Japanese American National Museum Visit

For this assignment, I visited the Japanese American National Museum. This museum is located in the city of Los Angeles in Little Tokyo. The museum underwent and expansion in 1996 which allowed them to move out of the old building next door. Their past exhibits focused on Japanese American gardeners in Southern California, Japanese American artists, and Angel Island.

Currently, the museum has two temporary exhibits. One of them showcases the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles. On display were photographs, street signs, artwork, and artifacts from the area. Images and various histories of many different ethnic groups were on display. There were yearbooks, pictures, and letterman jackets from Roosevelt High School from the 1940’s. Also on display was a stained glass window from a Jewish retirement home.

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Russian, Jewish, Mexican, and Japanese cultures overlapped in this area. We could not talk much; it seemed like he was a popular person who everyone wanted to talk to. It gave viewers and overview of 130 years of Japanese American history. That would have given me lots of information on Asian immigration to the United States.

Another exhibit in the museum was called “Common Ground: The Heart of Community. To me, history is more interesting when it is being told to me by someone who experienced it. There were many objects on display from the Issei generation, to World War II, leading up to the present. He is a Japanese American man and he told me stories about how many ethnicities have considered Boyle Heights home. I felt very lucky to meet someone who experienced the internment. I got a chance to speak to a volunteer at the museum who also was a resident of Boyle Heights. One of the volunteers gave me a packet with general information on Japanese American history.

There was a volunteer there who told me about her experiences in camp. Medals from the 442nd were on display as well. This exhibit showed how many different ethnic groups called Boyle Heights home.

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