Special Events
Youth & Families
JANM Free Family Days: Celebrate Japanese American History
Special Events
Youth & Families
JANM Free Family Days: Celebrate Japanese American History
FREE ALL DAY
Learn about Japanese American history and actor/activist George Takei with crafts and activities inspired by our exhibitions, Instructions to All Persons: Reflections on Executive Order 9066 and New Frontiers: The Many Worlds of George Takei.
Presented in collaboration with Kizuna.
ALL DAY ACTIVITIES:
Get a head start on Kodomo no hi (Children’s Day, May 5) with our partnering organization, Kizuna. They will teach participants to make koinobori (carp streamers) and origami samurai hats.
Learn to fold beautiful origami bird pins, much like the ones that were made by incarcerated Japanese Americans during World War II.
When Japanese Americans were sent to camps during WWII, they were allowed to take only what they could carry. What would you put into your suitcase? Draw a few of your favorite things onto our paper suitcases.
What does America mean to you? Tell us by making a slogan or sign and posing with it in our photo booth, brought to you by Nerdbot.
Learn about famous Japanese Americans the fun way! Assemble and take home a special mini-comic book created by the Smithsonian Institution about the lives of former US Secretary of Transportation (and current Chair of JANM’s Board of Trustees) Norman Y. Mineta and civil rights activists Fred Korematsu and Yuri Kochiyama.
Make a paper puppet of your favorite notable Japanese American, or other personal hero. Templates will be available.
View New Frontiers: The Many Worlds of George Takei and complete the passport we give you. Show your completed passport to a volunteer at the survey table to claim a prize! Limit one prize per person, while supplies last.
SCHEDULED ACTIVITIES:
11:30 a.m. • 1:30 p.m. • 2:30 p.m. • 3:30 p.m.: Story Time
Throughout the day, volunteers from JANM and Kizuna will read stories that share the Japanese American experience.
Stories will include:
- Barbed Wire Baseball: How One Man Brought Hope to the Japanese Internment Camps of WWII by Marissa Moss with illustrations by Yuko Shimizu
- The Cat Who Chose To Dream by Loriene Honda, PhD, with illustrations by Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani
- An Astronaut’s Legacy: The Story of Ellison S. Onizuka by Lisa Nikaido Arakaki with illustrations by Mitchell Fong
- Excelsior: The Many Lives of George Takei, a comic book published in conjunction with the New Frontiers exhibition.
1 p.m.–4 p.m.: Spam Musubi Workshop
Volunteers from Kizuna will lead a drop-in workshop on how to create this delicious and uniquely Japanese American treat. While supplies last!
Plus, free admission all day to see:
