JANM’s Pavilion is closed for renovation and will reopen in late 2026. While the museum and store are closed, join us for programs and events on our Little Tokyo campus, throughout Southern California, and beyond.
Upcoming Exhibition
Browse the resources below to see the many different ways that the Japanese American community has fueled evolutions in car culture.
This map has the locations of past and present gas & service stations either owned or operated by Japanese Americans in the Los Angeles area. Locations were primarily contributed by members of the Japanese American National Museum. If you think a location is missing or needs correcting, you can submit that through our form: Amendments
We’re looking for family/community photos, depicting people’s relationship to their cars, trucks and other vehicles. These images can be people driving, cruising, and racing cars, or even just family photos shot in front of cars or taken during road trips. Your photos may be incorporated in a rotating set of community car images in the exhibition space and shared online.
We need your help to identify all the different gas stations and service centers in the region that were owned or run by Japanese Americans!
Even if all you remember is the intersection where the station is or was, that’s useful to us. If you remember the name of the station and/or the name(s) of the Japanese American owner(s), even better.
We’re also interested in seeing any photos that people may have of those stations and the people who worked there.
Please fill out this form to submit your response. We’ll use this information to create a database and interactive map of all the gas/service stations in the region, based on all your replies.
Thank you to everyone who submitted information! We are no longer accepting submissions.
We are looking for images of local Japanese Americans with their work trucks, vans, and cars. Many people may have posed in front of their family cars but we know there are also photos of people with their utility vehicles too. We want to make sure these—and the people behind them—are properly represented in our exhibition.
Thanks to the following community members for their contributions to this exhibition. These oral history interviews were recorded for the Cruising J-Town between 2022 and 2024. Clips from the interviews are included in the videos produced for the exhibition. Audio clips from some of the interviews are available on the Audio Tour page and on JANM’s Bloomberg Connects guide. JANM is in the process of organizing these interviews for future public access.
Tad Amano and Eileen Peterman • Michelle, Geoff and Myles Ando • Members of the Apostles (Robert Arai, Gary Hata, Howard Igasaki, Howard Imatomi, Richard Imatomi, Ben Nakagawa, Fred Tanaka) • Members of the Atomettes (Sadie Hifumi, Rose Honda, Kathleen Yamazaki) • Sandra Buscher and Yukari Mikesell • Darin Dohi • Janet Fujimoto • BIll Fujioka • Ed Fujita • Bill Fukushima • Sachi and Tats Gotanda • Philip Kan Gotanda • Janice Goto • Jennifer Goto • Steve Hasegawa • Guy Hashimoto and Irvin Matsukiyo • Members of the Hatekeyama families (Kenji Hatekeyama, Bruce Hatakeyama, and Elaine Fukumoto) • Toshi Hayama • Len Higa • Naomi Hirahara • Benson Hsu and Nadine Sachiko Hsu • Derek Ige • Jimmy Ige • Reiko Ige-Toshima • Jon Ikeda • Richard Ikkanda • Rick Ishitani • Billy Johnson • Patty Morimoto Johnson and Melinda Morimoto Seshiki • Robert Jung • Tod Kaneko • Scott Kanemura • Brian Karasawa • Paul Katata • Gary Kato • Wade Kawasaki • Chico Kodama • Myles Kovacs • Sachi Koyama and Leslie Carlson-Koyama • Ford Kuramoto • Dan and John Kuramoto • Roland Leong • Ed Loh • Tom Matano • Dane and Gary Matsubara • Mitchell Matsumura • Richard Mikami • Sam Mitani • Motohide Miwa • Donald Miyagi • Ken Miyoshi • Tim Mochizuki • Bob Mochizuki • Melanie Morimoto • Russell Morimoto • The family of Lefty Morimoto (Stacy Eng, Kathi Morimoto, Mike Morimoto, Randall Morimoto, Sherry Morimoto) • Ernie Nagamatsu • Dylan, Ken, and Kyle Nagao • Steve Nakajima • Marsha and Walter Nakamura • Roy Nakano • Desmond Nakano • Marion Nishimura and Jimmie Yamane • Nobu Oshiro • Becky Kudo Rittel • Ross Ruiz • Randy Sakamoto • Yasu Sato • Kirk Shimazu • Richard Sugi • George Takei • Bryan Takeda and Allen Tamura • Jean Tekawa • The family of Shiro Teramoto (Karen Mark, Elaine Miyamoto, Gary Teramoto, Julie Teramoto, Lois Yamada) • Scott Toshima • Ben and Sandy Toshiyuki • Amy and Scott Tsuneishi • Duane Uyeda • Koji and Terry Yamaguchi • Greg Yamamoto • Ron Yamaoka • Roy Yanase • Chris Yato • Kaiya and Kyle Yonamine • Brian Yoshino
