Friday, May 3 - Sunday, May 5

JANM Members get 20% discount at the Museum Store and janmstore.com, plus free admission and 20% discount at other participating Southern California institutions including museums, libraries, and other cultural sites including MOCA, Pacific Asia Museum, Skirball Center, and the San Diego Museum of Art.

See a list of participating organizations >>

American Heroes: Japanese American World War II Nisei Soldiers and the Congressional Gold Medal opens to the public after 12PM.

Tour our ongoing exhibition Common Ground: The Heart of Community with our knowledgeable Museum docents.

Writer and photographer Tom Graves will discuss and read from his new book, Twice Heroes: America's Nisei Veterans of WWII and Korea. Graves spent over a decade interviewing and photographing men and women who served to prove their loyalty to America. The veterans shared their own histories with the author, many revealing their experiences for the first time. Q&A with author to follow.

Purchase the book from the Museum Store Online >>

Hafu: The Mixed Race Experience of Japan is the unfolding journey of discovery into the intricacies of mixed race Japanese and their multicultural experiences in modern day Japan. The film follows five hafus – the Japanese term for people who are half Japanese – who are compelled to explore what it means to be multiracial and multicultural in a nation that proclaims itself to be mono-ethnic.

This screening is free! To reserve your tickets, please contact agiffen@janm.org or reserve your tickets here.

In collaboration with the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. For more information on the festival, click here.

A special opportunity for JANM Members to check out the Portraiture Now: Asian American Portraits of Encounter exhibition before it opens to the public! For more information and the RSVP, contact specialevents@janm.org, or call (213) 625-0414.

Portraiture Now: Asian American Portraits of Encounter opens.

Celebrate the openings of American Heroes: Japanese American World War II Nisei Soldiers and the Congressional Gold Medal and Portraiture Now: Asian American Portraits of Encounter at this very fun and educational Target Day!

ALL DAY CRAFTS AND ACTIVITIES:
• Create a self-portrait that’s totally you!
• Have your portrait taken and make a customized picture frame for it!
• Mark your spot in history on our community timeline! In collaboration with JACL-PSW.
• Ruthie’s Origami Corner: Make a Mother’s Day card!
• Wall of thanks - All veterans are invited to have their photograph taken to be displayed so we can give a big JANM Family Day thanks!

SCHEDULE:
11AM: Doors open

11AM-2PM: Kidding Around the Kitchen will help you make a self-portrait fruit face!

12PM-2PM: Drop by and meet a member of the 442nd, 100th, or M.I.S.! They will be signing baseball-style cards of themselves for you to take home!

12PM-3PM: Let the Cartoon Slinger draw a fun caricature portrait of you! For children only, line ends at 2:30PM.

1PM-4PM: Learn more about the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team and support our troops with author Stacey Hayashi! Stacey is the author of the comic book Journey of Heroes: The Story of the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Activities will include:
• Write letters to soldiers stationed abroad and let them know how thankful you are for their service!
• Journey of Heroes coloring activity
• Take your photo with characters from Journey of Heroes!

1:30PM-3PM: Say thank you to Japanese American Korean War and Japanese American Vietnam War Veterans in person!

2PM: Author Ken Mochizuki will read his book Heroes. More about Heroes: Set during the '60s with the Vietnam war going on and World War II popular in the media, Japanese American Donnie Okada always has to be the "bad guy" when he and his friends play war because he looks like the enemy portrayed in the media. When he finally has had enough, Donnie enlists the aid of his 442nd veteran father and Korean War veteran uncle to prove to his friends and schoolmates that those of Asian descent did serve in the U.S. military.

2:30PM: Take a tour of Portraiture Now with Smithsonian exhibition curator David Ward.

4PM: Doors close

Generously sponsored by Target, these special Saturdays are filled with fun activities giving families unique ways to learn, play, and grow together.

Join us for a film screening of Éclair: For Our Future, For Children, an inspiring conversation on the possibilities for tomorrow, and a Mother’s Day brunch. RSVP early, seating is limited.

This program is produced by BDK Development, LLC and is in partnership with the Japan Foundation.

Former U.S. Cadet Nurse Aiko "Grace" Obata Amemiya will speak about her experiences serving in the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps during World War II. Born and raised in Northern California, Grace was student at the University of California School of Nursing when the U.S. declared war on Japan. Like over 110,000 other Japanese Americans, Grace and her family were forcibly removed from their home and incarcerated at the Turlock Assembly Center and later at the Gila River Relocation Center. She continued to work as a nurse's aide at both Turlock and Gila River.

In February 1943, Grace was able to leave camp and continue her nursing studies at St. Mary's University in Rochester, Minnesota. She was then able to enlist in the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps and served proudly for six months at Shick General Army Hospital in Clinton, Iowa. Ms. Amemiya will speak about her service in this very special program.

Learn about Nisei Cadet Nurses in Nisei Cadet Nurse: Patriotism in Spite of Prejudice which tells the story of 19 Japanese American women. Purchase Nisei Cadet Nurse from the Museum Store >>

A Tribute Event for the First Anniversary of the passing of Gordon Hirabayashi

During World War II in Seattle, University of Washington student Gordon Hirabayashi agonizes over U.S. government orders to forcibly remove and imprison all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast. As he fights to reconcile his country's betrayal with his Constitutional beliefs, Gordon journeys toward a greater understanding of America's triumphs and failures.

Written by Jeanne Sakata
Directed by Jessica Kubzansky
Featuring Ryan Yu as Gordon Hirabayashi

At the Democracy Forum of the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy. Performance will be followed by a panel discussion and light refreshments.

Early Bird Ticket Price: $50 (until April 30)
Regular Price: $65 (on or after May 1)

To purchase tickets, visit jabaonline.org or e-mail Anne Inoue at jeflosnageles@gmail.com, or make checks payable to: JABA Educational Foundation and mail to: Law Office of K. Anne Inoue 3828 West Carson St., Suite 102 Torrance, CA 90503.

Event Platinum Sponsors: Japanese American Bar Association & Japanese American National Museum. Proceeds will be used to further the Japanese American Bar Association Educational Foundation's mission of helping to provide financial support to students in pursuit of their legal education.

Free!

The Japanese American National Museum is pleased to welcome Sonoko Sakai, founder of Common Grains in Los Angeles, and Myoho Asari, owner of Saiki Kojiya in Oita, Japan. This seminar will celebrate Koji, the fermented medium that creates much of the unique flavor and umami in Japanese cooking. Myoho and her family have vested generations in selling and promoting this incredible food. The seminar will showcase koji and its many uses and health benefits.

This program is generously sponsored by the Atsuhiko and Ina Goodwin Tateuchi Foundation.

Relive history and learn about present-day Little Tokyo with Museum docents. $9 Members; $14 non-members, includes admission. Comfortable walking shoes recommended. Weather permitting.

Since ancient times, rice has been the most important crop in Japan. Every village had a shrine where people would go to pray for a good harvest and good health. Where there was a shrine, there was a koji-maker, who used the koji mold to ferment rice, wheat and soy beans to produce such Japanese staples as sake, soy sauce, miso, rice vinegar, and amazake (a fermented rice drink). Amazake is traditionally served at the shrines during new years and throughout the year to promote health.

With the industrialization of koji based products, artisanal koji makers have dwindled to about 1000. In the last few years, Myoho Asari of Saiki Kojiya has led the educational outreach about artisanal koji making traditions directly to Japanese cooks and chefs, who are now driving the renaissance in koji fermented foods.

This workshop will teach you how to make the following foods:
• Koji cucumber pickles
• Tamago koji omelet
• Salmon cakes
• Koji soup with chicken balls
• Onigiri (rice balls) with koji sesame seeds
• Mixed berries with koji

$75 members, $85 non-members. RSVP early, 25 students max.

Screenings to be held at 12PM and 2PM.

Composed of Japanese American soldiers who were trained as linguists, the MIS were essential in helping the U.S. achieve victory in the Pacific Theater during WWII. Many of the soldiers fighting and translating on the frontlines were Nisei who had previously been incarcerated with their families in U.S. concentration camps.

Q&A with MIS veteran Hitoshi Sameshima to follow 2PM screening.

Purchase the DVD from the Museum Store >>