Eating Together
Eating Together: Food in Japanese America
Coming in 2026
JANM is thrilled to announce that the Museum is launching a major project exploring food and Japanese American culture!
Food is one of the most exciting and important expressions of culture, identity, and creativity. To be a savvy global consumer is to appreciate and know all types of cuisines. And Asian Americans are leading the transformation of how we eat and share food today. Drawing from JANM’s extensive collection, this exhibition explores food culture in the Japanese American community and the role of Asian American food producers—from farmers to chefs to critics—as leading innovators and tastemakers in Los Angeles and beyond.
We will be reaching out to communities across the US over the next few years to learn about how what we eat has shaped Japanese Americans—and we want to learn from you!
Call for Submissions
From farming to restaurants, Oshogatsu favorites, and Obon treats, food brings the community together and anchors memories. But it is also through food that the rest of the US probably first learns about Japanese American culture.
Does your family have favorite foods for Oshogatsu? Do you have a favorite cookbook? What is your favorite Obon food, and which temple or church serves it? Does your family have a favorite restaurant?
We want to hear about favorite foods, restaurants, cookbooks, and memories from across the country. We’d also love to talk to the people who make all of these possible.
Some things we are especially interested in:
- Do you or someone in your family have great photos or objects that help tell stories about food?
- Was your family involved in growing, making, or serving food? We want to hear about anything from the ubiquitous truck farmer to the lesser-known tofu seller.
- Does your community have a special restaurant or store that connects you to Japanese American food?
- Does your community have special food that is unique to your area’s Japanese American community? For example, we keep hearing about Seattle teriyaki chicken!
- Which temple or church has the best Obon food?
- Did your family members who were incarcerated during World War II tell stories about the food they had there? Were there dishes they especially hated for the rest of their lives? We keep hearing about apple butter, but are there other things?
- Are there people in your community who we should interview because they can tell such good and important stories about what food means to your community? For example, restaurant and store owners, and people who organize the food for your church’s Obon.
Please email JANM Curator Emily Anderson at eanderson@janm.org with your stories.
Eating Together: Food in Japanese America is sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Parks Service, the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program.