Car culture has long been synonymous with Southern California. What we drive for work and play have been literal and symbolic vehicles of personal expression, community identity, and social mobility. This has been especially true for the Southland’s Japanese American community, starting back over one hundred years ago and continuing through today.

Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community tells the stories of influential figures and everyday car lovers alike who have played vital roles in countless car scenes—from hot rods and lowriders to the import craze and drift racing. Curated by cultural scholar and writer, Dr. Oliver Wang, this exhibition features five classic cars: George Nakamura’s 1940s “Meteor” hot rod; Brian Omatsu’s custom 1951 Mercury coupe known as the “Purple Reign”; a 1956 Ford F150 pickup truck owned by Kirk Shimazu; Tod Kaneko’s 1973 Datsun 510, one of the models that launched the import car craze; and a hot pink 1989 Nissan 240SX from professional drift racing driver Nadine Sachiko Toyoda-Hsu’s days with the Drifting Pretty team.

Historic Los Angeles locations such as the original Ascot Speedway in South Los Angeles; F&K Garage in Little Tokyo; sites of the Mojave dry lake racing scene; Lion’s Drag Strip; the Irwindale Speedway; and classic service stations are revisited through photographs and memorabilia. Cruising J-Town also looks at the central role that cars and trucks played in the working lives of Japanese Americans. Nikkei gardeners’ prominence in the local economy was made possible by their trucks, and fish truck drivers, or sakanaya, brought fresh fish and hard-to-find Japanese foods to the postwar suburbs six days a week.

A companion book of the same name is now available at JANM’s online store. The book features essays and images inspired by the same stories and histories found in the exhibition and are written to stand on their own. Follow @cruisingjtown and @jamuseum on Instagram for updates about the exhibition and the book.

Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community is presented by JANM and ArtCenter College of Design as part of JANM on the Go. The exhibition is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, with additional support from the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, Sunco Industries, Co. Ltd., and Don & Ellen Mizota. The media sponsor is The Rafu Shimpo, and the promotional partners are Formula DRIFT, Japanese Classic Car Show, Mooneyes, and Toyota Owner’s and Restorer’s Club.