Incorporating hundreds of objects, documents, and photographs from JANM’s collection, this exhibition chronicles Japanese American history, beginning in the late 1800s with the early days of the Issei (first generation) pioneers and continuing through the World War II incarceration, post-war resettlement, and the redress movement. 

Among the many notable artifacts on display is a Heart Mountain barracks, an original structure saved and preserved from the concentration camp in Wyoming.

The December 7, 1941 attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawai‘i by the nation of Japan plunged the United States into World War II and irrevocably changed the course of American history. But for thousands of Americans of Japanese ancestry living in the Hawaiian Islands and the mainland, the war highlighted the great divide between their American ideals and their unfair treatment based solely on race.