Cruising J-Town is part of JANM on the Go, JANM’s lively schedule of events and programs that are happening during the Museum’s renovation of its public galleries. While the galleries are being renovated, JANM is presenting this exhibition at ArtCenter’s Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery in Pasadena, California.
Photo collage clockwise from top: Coverage from Autoweek, KCRW Art Insider newsletter, LA Car, and Pasadena Weekly.
At ArtCenter, you can learn how Japanese Americans shaped car culture in the greater Los Angeles area from the early 1900s through today, and see the classic cars that encompass the exhibition’s themes of Speed, Style, Work, and Community. You can enhance your Cruising J-Town experience with related public programs, listening to short stories from the people who lived it on our Cruising J-Town audio guide, and reading about the stories behind the exhibition in Discover Nikkei’s series, Cruising J-Town: Detours.
Photo collage clockwise from top: Visitors at the opening of Cruising J-Town, photo by Doug Mukai;a 1956 Ford F100 pickup truck owned by Kirk Shimazu, photo by Doug Mukai;Brian Omatsu’s custom 1951 Mercury coupe known as the “Purple Reign”, photo by Cyan Hsu; Cruising J-Town exhibition curator Oliver Wang, photo by Alan Miyatake; the hot pink 1989 Nissan 240SX from professional drift racing driver Nadine Sachiko Toyoda-Hsu’s days with the Drifting Pretty team, photo by Alan Miyatake.
Highlights from the Cruising J-Town Audio Tour in JANM’s digital guide on the free Bloomberg Connects app.
The JANM Store also has a fresh collection of Cruising J-Town gifts that are available for purchase online. From the companion book and graphic tees to stickers, children’s books, and more you’ll want to collect them all, and see more new gifts in the Store’s 2025 –2026 catalog!
Featured and closing image: JANM Store’s Cruising J-Town collection. Photo by Doug Mukai.
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.
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
