an important role in the spiritual and social life of the community.
“It was a place of spiritual refuge, community, a playground for the children, a place to grieve for their loved ones, and to find joy in the joining of two people. And who could forget the iconic picture that Archie Miyatake took? The backdrop of one of the assembly points from which local Issei and Nisei were sent to the camp. Today we are truly honored for this recognition and even though a lot of people don’t know the history of this, there are so many fond and wonderful memories of this temple. Thank you for this recognition,” said Briones. Afterward, both of them unveiled the new signs on 1st Street that now mark the historic site.
The Historic Building was designed by local architect Edgar Cline and built in 1925 as the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist temple. In 1985, the newly incorporated JANM signed a fifty-year lease with the City of Los Angeles to renovate the temple and convert it into a museum. The renovation was conceived by a consortium of eight Japanese American architects: Marcia Chiono, David Kikuchi, Shigeru Masumoto, Yoshio Nishimoto, Frank Sata, Takashi Shida, George Shinmo, and Robert Uyeda. In 1986 it was designated as City of Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument 313. In 1992 JANM opened its doors to the public with 23,800 square feet of space for exhibitions, collections, and public programs.
“JANM’s Historic Building is our oldest and largest artifact on our campus. It is hallowed ground, a site of conscience, and a gathering place for civic engagement and social justice. The plaque and street signs not only commemorate the Historic Building’s history in the Japanese American community but also expands the public’s understanding of its significance to the history of Los Angeles and the US. Commemorating the building’s history ensures that past injustices will never be repeated and that diverse voices will be heard now and into the future,” said Ann Burroughs, President and CEO of JANM.
Principal City Planner and Manager for the City of Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources, Ken Bernstein, praised the new plaque and street signs for raising the visibility of the historic site in Little Tokyo.
“Our historic buildings anchor us in an ever changing city. They really provide a meaningful connection to our collective memory—that bridge between past, present, and future. Thanks to you, the historic designation and enhanced visibility through the street sign and the plaque will continue to allow the Little Tokyo community to connect to its rich heritage and really use that rich heritage as a way of continuing to promote the vitality of the Little Tokyo community.”
Actor, activist, JANM Trustee, and Board Chair Emeritus, George Takei, joined Burroughs and Bernstein to unveil the bronze plaque, now installed at the building’s historic entrance.
Hayashi closed the ceremony by noting the significance of the ceremony and the power of place that JANM’s Historic Building has on its own and in relation to JANM’s Pavilion.
“These places matter to us and our community and we want people to know about its significance; that’s why we have this ceremony today. We could’ve just mounted the plaque but instead we really wanted people to know that it’s here. Several people have pointed out that there are several generations of people here today to witness this moment and it’s so fitting because as you turn around and you look towards JANM’s Pavilion, the architects of the Pavilion really wanted us to reflect on our past. Our past is what guides our present and future. It’s symbolic of who’s represented here. We have several generations here to carry on the legacy of those who have come before us in Little Tokyo.”
A special surprise performance by the children of Nishi Daycare charmed the audience of fifty who gathered in the plaza for the celebration.
JANM will be closed on August 10, 2023 in observance of the anniversary of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. JANM honors this anniversary to acknowledge incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans in US concentration camps without due process or evidence of wrongdoing.
On August 10, 1988, President Ronald Reagan issued a formal Presidential apology and symbolic payment of financial reparations to surviving Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during World War II. The act was the first and only time that the US government publicly apologized for a mistake acknowledging that the forced removal and unconstitutional incarceration was caused by a failure of political leadership, wartime hysteria, and racism.
Click on the following online resources to learn more about the Civil Liberties Act of 1988:
However, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 did not extend to Japanese Latin Americans, Germans, and Italians who were interned and incarcerated in the Department of Justice (DOJ) camps. Japanese Latin Americans continue to fight for redress today and educate the public through annual pilgrimages, like the Crystal City Pilgrimage.
Check out these Discover Nikkei stories to learn more about those who were incarcerated in the DOJ camps.
Hannah Tomiko Holmes and Doris Sato, Fabric-Framed Photograph Commemorating the Efforts of the National Council for Japanese American Redress, 1987, fabric and paper, Japanese American National Museum, 88.4.1B.
Hannah Tomiko Holmes, Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi, Michi Weglyn, William Hohri, Aiko Herzig, and Harry Y. Ueno Dolls, ca. early 1990s, fabric, 16” in height, Japanese American National Museum, gift of Hannah Tomiko Holmes, 88.4.1C.
The humble work truck or van may not seem as glamorous as a sports coupe or luxury sedan but as utility vehicles, they have served Japanese Americans in Los Angeles for over 100 years. Established by Fred J. Fujioka in the mid-1910s, the Japanese Auto Club of Southern California had over 850 members of Japanese descent listed in their member guide. Many members had registered their trucks, presumably used for delivering goods throughout the Southland.
Farmers, gardeners, shop owners, and other working class Nikkei couldn’t ply their trades without access to work vehicles. As prosaic as they looked, the ways in which owners adapted them to their needs made them as unique as any custom car. This was especially true for gardeners, once the economic lifeblood of the Southern California’s Japanese American community, for whom the pickup truck became an iconic sight for several generations.
As part of our forthcoming exhibition on Nikkei car culture in Southern California, we are looking for images of local Japanese Americans with their work trucks, vans, and cars. Many people may have posed in front of their family cars but we know there are also photos of people with their utility vehicles too. We want to make sure these—and the people behind them—are properly represented in our exhibition.
Right now, we prefer to look at digital scans (if possible). Please send them to cars@janm.org by July 31, 2023.
Photo: Buntaro Tabuchi from Amache with his gardening tools and truck, loading up for the day’s work in Los Angeles, June 25, 1945, Online Archive of California. Photo by Charles E. Mace.
These days, stopping by a gas station or taking your car to a service center may be seen as a necessary inconvenience but once upon a time, gas and service stations could be like informal neighborhood hubs: a place to stop and chat, even if only for the few minutes it took to top off your gas, check your oil, etc.
This was especially true in Southern California where countless Japanese Americans ran stations through the region. If you grew up here, chances are, you remember a few of your favorite stations. Some of you may even remember the names of the people who used to run them.
If all you remember is the intersection where the station is or was, that’s useful to us. If you remember the name of the station and/or the name(s) of the Japanese American owner(s), even better.
We’re also interested in seeing any photos that people may have of those stations and the people who worked there.
Please fill out this form to submit your response. We’ll use this information to create a database and interactive map of all the gas/service stations in the region, based on all your replies. Thank you!
