Fantastic Japanese American Los Angeles Ichiro Ninomiya Vintage Original Photo

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (808) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 176299957889 FANTASTIC JAPANESE AMERICAN LOS ANGELES ICHIRO NINOMIYA VINTAGE ORIGINAL PHOTO. A VERY RARE 8X10 VINTAGE ORIGINAL PROOF PHOTO STAMPED BY JAPANESE AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER ICHIRO NINOMIYA FROM THE 1940'S TAKEN IN LITTLE TOKYO AT A SHRIMP FACTORY IN LOS ANGELES. IN GOOD SHAPE In 1922, the Ninomiya Studio was founded by Kinso Ninomiya (1894-1966). The studio was located in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles and had a second satellite location on Terminal Island, a majority Japanese American fisherman community. According to all the studio's ads in a local Japanese community paper, Shin Nichibei – New Japanese American News, Kinso's business was quite popular. With the onset of World-War II and Japanese Americans' mass incarceration, Kinso Ninomiya and his wife, Kiyo Kodani, and their four children were forcibly removed to the Poston War Relocation Center in Arizona on May 27, 1942. The studio remained closed until they reopened in their new location in Little Tokyo in 1949. The studio was located on 353 East 1st Street, less than a black away from the Japanese American National Museum. Ninomiya's son, Elwin Ichiro (1929-2009), operated the studio with his father until it closed in 1986.Born on October 19, 1894 in Hiroshima Ken, Japan, Kinso Beach Ninomiya immigrated to the United States on May 27, 1913. His wife, Kiyo Ninomiya (nèe Kodani) was born on February 16, 1907 in Tokyo, Japan and immigrated with her family to the United States on January 5, 1915. The two married in Los Angeles, California on October 7, 1928 and had four children: Elwin Ichiro (born February 23, 1929), Terry Terumi (born September 1, 1931), Clyde Kunio (born November 11, 1937) and Letty Hisako (born February 17, 1940). In the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles, Kinso Ninomiya owned and operated the successful Ninomiya Photo Studio starting in 1922 until its closure in the face of subsequent mass incarceration of Japanese Americans in the United States following the U.S. entrance into World War II. The Ninomiya family was forcibly removed to the Poston incarceration camp in Arizona on May 27, 1942 and remained there until 1945; Kinso Ninomiya was the first of his family to be released from Poston on February 6, 1945. The eldest Ninomiya children, Elwin and Terry were respectively released from Poston on March 14 and September 23 of 1945. Kiyo and the two youngest children, Clyde and Letty, were all released on October 20, 1945.
To anyone hopeful that a trove of negatives and prints photographed between 1949 and 1980 by the long-defunct Ninomiya Studio, formerly located at 353 E. First St. in Little Tokyo, could be professionally preserved and made accessible to the public after narrowly escaping being tossed away, that wish has been granted. According to Gregory Williams of California State University, Dominguez Hills, in Carson, the Library Archives and Special Collections was just chosen to receive a $100,000 grant from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program. Mary Beth Barber, program coordinator, special projects, at the California State Library, which administers the CCLPEP, said this latest grant cycle was the first one in seven years. There was about $1 million available, she said, and it’s completely up to the governor and State Legislature to decide sometime around the end of June whether there will be another CCLPEP funding cycle in the next state budget. The $100,000 preservation grant awarded to CSUDH will be used for the Ninomiya Photography Studio Collection Access Project. According to the California State Library, the funds will be used to “digitize and catalog up to 7,000+ items on Japanese Americans during the mid-20th century and World War II.”    The Ninomiya Collection is being catalogued at the CSUDH Library. “I have a feeling we’ll do a lot more,” said Williams, the director of Archives/Special Collections and CSU systemwide archivist, referring to how much digitization the grant will fund. “It also depends on the cost of the vendor.” An outside contractor will need to be chosen to digitize the more than 100,000 negatives and prints the university obtained in mid-2016. He noted that no vendor has yet been chosen because they are so early in the process, but they do have a year to complete the process. In early April, CSUDH announced that it had been awarded $39,200 from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation to create the Ninomiya Photography Studio Collection Access Project. (See the related story in the April 5 Rafu Shimpo or visit  *** In 2010, Bob Tanabe, owner of TLC Renovation in Tujunga, said he had been hired by Clara Tokiko Ninomiya, the widow of Elwin Ichiro Ninomiya, who died in 2009. He owned and operated the business started by his father, Kinso Ninomiya. Tanabe was tasked with renovating a four-unit apartment building the family owned in East Los Angeles. According to Tanabe, a general contractor who has been in business for about 30 years doing residential and commercial remodels, renovations and repairs all over Los Angeles County, one of the units was like a warehouse that had stored boxes and boxes of negatives and prints Ninomiya Studio had produced during its years in business, but it hadn’t “been touched in years.” “She just needed to clean it out and didn’t know what to do, so she said just haul it away, get rid of it, because she needed to clear up the space there,” Tanabe said. He felt, however, that the collection had some sort of historical value and was reluctant to just let it end up in a landfill. A photo of the Nisei Week Parade in the 1950s with Ninomiya Studio in the background. Tanabe’s instincts were correct. For decades, Ninomiya Studio, in the years after the end of WWII, documented the revival of the Japanese American community, whose denizens had recently been incarcerated in concentration camps. Some of the photos were mundane, like passport photos. Others, however, documented family milestones like weddings, baby pictures, graduation photos and family portraits, not to mention events like the Nisei Week Parade, which went past the studio on East First Street. If one word could describe this collection, it would be “invaluable.” Although Tanabe said he made an inquiry with the Japanese American National Museum, he was told they didn’t have space for it. So, he put an ad on the want ads website Craigslist.org, and one of the persons who responded was a Glendale-based photographer and Directors Guild of America member named Michael Risner. He ended up with the bulk of the collection, although some other respondents took a few bags here and there before he gathered what remained. Risner also knew the collection was something special — but he didn’t have the resources to do much more than store them and keep them safe until he could figure something out. ( Asked how CSUDH ended up getting what Risner had collected, Williams said the key came down to patience. After reading about Risner’s collection back in 2010, Williams contacted him and invited Risner to visit the CSUDH campus. He brought some samples from the Ninomiya Collection. The next year, Williams asked Risner if he wanted to contribute some of the photos to a small exhibition the library was having to mark the 40 years CSUDH had been collecting Japanese American material. He said Risner sent some scans he had made, which were printed and used in the exhibit. “Essentially, I was trying to build up some trust and an understanding what the collections could do,” Williams said. To get an idea of the number of images in the collection, Williams said there could be 15,000 packets containing maybe 100,000 negatives. Williams realized it was simply too much for an individual to deal with, something that Risner himself must have realized, even though he himself wanted to make sure the collection was taken care of properly. Williams, meantime, said he kept in contact with Risner over the intervening years, checking in with an annual email to inquire about how  he was coming along with it. “Finally, last summer my pestering paid off. He said he was ready to donate the material,” Williams said. With that, Williams rented a U-Haul van, went to Risner’s residence in Glendale, and filled the van with boxes from the Ninomiya Studio. Once delivered to CSUDH, Williams said, the first step was to not only physically rehouse the Ninomiya Collection, but also physically reorganize it and catalog into a database. That started as soon as it arrived on the campus. “We immediately set up a triage unit of three or four or five long tables and got archive staff and volunteers from the library to help us organize the material into each year, because each envelope has a client number on it which includes the year it was done.” Williams noted that there were breaks in the years, which he speculated may have been those bags that Tanabe gave to others besides Risner who answered the Craigslist ad. Most of the years represented are in the 1950s and 1960s. Williams noted that for the most part, the Ninomiya Collection’s condition is good, although some negatives have images that could not be saved because they were stuck together or had deteriorated due to what he called the “vinegar syndrome.” Still, he said, “The photographs themselves are really fantastic.” Thus far, the images CSUDH library has processed have been scanned at 600 lines per inch. Now, with the CCLPEP grant, this time-consuming and labor-intensive process can be farmed out and the library staff can work on joining the metadata with the images. Once that happens, the Ninomiya Photography Studio Collection Access Project will go online for use by historians, scholars, writers and the families who images were preserved by Ninomiya Studio. (Williams said he has already been called by a woman in Northern California looking for a family photo.) That’s cause for celebration, and I hope that when that happens, Bob Tanabe and Michael Risner can be feted for saving that collection. Upon learning about the happy outcome from his Craigslist ad back in 2010, Tanabe said, “I’m elated that that’s what happened. I thought there was some history in there.” Williams said, “It’s the first time I’ve ever heard of an archival collection being listed on Craiglist, but it was a good thing.” As for Risner, I tried to contact him for this column, but was unsuccessful. I’m speculating here since we didn’t talk, but I get the impression he’s been having some tough times on the employment front of late; maybe other issues, too. But if not for Risner recognizing the importance of what he found in 2010, those invaluable images from the Ninomiya Studio could be buried in a landfill or destroyed for the silver content in the negatives. Via Facebook, Risner wrote about his thoughts on turning over the materials to CSUDH: “I had hoped to create something of a documentary out of the materials, but it was not to be. I have recently learned that the university has received a grant of $39,000 to preserve these important materials and that makes me very happy. All this material that I carted around (23 boxes of it) for years will finally get the preservation it deserves.” Maybe someone else can make that documentary. Or, maybe those images can be the foundation for a coffee table book on a special slice of Los Angeles history — heck, make that American history. At the very least, those images have been saved — and that’s important. Said CSUDH’s Williams: “We owe a good debt of gratitude to Michael Risner.” Until next time, keep your eyes and ears open. "The Ninomiya Photograph Studio was founded by Kinso Ninomiya (1894-1966) during the 1920s in the thriving immigrant community of Little Tokyo in Los Angeles. Kinso came from Hiroshima prior to World War I, married Kiyo Ninomiya (b. 1907) in the late 1920s and had four children before 1940. With the onset of World War II and the anti-Japanese sentiment in California and the U.S., the Ninomiya Family was sent to the War Relocation Authority Incarceration camp in Poston, Arizona. The studio was shuttered and disappeared. During World War II, African Americans with few options for housing moved into Little Tokyo and it became known as Bronzeville. After the war, many Japanese Americans came back to Little Tokyo and built the enclave into a functioning community, but it did not thrive as much as it had in the 1930s. Nonetheless, the presence of an array of businesses and restaurants in the area continued to draw Japanese Americans and others to Little Tokyo, even if they had settled elsewhere in the Greater Los Angeles area after incarceration" - Online Archive of California. After the war, the Ninomiya Family returned to Little Tokyo and reopened their family photography business. Kinso let the next generation take the reins of the business, namely his son Elwin Ichiro Ninomiya (1929- 2009). The former Ninomiya storefront located at 353 East 1st Street, is less than a block away from the Japanese American National Museum, the Go For Broke National Education Center, and the Go For Broke Monument dedicated to the Nissei soldiers who fought in World War II. Little Tokyo (Japanese: リトル・トーキョー) also known as Little Tokyo Historic District, is an ethnically Japanese American district in downtown Los Angeles and the heart of the largest Japanese-American population in North America.[4] It is the largest and most populous of only three official Japantowns in the United States, all of which are in California (the other two are Japantown, San Francisco and Japantown, San Jose). Founded around the beginning of the 20th century, the area, sometimes called Lil' Tokyo, J-Town, 小東京 (Shō-tōkyō), is the cultural center for Japanese Americans in Southern California. It was declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1995.[3] Contents 1 History 2 Description 3 Attractions 3.1 Museums and galleries 3.2 Public Art 3.3 Events 3.4 Gardens 3.5 Performing Arts 3.6 Shopping and dining 3.6.1 Japanese Village Plaza 3.6.2 Weller Court 4 Education 5 Religion 6 Transportation 7 In popular culture 8 Events 9 See also 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External links History In 1905 the area of "Little Tokyo" was described as "bounded by San Pedro, First and Requena streets and Central avenue. The Los Angeles Times added: "It has a population of about 3500 Japanese, with quite a colony of Jews and Russians and a few Americans. . . . there are 10,000 Japanese in the city who make this section their rendezvous."[5] The area was a magnet for immigrating Japanese until the Exclusion Act of 1924 halted any further migration. Shops were along First Street, and vegetable markets were along Central Avenue to the south. Japanese Americans were a significant ethnic group in the vegetable trade, due to the number of successful Japanese American truck farms across Southern California. In 1941, there were approximately 30,000 Japanese Americans living in Little Tokyo.[6] The incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II emptied Little Tokyo. For a brief time, the area became known as Bronzeville as African Americans and also Native Americans and Latinos moved into the vacated properties and opened up nightclubs, restaurants, and other businesses. Beginning in 1942, after the city's Japanese population was rounded up and "evacuated" to inland concentration camps, a large number of African Americans from the South moved to Los Angeles to find work in the labor-starved defense industry. Its share in the Second Great Migration almost tripled Little Tokyo's pre-war population, with some 80,000 new arrivals taking up residence there. Prohibited from buying and renting in most parts of the city by restrictive covenants, the area soon became severely overcrowded. A single bathroom was often shared by up to 40 people and one room could house as many as 16; people frequently shared "hot beds," sleeping in shifts. Poor housing conditions helped spread communicable illnesses like tuberculosis and venereal disease. Crimes like robberies, rapes, and hit-and-run accidents increased, and in May and June 1943 Latino and some African American residents of Bronzeville were attacked by whites in the Zoot Suit race riots. In 1943, officials bowed to pressure from frustrated residents and proposed building temporary housing in nearby Willowbrook, but the majority-white residents of the unincorporated city resisted the plans. In 1944, 57 Bronzeville buildings were condemned as unfit for habitation and 125 ordered repaired or renovated; approximately 50 of the evicted families were sent to the Jordan Downs housing complex. In 1945, many defense industry jobs disappeared and the workers moved elsewhere in search of new employment. Others were pushed out when Japanese Americans began to return and white landlords chose not to renew leases with their wartime tenants.[6] After the war, due to lack of housing in Little Tokyo, many Japanese Americans returning from the camps moved into neighborhoods surrounding the downtown area, into apartments and boarding houses. Notably, Boyle Heights, just east of Little Tokyo, had a large Japanese American population in the 1950s (as it had before the internment) until the arrival of Mexican and Latino immigrants replaced most of them. In the late 1970s, a redevelopment movement started as Japanese corporations expanded overseas operations and many of them set up their US headquarters in the Los Angeles area. Several new shopping plazas and hotels opened, along with branches of some major Japanese banks. Although this redevelopment resulted in many new buildings and shopping centers, there are still some of the original Little Tokyo buildings and restaurants, especially along First Street. During the 1970s and 1980s, artists began to move into nearby aging warehouse spaces in the area, forming a hidden community in the industrialized area. Al's Bar, Gorky's, the Atomic Cafe, and LA Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) are some well-known sites.[7] Land use has been a contentious issue in Little Tokyo due to its history, the proximity to the Los Angeles Civic Center, the role of Los Angeles as a site of business between Japan and America, and the increasing influx of residents into the Arts District. Unlike a traditional ethnic enclave, there are relatively few Japanese residents in the area because of evacuation and internment. The Japanese American community was politicized by the internment and subsequent Redress and Reparations effort. This politicization, along with the global and local growth of overseas Japanese investment, has assured that Little Tokyo has continued to exist as a tourist attraction, community center, and home to Japanese American senior citizens and others. The current site of Parker Center, the Los Angeles Police Department's former headquarters, was the original site of the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist temple.[8] The south edge of the block where Parker Center stands was part of the First Street business strip of shops. The warehouses and new condominiums to the east of Little Tokyo were once residential areas of the district. The Weller Court mall was opposed by some people in the community because it redeveloped a strip of family-owned small businesses. Community activists established First Street as a historic district in 1986. In 2004, they helped reopen the Far East Cafe, an acknowledged community hub. In 1959, Los Angeles entered a sister city relationship with the city of Nagoya. Nagoya is Los Angeles' oldest sister city, along with Eilat, Israel. Description Japanese American National Museum At its peak, Little Tokyo had approximately 30,000 Japanese Americans living in the area. Little Tokyo is still a cultural focal point for Los Angeles's Japanese American population.[9] It is mainly a work, cultural, religious, restaurant and shopping district, because Japanese Americans today are likely to live in nearby cities such as Torrance, Gardena, and Monterey Park, as well as the Sawtelle district in the Westside of Los Angeles. However, the recent boom in downtown residential construction is changing the nature of Little Tokyo.[10] What is left of the original Little Tokyo can be found in roughly five large city blocks. It is bounded on the west by Los Angeles Street, on the east by Alameda Street, on the south by 3rd Street, and on the north by First Street, but also includes a substantial portion of the block north of First and west of Alameda, location of the Japanese American National Museum, the Go For Broke Monument, and a row of historic shops which lines the north side of First Street. A timeline has been set into the concrete in front of these shops, using bronze lettering, showing the history of each of the shops from the early 20th Century until the renovation of the district in the late 1980s. More broadly, Little Tokyo is bordered by the Los Angeles River to the east, downtown Los Angeles to the west, L.A. City Hall and the Parker Center to the north. Attractions Museums and galleries The original Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist temple. Across from the building is the Japanese American National Museum opened in 1992–50 years after President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the forcible removal and incarceration of people of Japanese descent. Museums include the Japanese American National Museum and an extension of the Museum of Contemporary Art, formerly called the Temporary Contemporary and now known as the Geffen Contemporary (named after David Geffen). Additionally, the visual arts are represented by the arts non-profit, LAArtcore which devotes itself to creating awareness of the visual arts through 24 exhibitions each year along with educational programming.[11] An art gallery called 123 Astronaut is housed within a kiosk on Astronaut Ellison Onizuka Street and contains a monument to Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka, a Japanese American from Hawaiʻi who was a mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Challenger when it disintegrated during takeoff in 1986.[12] Public Art Little Tokyo has a variety of public art,[13][14] including a memorial statue of Chiune Sugihara, Japanese consul to Lithuania before World War II and Righteous among the Nations.[15] Events The Nisei Week festival is held every August, and includes a large parade, a pageant, athletic events, exhibits of Japanese art and culture, a taiko drum festival, the Japanese Festival Street Faire, a car show, and other events.[16] Gardens There are also two Japanese gardens in the area open to the public: the James Irvine garden in the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center[17] and a rooftop garden in the Kyoto Grand Hotel and Gardens, formerly the New Otani Hotel. The Go For Broke Monument commemorates Japanese Americans who served in the United States Military during World War II. Friendship knot sculpture Performing Arts Question book-new.svg This section relies too much on references to primary sources. Please improve this section by adding secondary or tertiary sources. (September 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) The Union Center for the Arts serves as the home venue for the East West Players, Visual Communications, LAArtcore and Tuesday Night Project. With its proximity to Hollywood and its concentration as a focal point for the Pan Asian American community, Little Tokyo Los Angeles has long served as an incubator for Asian American and Pacific Islander artists and performers sporting a high concentration of legacy institutions. East West Players, one of the nation's first Asian American theater companies and the longest continuously running theatre of color in the nation, specializing in live theater written and performed by Asian American artists, is located in Little Tokyo, performing in the David Henry Hwang Theater, a 230 seat venue in the Union Center for the Performing Arts.[18] The Japanese American Community and Cultural Center(JACCC) runs the 800 seat Aratani Theater, which features theatre, dance, concerts as well as cultural performances and events.[19] Visual Communications, an Asian Pacific American media arts organization that annually presents VC FilmFest (Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival), in several venues around Little Tokyo.[20] Tuesday Night Project is the longest running Asian American open Mic event in the nation running every 1st and 3rd Tuesday from April through October in the public courtyard of the Union Center for the Arts[21] Cold Tofu Improv was founded in 1981 as the nation's first Asian American Improv & Comedy Group. Teaching classes in short form and long form improv.[22] Kollaboration founded in 2000, is an organization focusing on advancing Asian, Pacific Islander, and Desi Americans (APIDA) in the Music and entertainment industries. With affiliates in San Francisco, Atlanta, Hawaii, Houston, Boston and throughout the country, the organization hosts its annual national culmination "KOLLABORATION STAR" event at the Aratani Theatre, as well as their EMPOWER conference as incubator events for APIDA artists in the music industry.[23] With the proximity of these organizations and Arts non-profit organizations, many notable actors, musicians and entertainers of AAPI descent have either begun their careers here, or continue to maintain a presence. East West Players saw the early careers of actors such as Daniel Dae Kim, John Cho, Reggie Lee, Amy Hill, Lucy Liu, Isa Briones, as well as playwrights Qui Nguyen. Lauren Yee, and David Henry Hwang. In 2018, actor George Takei returned to Little Tokyo for the first Post Broadway staging of the musical Allegiance by Jay Kuo & Lorenzo Thione co-produced by East West Players and the JACCC at the Aratani Theatre.[24] The Aratani has also served as a home venue to the Grammy Nominated Jazz fusion group Hiroshima (band) founded by Dan Kuramoto & June Kuramoto.[25] Actress Tamlyn Tomita began her career when she was crowned "Nisei Week Queen" in 1984 which led to her breakout casting in The Karate Kid Part 2.[26] Filmmakers such as Justin Lin, Quentin Lee, and Justin Chon have premiered some of their early career making films at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.[27] Actor Dante Basco has been a mainstay performing his poetry alongside many others at Tuesday Night Project.[28] Musicians such as AJ Rafael, Jane Lui, MC Jin and more have long relationships with Kollaboration since before the "youtube-boom" that saw many AAPI artists and musicians find an internet based audience.[23] Little Tokyo continues to be a major convening point for AAPI artists in the entertainment industry, and a central incubator for the nation having twice before hosted the National Asian American Theatre Conference and Festival put on by the Consortium of Asian American Theatre Artists.[29] Little Tokyo has also seen the rise of many adjacent movements in the AAPI entertainment world such as Asian American theater companies Teada,[30] Lodestone Theatre[31][circular reference], Artists at Play,[32] Hereandnow Theatre,[33] Asian AF Comedy shows,[34] and the Comedy Comedy Festival.[35] Shopping and dining The Little Tokyo Watchtower There are numerous Japanese restaurants, catering to both Japanese and non-Japanese clientele. Many of them specialize in one type of Japanese cuisine, such as donburi, Japanese noodles (soba, ramen and udon), shabu-shabu (which translated from Japanese means 'swish-swish', referring to the motion of dipping meat and vegetables in a communal bowl of boiling water), Japanese curry, sushi, or yakitori. There are also a number of yakiniku restaurants, where meat is often cooked on a small grill built into the center of the table. Little Tokyo is the birthplace of the California roll, invented by a chef named Ichiro Mashita at the Tokyo Kaikan sushi restaurant. Two wagashi (Japanese sweets) shops located in Little Tokyo are among the oldest food establishments in Los Angeles. Fugetsu-do, founded in 1903,[36] appears to be the oldest still-operating food establishment in the city and the first one to celebrate a centennial; its best-known offerings include mochi and manjū, and it claims to be an inventor of the fortune cookie. Mikawaya was founded in 1910, but is now well known as the company that introduced mochi ice cream to the United States in 1994.[37] Little Tokyo has several shops that specialize in Japanese-language videos and DVDs, while other shops specialize in Japanese electronics and video games. These are a great way to find Japanese video games that were either never translated into English, or were never domestically released in North America. There are also several stores that sell manga and anime related products. Nijiya Market in Little Tokyo's Japanese Village Plaza Japanese Village Plaza The Japanese Village Plaza is located roughly in the center of Little Tokyo on the east side of San Pedro Street. There are several restaurants in the plaza, plus a number of shops geared towards tourists. First Street and Second Street border Japanese Village Plaza and have a number of restaurants that are open later than those in the court. Weller Court Weller Court The Weller Court shopping mall is located along Astronaut Ellison S Onizuka St., backing up to 2nd St. on the south and what was originally the New Otani Hotel, now the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Los Angeles Downtown, along Los Angeles Street, to the north and west. It has several restaurants, karaoke clubs, and a Bubble Tea cafe. For tourists visiting from Japan, there are a number of shops specializing in expensive name brand products such as Coach handbags. There is also a large bookstore, Kinokuniya, that is part of a well-known Japanese chain. They have a large selection of Japanese-language books, magazines, music CDs, manga, and anime, as well as a selection of English-language books on Japanese subjects and translated manga and anime. Weller Court was the second major project of the East West Development Corporation in association with the Community Redevelopment Agency, after the $30 million New Otani. Groundbreaking was held in November 1978, to be completed in 1979 with 62,780 square feet (5,832 m2) of gross leasable area. The architect was Kajima Associates.[38] In the 1920s, the southeast corner of First Street was the beginning of Little Tokyo. At this corner was the Tomio Building, home to the Japanese-American Tomio Department Store, and two more Japanese-American department stores, the Asia Company and Hori Brothers.[39] Education The area is served by the Los Angeles Unified School District.[40] 9th Street Elementary School Hollenbeck Middle School Belmont High School Los Angeles Public Library operates the Little Tokyo Branch. The main office of the Asahi Gakuen, a part-time Japanese school, is in room 308 on the third floor of the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC, 日米文化会館 Nichibei Bunka Kaikan) building,[41] located in Little Tokyo.[42] Religion This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Koyasan Buddhist temple in Little Tokyo There are several Buddhist temples in the area, mostly Jodo Shinshu, Jodo Shu, Shingon, and Soto Zen temples, including Zenshuji Soto Mission (the first Soto Zen temple in North America), Nishi Honganji (Los Angeles Betsuin), Higashi Honganji,[43] Koyasan Buddhist Temple (the first Shingon temple in North America), and a few Japanese Christian churches. One of the roots of Pentecostalism started in Little Tokyo. Where the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center Plaza is now located was once the home of the First Pentecostal Church, a multiracial congregation called the Azusa Street Mission. This is where the Azusa Street Revival started in 1906. Earlier, it was also the site of the First AME Church. St. Francis Xavier Chapel is the center of the Japanese Catholic community in Little Tokyo. Father Albert Breton, a Japanese-speaking missionary of the Paris Foreign Mission Society (M.E.P.) with the support of Bishop Thomas Conaty of the Diocese of Los Angeles, established the community on December 25, 1912 with the first Japanese mass celebrated at the Bronson House on Jackson Street near the current Fukui Mortuary on Temple Street. The center formerly housed the Maryknoll School administered by the Maryknoll Fathers from the early 1920s until the mid-1990s. Currently, masses are offered in Japanese and English each Sunday. The former Catholic Cathedral of Saint Vibiana is just to the west of Little Tokyo. After being heavily damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the Archdiocese moved to a new site (now the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels) and the old site was redeveloped with the former cathedral converted into a performing arts space and non-historic buildings on the site demolished and replaced with a new Little Tokyo Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. Transportation This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) The community is served by the Metro L Line at Little Tokyo/Arts District station at the northeastern perimeter of Little Tokyo and is also walkable from the Metro B and D subway lines at either Civic Center station or Union Station – with connections to Amtrak, Metrolink, Metro J Line BRT, and Foothill Transit's Silver Streak BRT services. When the A and E Lines connect to the L Line, via the Regional Connector, the Little Tokyo/Arts District station will be moved underground and across the street. This required demolition of two modest, one-story brick buildings. The two structures played an important role in the cultural life of the neighborhood for decades with one of the structures dating back at least to 1898.[7] Metro Local lines 30 and 330 serve Little Tokyo. In March 2020, Metro selected a development firm responsible for constructing the new Regional Connector station. Community representatives from the Little Tokyo Business Association, the Japanese American National Museum, and former U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta expressed their concerns about Metro's decision. Matters regarding the selection process, community needs, and design aesthetics delayed the project. The Little Tokyo/Arts District station is slated for completion in 2022.[44] In popular culture The district appears in the films Showdown in Little Tokyo, Beverly Hills Ninja and The Crimson Kimono.[45] Japanese Americans (Japanese: 日系アメリカ人, Hepburn: Nikkei Amerikajin) are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asian American group at around 1,469,637, including those of partial ancestry.[1] According to the 2010 census, the largest Japanese American communities were found in California with 272,528, Hawaii with 185,502, New York with 37,780, Washington with 35,008, Illinois with 17,542, and Ohio with 16,995.[4] Southern California has the largest Japanese American population in North America and the city of Gardena holds the densest Japanese American population in the 48 contiguous states.[5] Contents 1 History 1.1 Immigration 1.2 Internment and redress 2 Cultural profile 2.1 Generations 2.2 Languages 2.3 Education 2.3.1 Schools for Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals 3 Religion 3.1 Celebrations 4 Politics 5 Genetics 5.1 Risk for inherited diseases 6 Japanese Americans by state 6.1 Alaska 6.2 California 6.3 Connecticut 6.4 Georgia 6.5 Hawaii 6.6 Illinois 6.7 Massachusetts 6.8 Michigan 6.9 New Jersey 6.10 New York 6.11 Oregon 6.12 Virginia 6.13 Washington 7 Neighborhoods and communities 7.1 West 7.2 Outside the West 8 Notable people 8.1 Politics 8.2 Science and technology 8.3 Art and literature 8.3.1 Art and architecture 8.3.2 Literature 8.4 Music 8.5 Sports 8.6 Entertainment and media 9 Works about Japanese Americans 10 See also 11 References 12 Further reading 12.1 In Hawaii 13 External links History Main articles: Japanese-American history, Japanese-American life before World War II, and Japanese-American life after World War II Immigration A street in Seattle's Nihonmachi in 1909 People from Japan began migrating to the US in significant numbers following the political, cultural, and social changes stemming from the Meiji Restoration in 1868. These early Issei immigrants came primarily from small towns and rural areas in the southern Japanese prefectures of Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Kumamoto, and Fukuoka[6] and most of them settled in either Hawaii or along the West Coast. The Japanese population in the United States grew from 148 in 1880 (mostly students) to 2,039 in 1890 and 24,326 by 1900.[7] In 1907, the Gentlemen's Agreement between the governments of Japan and the United States ended immigration of Japanese unskilled workers, but permitted the immigration of businessmen, students and spouses of Japanese immigrants already in the US. Prior to the Gentlemen's Agreement, about seven out of eight ethnic Japanese in the continental United States were men. By 1924, the ratio had changed to approximately four women to every six men.[8] Japanese immigration to the U.S. effectively ended when Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924 which banned all but a token few Japanese people. The earlier Naturalization Act of 1790 restricted naturalized United States citizenship to free white persons, which excluded the Issei from citizenship. As a result, the Issei were unable to vote and faced additional restrictions such as the inability to own land under many state laws. Due to these restrictions, Japanese immigration to the United States between 1931-1950 only totaled 3,503 which is strikingly low compared to the totals of 46,250 people in 1951–1960, 39,988 in 1961-70, 49,775 in 1971-80, 47,085 in 1981-90, and 67,942 in 1991-2000.[9] Because no new immigrants from Japan were permitted after 1924, almost all pre-World War II Japanese Americans born after this time were born in the United States. This generation, the Nisei, became a distinct cohort from the Issei generation in terms of age, citizenship, and English-language ability, in addition to the usual generational differences. Institutional and interpersonal racism led many of the Nisei to marry other Nisei, resulting in a third distinct generation of Japanese Americans, the Sansei. Significant Japanese immigration did not occur again until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 ended 40 years of bans against immigration from Japan and other countries. In the last few decades, immigration from Japan has been more like that from Europe. The numbers involve on average 5 to 10 thousand per year, and is similar to the amount of immigration to the US from Germany. This is in stark contrast to the rest of Asia, where better opportunity of life is the primary impetus for immigration. Internment and redress Main articles: Internment of Japanese Americans and Japanese American redress and court cases Families of Japanese ancestry being removed from Los Angeles during World War II During World War II, an estimated 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals or citizens residing on the West Coast of the United States were forcibly interned in ten different camps across the Western United States. The internment was based on the race or ancestry, rather than the activities of the interned. Families, including children, were interned together. Four decades later, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 officially acknowledged the "fundamental violations of the basic civil liberties and constitutional rights" of the internment.[10] Many Japanese-Americans consider the term internment camp a euphemism and prefer to refer to the forced relocation of Japanese-Americans as imprisonment in concentration camps.[11] Webster's New World Fourth College Edition defines a concentration camp: "A prison camp in which political dissidents, members of minority ethnic groups, etc. are confined." Cultural profile Generations The nomenclature for each of their generations who are citizens or long-term residents of countries other than Japan, used by Japanese Americans and other nationals of Japanese descent are explained here; they are formed by combining one of the Japanese numbers corresponding to the generation with the Japanese word for generation (sei 世). The Japanese American communities have themselves distinguished their members with terms like Issei, Nisei, and Sansei, which describe the first, second, and third generations of immigrants. The fourth generation is called Yonsei (四世), and the fifth is called Gosei (五世). The term Nikkei (日系) encompasses Japanese immigrants in all countries and of all generations. Generation Summary Issei (一世) The generation of people born in Japan who later immigrated to another country. Nisei (二世) The generation of people born in North America, Latin America, Hawaii, or any country outside Japan either to at least one Issei or one non-immigrant Japanese parent. Sansei (三世) The generation of people born in North America, Latin America, Hawaii, or any country outside Japan to at least one Nisei parent. Yonsei (四世) The generation of people born in North America, Latin America, Hawaii, or any country outside Japan to at least one Sansei parent. Gosei (五世) The generation of people born in North America, Latin America, Hawaii, or any country outside Japan to at least one Yonsei parent. The kanreki (還暦), a pre-modern Japanese rite of passage to old age at 60, is now being celebrated by increasing numbers of Japanese American Nisei. Rituals are enactments of shared meanings, norms, and values; and this traditional Japanese rite of passage highlights a collective response among the Nisei to the conventional dilemmas of growing older.[12] Languages See also: Japanese language education in the United States Issei and many nisei speak Japanese in addition to English as a second language. In general, later generations of Japanese Americans speak English as their first language, though some do learn Japanese later as a second language. In Hawaii however, where Nikkei are about one-fifth of the whole population, Japanese is a major language, spoken and studied by many of the state's residents across ethnicities.[citation needed] It is taught in private Japanese language schools as early as the second grade. As a courtesy to the large number of Japanese tourists (from Japan), Japanese characters are provided on place signs, public transportation, and civic facilities. The Hawaii media market has a few locally produced Japanese language newspapers and magazines, although these are on the verge of dying out, due to a lack of interest on the part of the local (Hawaii-born) Japanese population. Stores that cater to the tourist industry often have Japanese-speaking personnel. To show their allegiance to the US, many nisei and sansei intentionally avoided learning Japanese. But as many of the later generations find their identities in both Japan and America or American society broadens its definition of cultural identity, studying Japanese is becoming more popular than it once was.[citation needed] Education Japanese Americans is located in the United StatesChicagoChicagoOakland, NJOakland, NJGreenwich, CTGreenwich, CTKeio AcademyKeio AcademyNishiyamato AcademyNishiyamato AcademySeigakuin AtlantaSeigakuin AtlantaMeiji GakuinMeiji Gakuin Locations of Japanese day schools (nihonjin gakkō and shiritsu zaigai kyoiku shisetsu) in the contiguous United States approved by the Japanese MEXT (gray dots represent closed schools) Japanese American culture places great value on education and culture. Across generations, children are often instilled with a strong desire to enter the rigors of higher education. Math and reading scores on the SAT and ACT may often exceed the national averages. Japanese Americans have the largest showing of any ethnic group in nationwide Advanced Placement testing each year.[citation needed] A large majority of Japanese Americans obtain post-secondary degrees and are often confronted with the "model minority" stereotype, a characterization that first gained media attention during the 1960s. Among its earlier proponents, sociologist William Petersen, writing in 1966 on Japanese American success, stated that "They have established this remarkable record, moreover, by their own almost totally unaided effort. Every attempt to hamper their progress resulted only in enhancing their determination to succeed."[13] Although their numbers have declined slightly in recent years, Japanese Americans are still a prominent presence in Ivy League schools, the top University of California campuses including Berkeley and UCLA, and other elite universities.[citation needed] The 2000 census reported that 40.8% of Japanese Americans held a college degree.[14] Schools for Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals Nihon Go Gakko in Seattle Seigakuin Atlanta International School on March 23, 2014 A Japanese school opened in Hawaii in 1893 and other Japanese schools for temporary settlers in North America followed.[15] In the years prior to World War II, many second generation Japanese American attended the American school by day and the Japanese school in the evening to keep up their Japanese skill as well as English. Other first generation Japanese American parents were worried that their child might go through the same discrimination when going to school so they gave them the choice to either go back to Japan to be educated, or to stay in America with their parents and study both languages.[16][page needed] Anti-Japanese sentiment during World War I resulted in public efforts to close Japanese-language schools. The 1927 Supreme Court case Farrington v. Tokushige protected the Japanese American community's right to have Japanese language private institutions. During the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II many Japanese schools were closed. After the war many Japanese schools reopened.[17] There are primary school-junior high school Japanese international schools within the United States. Some are classified as nihonjin gakkō or Japanese international schools operated by Japanese associations,[18] and some are classified as Shiritsu zaigai kyōiku shisetsu (私立在外教育施設) or overseas branches of Japanese private schools.[19] They are: Seigakuin Atlanta International School, Chicago Futabakai Japanese School, Japanese School of Guam, Nishiyamato Academy of California near Los Angeles, Japanese School of New Jersey, and New York Japanese School. A boarding senior high school, Keio Academy of New York, is near New York City. It is a Shiritsu zaigai kyōiku shisetsu.[19] There are also supplementary Japanese educational institutions (hoshū jugyō kō) that hold Japanese classes on weekends. They are located in several US cities.[20] The supplementary schools target Japanese nationals and second-generation Japanese Americans living in the United States. There are also Japanese heritage schools for third generation and beyond Japanese Americans.[21] Rachel Endo of Hamline University,[22] the author of "Realities, Rewards, and Risks of Heritage-Language Education: Perspectives from Japanese Immigrant Parents in a Midwestern Community," wrote that the heritage schools "generally emphasize learning about Japanese American historical experiences and Japanese culture in more loosely defined terms".[23] Tennessee Meiji Gakuin High School (shiritsu zaigai kyōiku shisetsu) and International Bilingual School (unapproved by the Japanese Ministry of Education or MEXT) were full-time Japanese schools that were formerly in existence. Religion Religious Makeup of Japanese-Americans (2012)[24]   Christianity (37%)   Unaffiliated (32%)   Buddhism (25%)   Shintoism and Other (6%) Japanese Americans practice a wide range of religions, including Mahayana Buddhism (Jōdo Shinshū, Jōdo-shū, Nichiren, Shingon, and Zen forms being most prominent) their majority faith, Shinto, and Christianity. In many ways, due to the longstanding nature of Buddhist and Shinto practices in Japanese society, many of the cultural values and traditions commonly associated with Japanese tradition have been strongly influenced by these religious forms. San Jose Betsuin Buddhist Temple A large number of the Japanese American community continue to practice Buddhism in some form, and a number of community traditions and festivals continue to center around Buddhist institutions. For example, one of the most popular community festivals is the annual Obon Festival, which occurs in the summer, and provides an opportunity to reconnect with their customs and traditions and to pass these traditions and customs to the young. These kinds of festivals are mostly popular in communities with large populations of Japanese Americans, such as Southern California and Hawaii. A reasonable number of Japanese people both in and out of Japan are secular, as Shinto and Buddhism are most often practiced by rituals such as marriages or funerals, and not through faithful worship, as defines religion for many Americans. Many Japanese Americans also practice Christianity. Among mainline denominations the Presbyterians have long been active. The First Japanese Presbyterian Church of San Francisco opened in 1885.[25] Los Angeles Holiness Church was founded by six Japanese men and women in 1921.[26] There is also the Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society (JEMS) formed in the 1950s. It operates Asian American Christian Fellowships (AACF) programs on university campuses, especially in California.[27] The Japanese language ministries are fondly known as "Nichigo" in Japanese American Christian communities. The newest trend includes Asian American members who do not have a Japanese heritage.[28] Celebrations An important annual festival for Japanese Americans is the Obon Festival, which happens in July or August of each year. Across the country, Japanese Americans gather on fair grounds, churches and large civic parking lots and commemorate the memory of their ancestors and their families through folk dances and food. Carnival booths are usually set up so Japanese American children have the opportunity to play together. Japanese American celebrations tend to be more sectarian in nature and focus on the community-sharing aspects. A nebuta float during Nisei Week in Los Angeles Kazari streamers hung during the Tanabata festival in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo Bon Odori in Seattle A kagami mochi display for the upcoming Japanese New Year in San Diego's Nijiya Market Major celebrations in the United States Date Name Region January 1 Shōgatsu New Year's Celebration Nationwide February Japanese Heritage Fair Honolulu, HI February to March Cherry Blossom Festival Honolulu, HI March 3 Hinamatsuri (Girls' Day) Hawaii March Honolulu Festival Honolulu, HI March Hawaiʻi International Taiko Festival Honolulu, HI March International Cherry Blossom Festival Macon, GA March to April National Cherry Blossom Festival Washington, DC April Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival San Francisco, CA April Pasadena Cherry Blossom Festival Pasadena, CA April Seattle Cherry Blossom Festival Seattle, WA May 5 Tango no Sekku (Boys' Day) Hawaii May Shinnyo-En Toro-Nagashi (Memorial Day Floating Lantern Ceremony) Honolulu, HI June Pan-Pacific Festival Matsuri in Hawaiʻi Honolulu, HI July 7 Tanabata (Star Festival) Nationwide July–August Obon Festival Nationwide August Nihonmachi Street Fair San Francisco, CA August Nisei Week Los Angeles, CA Politics Patsy Mink entered the U.S. House of Representatives in 1965 as the first woman of color in either chamber of Congress. Japanese Americans have shown strong support for Democratic candidates in recent elections. Shortly prior to the 2004 US presidential election, Japanese Americans narrowly favored Democrat John Kerry by a 42% to 38% margin over Republican George W. Bush.[29] In the 2008 US presidential election, the National Asian American Survey found that Japanese American favored Democrat Barack Obama by a 62% to 16% margin over Republican John McCain, while 22% were still undecided.[30] In the 2012 presidential election, majority of Japanese Americans (70%) voted for Barack Obama.[31] In the 2016 presidential election, majority of Japanese Americans (74%) voted for Hillary Clinton.[32] In a pre-election survey for the 2020 presidential election, 61% of Japanese Americans planned to vote for Joe Biden.[33] Genetics Genetic composition (Yamato people[34][35]) East Asian lineage   89% Austronesian lineage   7% Finno-Ugric lineage   2% Turco-Mongol lineage   2% Proposed population migration routes into Japan, based on haplogroups. Japanese people descend from the various indigenous Jōmon period groups and rice-farming agriculturalists from China, which arrived during the Yayoi period. Japanese people belong to the East Asian lineages D-M55 and O-M175, as well as to C-M217, C1a1, and N-M231.[36][37][38][39] The reference population for the Japanese used in Geno 2.0 Next Generation is 89% East Asian, 2% Siberian, 2% Central and Northeast Asian, and 7% Southeast Asian, making Japanese approximately ~100% East-Eurasian.[40] Genealogical research has indicated extremely similar genetic profiles between these groups, making them nearly indistinguishable from each other and ancient samples. Japanese people were found to share high genetic affinity with the ancient (~8,000 BC) "Devils_Gate_N" sample in the Amur region of Northeast Asia.[37] Risk for inherited diseases Studies have looked into the risk factors that are more prone to Japanese Americans, specifically in hundreds of family generations of Nisei (The generation of people born in North America, Latin America, Hawaii, or any country outside Japan either to at least one Issei or one non-immigrant Japanese parent) second-generation pro-bands (A person serving as the starting point for the genetic study of a family, used in medicine and psychiatry). The risk factors for genetic diseases in Japanese Americans include coronary heart disease and diabetes. One study, called the Japanese American Community Diabetes Study that started in 1994 and went through 2003, involved the pro-bands taking part to test whether the increased risk of diabetes among Japanese Americans is due to the effects of Japanese Americans having a more westernized lifestyle due to the many differences between the United States of America and Japan. One of the main goals of the study was to create an archive of DNA samples which could be used to identify which diseases are more susceptible in Japanese Americans. Concerns with these studies of the risks of inherited diseases in Japanese Americans is that information pertaining to the genetic relationship may not be consistent with the reported biological family information given of Nisei second generation pro-bands.[41] Also, research has been put on concerning apolipoprotein E genotypes; this polymorphism has three alleles (*e2, *e3, and *e4)and was determined from research because of its known association with increased cholesterol levels and risk of coronary heart disease in Japanese Americans. Specifically too, the apolipoprotein *e4 allele is linked to Alzheimer's disease as well. Also, there is increased coronary heart disease in Japanese-American men with a mutation in the cholesterol ester transfer protein gene despite having increased levels of HDL. By definition, HDL are plasma high density lipoproteins that show a genetic relationship with coronary heart disease (CHD). The cholesterol ester transfer protein(CETP) helps the transfer of cholesterol esters from lipoproteins to other lipoproteins in the human body. It plays a fundamental role in the reverse transport of cholesterol to the liver, which is why a mutation in this can lead to coronary heart disease. Studies have shown that the CETP is linked to increased HDL levels. There is a very common pattern of two different cholesterol ester transfer protein gene mutations (D442G, 5.1%; intron 14G:A, 0.5%) found in about 3,469 Japanese American men. This was based on a program called the Honolulu Heart Program. The mutations correlated with decreased CETP levels (-35%) and increased HDL cholesterol levels (+10% for D442G). The relative risk of CHD was 1.43 in men with mutations (P<0.05), and after research found for CHD risk factors, the relative risk went up to 1.55 (P=0.02); after further adjustments for HDL levels, the relative risk went up again to 1.68 (P=0.008). Genetic CETP deficiency is an independent risk factor for coronary heart disease, which is due mainly to increased CHD risks in Japanese American men with the D442G mutation and lipoprotein cholesterol levels between 41 and 60 mg/dl.[42] With research and investigations, the possibility of finding "bad genes" denounces the Japanese Americans and will be associated only with Japanese American ancestry, leading to other issues the Japanese Americans had to deal with in the past such as discrimination and prejudice.[43] Japanese Americans by state [icon] This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2013) Alaska [icon] This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2013) California See also: History of the Japanese in Los Angeles and History of the Japanese in San Francisco In the early 1900s, Japanese Americans established fishing communities on Terminal Island and in San Diego.[44] By 1923, there were two thousand Japanese fishermen sailing out of Los Angeles Harbor.[45] By the 1930s, legislation was passed that attempted to limit Japanese fishermen. Still, areas like San Francisco's Japantown managed to thrive. Due to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, historically Japanese areas fell into disrepair or became adopted by other minority groups (in the case of Black and Latino populations in Little Tokyo). Boats owned by Japanese Americans were confiscated by the U.S. Navy.[46] One of the vessels owned by a Japanese American, the Alert, built in 1930,[47] became YP-264 in December 1941,[44] and was finally struck from the Naval Vessel Register in 2014.[48] When Japanese Americans returned from internment, many settled in neighborhoods where they set up their own community centers in order to feel accepted. Today, many have been renamed cultural centers and focus on the sharing of Japanese culture with local community members, especially in the sponsorship of Obon festivals.[49] The city of Torrance in Greater Los Angeles has headquarters of Japanese automakers and offices of other Japanese companies. Because of the abundance of Japanese restaurants and other cultural offerings are in the city, and Willy Blackmore of L.A. Weekly wrote that Torrance was "essentially Japan's 48th prefecture".[50] Connecticut The Japanese School of New York is located in Greenwich, Connecticut in Greater New York City; it had formerly been located in New York City. Georgia The Seigakuin Atlanta International School is located in Peachtree Corners in Greater Atlanta. Hawaii Main article: Japanese in Hawaii Illinois As of 2011 there is a Japanese community in Arlington Heights, near Chicago. Jay Shimotake, the president of the Mid America Japanese Club, an organization located in Arlington Heights, said "Arlington Heights is a very convenient location, and Japanese people in the business environment know it's a nice location surrounding O'Hare airport."[51] The Chicago Futabakai Japanese School is located in Arlington Heights. The Mitsuwa Marketplace, a shopping center owned by Japanese, opened around 1981. Many Japanese companies have their US headquarters in nearby Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg.[51] Massachusetts There is a Japanese School of Language in Medford.[52] Most Japanese-Americans in the state live in Greater Boston. Michigan As of April 2013, the largest Japanese national population in Michigan is in Novi, with 2,666 Japanese residents, and the next largest populations are respectively in Ann Arbor, West Bloomfield Township, Farmington Hills, and Battle Creek. The state has 481 Japanese employment facilities providing 35,554 local jobs. 391 of them are in Southeast Michigan, providing 20,816 jobs, and the 90 in other regions in the state provide 14,738 jobs. The Japanese Direct Investment Survey of the Consulate-General of Japan, Detroit stated that over 2,208 more Japanese residents were employed in the State of Michigan as of October 1, 2012, than had been in 2011.[53] New Jersey As of March 2011 about 2,500 Japanese Americans combined live in Edgewater and Fort Lee; this is the largest concentration of Japanese Americans in the state.[54] The New Jersey Japanese School is located in Oakland. Paramus Catholic High School hosts a weekend Japanese school, and Englewood Cliffs has a Japanese school. Other smaller Japanese American populations are also located in the remainder of Bergen County and other parts of the state. Mitsuwa Marketplace has a location in Edgewater that also houses a mini shopping complex.[55] New York See also: Japanese in New York City Oregon See also: History of the Japanese in Portland, Oregon Virginia There are about 5,500 Japanese Americans in Northern Virginia, representing the majority of Japanese Americans in the state and the multi-state Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. A small, but relatively high number of Japanese Americans can be found areas surrounding the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. Washington See also: History of the Japanese in Seattle Neighborhoods and communities This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Japanese Americans" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) See also: Japantown and List of U.S. cities with large Japanese-American populations West Hawaii: See also: Japanese in Hawaii California: Little Tokyo Village in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo Greater Los Angeles: Anaheim and Orange County.[56] Cerritos, Hawaiian Gardens and adjacent cities. Fontana in the Inland Empire. Fullerton in Orange County. Gardena in Los Angeles' South Bay area. Lomita in the L.A. area. Long Beach, California – historic Japanese fisheries presence in Terminal Island. Los Angeles, especially the Little Tokyo section. Palm Desert, the Japanese also developed the year-round agricultural industries in the Coachella Valley and Imperial Valley. Pasadena in the Los Angeles' San Gabriel Valley. Santa Monica - esp. Blacks Beach. Sawtelle, California, in West Los Angeles. Torrance in Los Angeles' South Bay area, the largest Japanese community in North America and the second largest Japanese community in the U.S.[57] Venice, Los Angeles - historically Japanese fisheries in Marina Del Rey. San Diego area: University City. Chula Vista. Japanese community center in Vista in North County, one of two of its kind in Southern California. Central Valley, California region: Bakersfield / Kern County. Butte County. Fresno, 5% of county residents have Japanese ancestry. Livingston, California in Merced County. Merced. Stockton. Sutter County. Yuba County. Miyako Mall in San Francisco's Japantown San Francisco Bay Area, the main concentration of Nisei and Sansei in the 20th century: Alameda County, concentrated and historic populations in the cities of Alameda, Berkeley, Fremont, Oakland, and Hayward. Contra Costa County, concentrated in Walnut Creek. San Mateo County, especially Daly City and Pacifica. San Jose, has one of the three remaining officially recognized Japantowns in North America. Santa Clara County, concentrated in Cupertino, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, and Sunnyvale. San Francisco, notably in the Japantown district [58] Santa Cruz County. Monterey County, especially Salinas, California. Sacramento, and some neighborhoods of Elk Grove, Florin and Walnut Grove. Uwajimaya Village in Seattle Washington State: Seattle area. Bellevue. Redmond. Tacoma. Puget Sound region (San Juan Islands) have Japanese fisheries for over a century. Skagit Valley of Washington. Yakima Valley, Washington. Chehalis Valley of Washington. Oregon: Ontario. Portland and surrounding area. Southern Oregon valleys. Willamette Valley. Idaho: Boise Area. Caldwell. Meridian. Nampa. Arizona: Phoenix Area, notably a section of Grand Avenue in Northwest Phoenix, and Maryvale. Las Vegas Area, with a reference of Japanese farmers on Bonzai Slough, Arizona near Needles, California. Southern Arizona, part of the "exclusion area" for Japanese internment during World War II along with the Pacific coast states. Yuma County/Colorado River Valley. New Mexico Gallup, New Mexico, in World War II the city fought to prevent the internment of its 800 Japanese residents. Colorado Denver, note Sakura Square. Greeley. Pueblo. Utah Salt Lake City. Outside the West In the Southern, Midwestern, and Northeastern United States, the New York metropolitan area has the highest number of Japanese Americans, followed by the Washington metropolitan area.[59] Arlington, Virginia and Alexandria, Virginia (the Northern Virginia region). Bergen County, New Jersey. Boone County, Kentucky. Boston, Massachusetts. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Chicago, Illinois and suburbs: Arlington Heights. Buffalo Grove Elk Grove Heights and nearby Elk Grove Village. Evanston. Kane County. Naperville. Schaumburg. Skokie. Wilmette. Columbus, Ohio. Fayetteville, North Carolina - close to the Research Triangle. Grand Prairie, Texas (the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area). Japan, North Carolina - former town bulldozed by dam construction. Kansas City metro area. New York City, New York, according to the Japanese Embassy of the US, over 100,000 persons of Japanese ancestry live in the NYC metro area, including South Shore (Long Island) and Hudson Valley; Fairfield County, Connecticut and Northern New Jersey. Northern Indiana has a small, but evident Japanese community. Novi, Michigan outside Detroit. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with the suburbs of Chester County. Salem, New Jersey and Cherry Hill, New Jersey (see Delaware Valley). Seabrook Farms, New Jersey.[60] South Texas - Rio Grande Valley had Japanese farmers. Washington, DC and suburbs in Maryland and Northern Virginia. Yamato Colony, Florida in South Florida. Notable people For a more comprehensive list, see List of Japanese Americans. Sessue Hayakawa 1918 (Fred Hartsook).jpg Sessue Hayakawa Robert matsui.jpg Bob Matsui Eric Shinseki official portrait.jpg Eric Shinseki Koyamada in Malibu May 2015.jpg Shin Koyamada Norman Mineta, official portrait, DOT.jpg Norman Mineta Michio Kaku-cropped.jpg Michio Kaku Mirai Nagasu Podium 2008 Junior Worlds.jpg Mirai Nagasu Utada Hikaru 2004.jpg Hikaru Utada James Iha.jpg James Iha George Takei Sulu Star Trek.JPG George Takei Linkin Park-Rock im Park 2014- by 2eight 3SC0450.jpg Mike Shinoda Ellison Shoji Onizuka (NASA).jpg Ellison Onizuka YunaItoGroink.png Yuna Ito Sadao Munemori.jpg Sadao Munemori Harris Jr PACOM 2015.jpg Harry B. Harris Jr. Melody, doing a peace sign.jpg Melody. Jake Shimabukuro performing, by Michale.jpg Jake Shimabukuro Sono-osato-d7e610b2-1df0-434b-a625-7e1ef838290.jpg Sono Osato Francis Fukuyama 2005.jpg Francis Fukuyama Hayley-Kiyoko 2010-04-30 photoby Adam-Bielawski.jpg Hayley Kiyoko Ryan Higa by Gage Skidmore.jpg Ryan Higa Politics Senator Inouye of Hawaii was named the President pro tempore of the United States Senate in 2010, becoming the highest ranking Asian American in congressional history. After the Territory of Hawaiʻi's statehood in 1959, Japanese American political empowerment took a step forward with the election of Daniel K. Inouye to Congress. Spark Matsunaga was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1963, and in 1965, Patsy Mink became the first Asian American woman elected to the United States Congress. Inouye, Matsunaga, and Mink's success led to the gradual acceptance of Japanese American leadership on the national stage, culminating in the appointments of Eric Shinseki and Norman Y. Mineta, the first Japanese American military chief of staff and federal cabinet secretary, respectively. Japanese American members of the United States House of Representatives have included Daniel K. Inouye, Spark Matsunaga, Patsy Mink, Norman Mineta, Bob Matsui, Pat Saiki, Mike Honda, Doris Matsui, Mazie Hirono, Mark Takano, and Mark Takai. Japanese American members of the United States Senate have included Daniel K. Inouye, Samuel I. Hayakawa, Spark Matsunaga, and Mazie Hirono. In 2010, Inouye was sworn in as President Pro Tempore making him the highest-ranking Asian-American politician in American history up to that time. George Ariyoshi served as the Governor of Hawaiʻi from 1974 to 1986. He was the first American of Asian descent to be elected governor of a state of the United States. David Ige is the current governor of Hawaii and has served in that office since 2014. Kinjiro Matsudaira was elected mayor of Edmonston, Maryland in 1927 and 1943.[61] In 1957, Japanese American James Kanno was elected as the first mayor of California's Fountain Valley.[62] Norm Mineta became mayor of San Jose, California in 1971.[63] In 1980, Eunice Sato became the first Asian-American female mayor of a major American city when she was elected mayor of Long Beach, California.[64] Science and technology Yoichiro Nambu, the 2008 Nobel Laureate in Physics Many Japanese Americans have also gained prominence in science and technology. In 1979, biochemist Harvey Itano became the first Japanese American elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences. Charles J. Pedersen won the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his methods of synthesizing crown ethers. Yoichiro Nambu won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on quantum chromodynamics and spontaneous symmetry breaking. Shuji Nakamura won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes. Michio Kaku is a theoretical physicist specializing in string field theory, and a well-known science popularizer. Ellison Onizuka became the first Asian American astronaut and was the mission specialist aboard Challenger at the time of its explosion. Immunologist Santa J. Ono became the first Japanese American president of a major research university University of Cincinnati and subsequently University of British Columbia. Bell M. Shimada was a notable fisheries scientist of the 1950s after whom the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research ship NOAAS Bell M. Shimada (R 227) and the Shimada Seamount in the Pacific Ocean were named.[65][66] In 2018, Lauren Kiyomi Williams became the second ever tenured female mathematician of the Harvard mathematics department. Art and literature Art and architecture Artist Sueo Serisawa helped establish the California Impressionist style of painting. Yoko Ono's Fluxus art and performance art has been exhibited internationally. Other influential Japanese American artists include Chiura Obata, Isamu Noguchi, Kenjiro Nomura, George Tsutakawa, George Nakashima, Hideo Noda, and Ruth Asawa. Architect Minoru Yamasaki designed the original World Trade Center (completed in 1973) and several other large-scale projects. Gyo Obata designed the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C (completed in 1976) and the pavilion of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles (completed in 1992). Literature 1984 American Book Award winner Miné Okubo Japanese American recipients of the American Book Award include Milton Murayama (1980), Ronald Phillip Tanaka (1982), Miné Okubo (1984), Keiho Soga (1985), Taisanboku Mori (1985), Sojin Takei (1985), Muin Ozaki (1985), Toshio Mori (1986), William Minoru Hohri (1989), Karen Tei Yamashita (1991 and 2011), Sheila Hamanaka (1992), Lawson Fusao Inada (1994), Ronald Takaki (1994), Kimiko Hahn (1996), Lois-Ann Yamanaka (2000), Ruth Ozeki (2004), Hiroshi Kashiwagi (2005), Yuko Taniguchi (2008), Sesshu Foster (2010), and Frank Abe (2019). Hisaye Yamamoto received an American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1986. Taro Yashima won the Children's Book Award in 1955 for his Crow Boy. Cynthia Kadohata won the Newbery Medal in 2005. Poet laureate of San Francisco Janice Mirikitani has published three volumes of poems. Lawson Fusao Inada was named poet laureate of the state of Oregon (2006–2010). Michi Weglyn and Ronald Takaki received Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards in 1977 and 1994 respectively. Tomie Arai's work is part of permanent collection of Museum of Modern Art, Library of Congress, and the Museum of Chinese in the Americas. Michiko Kakutani is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning literary critic and former chief book critic for The New York Times (from 1983 to 2017). Music Midori Goto in 2013 Classical violinist Midori Gotō is a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize (2001), while world-renowned violinist Anne Akiko Meyers received an Avery Fisher career grant in 1993. Juno Award-nominated classical violinist Hidetaro Suzuki was the concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra from 1978 to 2005. Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Yoko Ono released 14 studio albums and was named the 11th most successful dance club artist of all time by Billboard Magazine. Other notable Japanese American musicians include singer, actress and Broadway star Pat Suzuki; rapper Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park and Fort Minor; rapper Kikuo Nishi aka "KeyKool" of The Visionaries; Hiro Yamamoto, original bassist of Soundgarden; ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro; guitarist James Iha of The Smashing Pumpkins fame; singer-songwriter Rachael Yamagata; bilingual singer-songwriter Emi Meyer; and Trivium lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Matt Heafy. Marc Okubo, guitarist of Veil of Maya, is of Japanese descent. Singer-songwriter and composer Mari Iijima is a Japanese expat currently living in the United States. J-Pop singers Hikaru Utada and Joe Inoue were both born in the United States but gained their fame in Japan. Sports 1952 gold medalist Ford Konno Japanese Americans first made an impact in Olympic sports in the late 1940s and in the 1950s. Harold Sakata won a weightlifting silver medal in the 1948 Olympics, while Japanese Americans Tommy Kono (weightlifting), Yoshinobu Oyakawa (100-meter backstroke), and Ford Konno (1500-meter freestyle) each won gold and set Olympic records in the 1952 Olympics. Also at the 1952 Olympics, Evelyn Kawamoto won two bronze medals in swimming. Konno won another gold and silver swimming medal at the same Olympics and added a silver medal in 1956, while Kono set another Olympic weightlifting record in 1956. Several decades later, Eric Sato won gold (1988) and bronze (1992) medals in volleyball, while his sister Liane Sato won bronze in the same sport in 1992. Bryan Clay (hapa) won the decathlon gold medal in the 2008 Olympics, the silver medal in the 2004 Olympics, and was the sport's 2005 world champion. Apolo Anton Ohno (hapa) won eight Olympic medals in short-track speed skating (two gold) in 2002, 2006, and 2010, as well as a world cup championship. Brothers Kawika and Erik Shoji won bronze medals in volleyball in 2016. In figure skating, Kristi Yamaguchi, a fourth-generation Japanese American, won three national championship titles (one in singles, two in pairs), two world titles, and the 1992 Olympic gold medal in singles figure skating. Rena Inoue, a Japanese immigrant to America who later became a US citizen, competed at the 2006 Olympics in pair skating for the United States. Kyoko Ina, who was born in Japan, but raised in the United States, competed for the United States in singles and pairs, and was a multiple national champion and an Olympian with two different partners. Two-time Olympian Mirai Nagasu won the 2008 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the age of 14, becoming the second youngest woman to ever win that title. Alex and Maia Shibutani are two-time national champions in ice dancing and 2018 Olympic bronze medalists. In distance running, Miki (Michiko) Gorman won the Boston and New York City marathons twice in the 1970s. A former American record holder at the distance, she is the only woman to win both races twice, and is one of only two women to win both marathons in the same year. In professional sports, Nisei-born Wataru Misaka made the New York Knicks roster in 1947 as the first person of color to play in modern professional basketball, just months after Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers.[67] Misaka played college basketball for the Utah Utes and led the team to win the 1944 NCAA and 1947 NIT championships. He took a two-year hiatus between these titles to serve in the United States Army in the American occupation of Japan.[68][69] Wally Kaname Yonamine was a professional running back for the San Francisco 49ers in 1947. Lenn Sakata, born in Hawaii, played in the MLB from 1977 to 1987. Rex Walters, whose mother was Japanese, played in the NBA from 1993 to 2000. Lindsey Yamasaki was the first Asian American to play in the WNBA and finished off her NCAA career with the third-most career 3-pointers at Stanford University. Hikaru Nakamura became the youngest American ever to earn the titles of National Master (age 10) and International Grandmaster (age 15) in chess. In 2004, at the age of 16, he won the U.S. Chess Championship for the first time. He later won four other times. Entertainment and media 1957 Academy Award winner Miyoshi Umeki Miyoshi Umeki won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1957. Actors Sessue Hayakawa, Mako Iwamatsu, and Pat Morita were nominated for Academy Awards in 1957, 1966, and 1984 respectively. Steven Okazaki won the 1990 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) for his film Days of Waiting: The Life & Art of Estelle Ishigo. Chris Tashima won the 1997 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. Audrey Marrs won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Kazu Hiro won the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling in 2018 and 2020, winning the second award as an American citizen. Jack Soo, born Goro Suzuki, (Valentine's Day and Barney Miller), George Takei (Star Trek fame) and Pat Morita (Happy Days and The Karate Kid) helped pioneer acting roles for Asian Americans while playing secondary roles on the small screen during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1976, Morita also starred in Mr. T and Tina, the first American sitcom centered on a person of Asian descent. Keiko Yoshida appeared on the 1999-2005 TV show ZOOM on PBS Kids. Gregg Araki (director of independent films) is also Japanese American. Shin Koyamada had a leading role in the Warner Bros. epic movie The Last Samurai and Disney Channel movie franchise Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior and TV series Disney Channel Games. Masi Oka played a prominent role in the NBC series Heroes, Grant Imahara appeared on the Discovery Channel series MythBusters and Derek Mio appeared in the NBC series Day One. Daisuke Tsuji played the Crown Prince in the Amazon original series The Man in the High Castle and as the voice and motion-capture of the main protagonist Jin Sakai in the 2020 video game Ghost of Tsushima. Japanese Americans now anchor TV newscasts in markets all over the country. Notable anchors include Tritia Toyota, Adele Arakawa, David Ono, Kent Ninomiya, Lori Matsukawa, and Rob Fukuzaki.[70] Works about Japanese Americans See also: List of feature films about the Japanese American internment, Category:Films about the internment of Japanese Americans, and Category:Books about the internment of Japanese Americans In 2010 TBS produced a five-part, ten-hour fictional Japanese language miniseries, Japanese Americans. This featured many of the major events and themes of the Issei and Nisei experience, including emigration, racism, picture brides, farming, pressure due to the China and Pacific wars, internment, a key character who serves in the 442nd, and the ongoing redefinition in identity of what it means to be Japanese and American.[71] See also flag Japan portal flag United States portal Buddhist Churches of America (Young Buddhist Association & Buddhist Women's Association) Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii Zenshuji Soto Misson & Soto Zen Buddhist Association Midwest Buddhist Temple Ginza Holiday Festival List of Shinto shrines in the United States Chicago Shimpo Day of Remembrance (Japanese Americans) Go for Broke Monument Japanese American Citizens League Japanese American National Library Japanese American National Museum Japanese American service in World War II 442nd Infantry Regiment, and the related 522nd Field Artillery Battalion 100th Infantry Battalion Military Intelligence Service List of Japanese American Servicemen and Servicewomen in World War II Japanese Community Youth Council (San Francisco) Japanese in Chicago Japanese in Los Angeles Japanese in New York City Japanese Argentines Japanese Brazilians Japanese Chileans Japanese Colombians Japanese Mexicans Japanese Peruvians Japanese Filipinos Japanese Canadians Japanese Australians Japanese New Zealanders Japanese in the United Kingdom Model minority Nisei Baseball Research Project In 1922, the Ninomiya Studio was founded by Kinso Ninomiya (1894-1966). The studio was located in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles and had a second satellite location on Terminal Island, a majority Japanese American fisherman community. According to all the studio's ads in a local Japanese community paper, Shin Nichibei – New Japanese American News, Kinso's business was quite popular. With the onset of World-War II and Japanese Americans' mass incarceration, Kinso Ninomiya and his wife, Kiyo Kodani, and their four children were forcibly removed to the Poston War Relocation Center in Arizona on May 27, 1942. The studio remained closed until they reopened in their new location in Little Tokyo in 1949. The studio was located on 353 East 1st Street, less than a black away from the Japanese American National Museum. Ninomiya's son, Elwin Ichiro (1929-2009), operated the studio with his father until it closed in 1986.Born on October 19, 1894 in Hiroshima Ken, Japan, Kinso Beach Ninomiya immigrated to the United States on May 27, 1913. His wife, Kiyo Ninomiya (nèe Kodani) was born on February 16, 1907 in Tokyo, Japan and immigrated with her family to the United States on January 5, 1915. The two married in Los Angeles, California on October 7, 1928 and had four children: Elwin Ichiro (born February 23, 1929), Terry Terumi (born September 1, 1931), Clyde Kunio (born November 11, 1937) and Letty Hisako (born February 17, 1940). In the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles, Kinso Ninomiya owned and operated the successful Ninomiya Photo Studio starting in 1922 until its closure in the face of subsequent mass incarceration of Japanese Americans in the United States following the U.S. entrance into World War II. The Ninomiya family was forcibly removed to the Poston incarceration camp in Arizona on May 27, 1942 and remained there until 1945; Kinso Ninomiya was the first of his family to be released from Poston on February 6, 1945. The eldest Ninomiya children, Elwin and Terry were respectively released from Poston on March 14 and September 23 of 1945. Kiyo and the two youngest children, Clyde and Letty, were all released on October 20, 1945. Los Angeles has prided itself as a city living on the edge, always setting the trend for the rest of America. Indeed, it became a magnet for many Americans fleeing Midwestern farms, southern plantations, Indian reservations, and east coast cities searching for a new life. Perhaps more than any other metropolis, L.A. is a city of neighborhoods defined by foreign immigration. One such neighborhood, Little Tokyo, has become the center of an effort to preserve the story of Japanese Americans. At the heart of this preservation effort is the Japanese American National Museum, the only one of its kind in the United States. Situated inside a long abandoned but recently renovated Buddhist temple, the building dates to 1925 and was used by Japanese immigrants (or Issei) as a house of worship and neighborhood center. During World War II the temple became a storage site for the property of Issei and their native-born children (or Nissei) who had been ordered to internment camps. By 1969, the building had been sold and was destined for demolition. In 1982, a group of prominent Japanese American businessmen and World War II veterans began exploring the possibility of establishing a museum of the Japanese American experience. By 1985, the Japanese American National Museum was incorporated as a nonprofit institution. With backing from the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, the California State Legislature, and numerous citizen groups, the Museum purchased and renovated the temple, which opened in 1992. Once used as a part of the federal government's plan to remove all Japanese Americans from the West Coast, the temple now preserves stark evidence of one of the darker moments in American history. Approaching the building on First Street, visitors are greeted by a small red sign hanging above the doorway of the former temple. Next door an 85,000-square-foot pavilion rises from the concrete. Built in 1999, the new pavilion more than doubled the amount of space available to the Museum. Like its older half, the pavilion's galleries feature contemporary Japanese American artists as well as World War II internment exhibits. Once inside, Museum volunteers welcome visitors and answer their questions. Some of the volunteers lived through World War II and willingly share their experiences. Receiving on average 170,000 visitors annually, the Museum generates a wide variety of emotions. "For Japanese Americans, the history on display reminds them of their experiences or the experiences of their loved ones," says Chris Komai, the Museum's Public Information Manager. "[The unconstitutional mass incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans by the U.S. government during World War II has an enormous impact on all visitors." Many of the exhibits on display are quite moving. "Dear Miss Breed: Letters from Camp" chronicles the efforts by Clara Breed, the Children's Librarian at the San Diego Public Library from 1929 to 1945. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the subsequent removal of all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast, Breed distributed stamped and addressed postcards to Japanese American children as they were ordered to the San Diego train station. She encouraged them to write her and describe their lives in the camps. Breed also sent books and care packages to the children. One young writer, Louise Ogawa, spoke of her happiness at receiving a sweater from Breed and described the lack of heat in her Arizona camp schoolroom in the middle of January. Breed held onto the letters and gave them to one of her former correspondents, Elizabeth Yamada. Realizing the significance of these letters, Yamada donated them to the Museum in 1993. Another exhibit, "The Life and Work of George Hoshida: A Japanese American's Journey," looks at Hoshida, an artist and community leader who lived in Hawaii and was arrested two days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. During the next three years, Hoshida was incarcerated at Kilauea Military Camp in Hawaii, Lordsborg and Santa Fe, New Mexico, Jerome, Arkansas, and finally Gila River, Arizona, where Hoshida was released in September 1945. Hoshida drew many sketches of community life in the various camps. One sketch shows a group of boys playing softball, while another highlights the prison camp-like feel to Lordsborg. His artwork and personal correspondence, deposited at the Museum, provide insight into the many ways that interned Japanese Americans attempted to get on with their lives despite their illegal imprisonment. Although many of the exhibits at the Museum understandably focus on the World War II experience, others look at Japanese American life both before and after the war. On display now through the OAH meeting is "For a Greener Tomorrow: Japanese American Gardeners in Southern California." The exhibit surveys the contributions made by Japanese American gardeners after they were barred from leasing farmland in southern California during the early 1900s. Other exhibits include "More Than a Game: Sport in the Japanese American Community" and "Allen Say's Journey: The Art and Words of a Children's Book Author." Like many cultural institutions, the Museum strives to broaden its audience beyond its geographical base. One such initiative is the National School Project (NSP). Beginning in 1993, the NSP created a network of secondary school teachers from around the nation dedicated to furthering multicultural education. It holds workshops, training sessions, and a summer institute that bring teachers together for networking and curriculum development. The Museum has also sponsored traveling exhibitions and has digitized many of its collections. Teachers and scholars can visit its website (<http://www.janm.org>) to find letters, artwork, photographs, and oral recordings for use in the classroom. As museums and other cultural institutions have grown during the past few decades, they have become engines for economic and community development. Similar to the original temple which houses the older part of the Museum, much of the surrounding neighborhood had fallen into decay by the 1960s. Little Tokyo, as the area was called, was formed during the 1880s and 1890s as Japanese immigrated to Los Angeles. By the 19308, increasing numbers of Nissei were moving away from the area for the suburbs, and community leaders began organizing Nissei Week as a way of maintaining commercial and cultural links. The wholesale removal of Japanese Americans emptied the community during World War II, but at the end of the war many Issei and Nissei returned briefly. Like other Americans, returning camp internees joined the nationwide exodus to the suburbs during the 1950s and left Little Tokyo behind. By the 1960s, a number of Japanese Americans became alarmed as the neighborhood's heritage was threatened by commercial development. They resolved to rehabilitate the area, establishing the Little Tokyo Redevelopment Project in 1970. In 1986, they succeeded in placing thirteen buildings along First Street (including the temple housing the Museum) on the National Register of Historic Places. Indeed, the Museum not only serves as a preservation site for Japanese Americans, but combines with the surrounding area to form a larger community of Japanese American heritage in Los Angeles. As a part of the redevelopment of Little Tokyo, commercial developers are required to commit a half percent of the cost of new projects for landscaping or public art. As a result, building and park entrances around the neighborhood feature visual amenities that transmit the cultural heritage of Japanese Americans. In a sense, the entire neighborhood acts as a museum. For example, a bronze sculpture of Japanese American photographer Toyo Miyatake's camera sits outside the Japanese American National Museum. Miyatake opened a studio in Little Tokyo in 1923 and was later interned at Manzanar Camp during World War II, He smuggled a camera into the camp and secretly recorded his experiences for posterity. Fifty years later, a bronze replica of Miyatake's camera projects images of his work onto a window of the Museum, allowing pedestrians to experience some of the Museum's exhibits without actually entering the building. The Japanese American National Museum has clearly become a success story in its short history as a cultural institution. While retaining the primary sources so necessary to the work of academic historians, it also functions to "stir emotions in visitors to help create a greater interest in American history," says Komai, "While our mission is to preserve and tell the story of Americans of Japanese ancestry as an integral part of U.S. history, this won't do much good if people don't come and they don't remember. And people are more likely to remember if they feel some emotion while learning." 
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