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Closed for Renovations

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. 

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  • Opera Preview Event: “The Camp”

    Feb 02, 2025

    Jazz up the new year with an exclusive preview of The Camp, a powerful new opera that follows the Shimono family’s journey through a World War II concentration camp in the US. Created by librettist Lionelle Hamanaka, a descendant of camp survivors, and composer Daniel Kessner, The Camp sheds light on the emotional and physical toll of imprisonment and the strength found in familial bonds and collective resistance.Thi...

  • JANM Celebrates the Oshogatsu Family Festival and Launches JANM on the Go on January 5, 2025

    Dec 12, 2024

    Editor’s note: JANM’s Pavilion to close for renovation on January 5, 2025; programs will continue on the JANM campus and at other locations at janm.org/OnTheGo. LOS ANGELES, CA – The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) will host the Oshogatsu Family Festival from 11 a.m.–5 p.m.on Sunday, January 5, 2025. The popular annual New Year celebration will include free crafts, performances, and cultural activities for ...

  • Honoring Common Ground

    Nov 23, 2024

    Enjoy an afternoon of celebration and activities honoring JANM’s core exhibition, Common Ground: The Heart of Community, that highlights over 140 years of Japanese American history. The afternoon will feature natsukashii (nostalgic) music, a souvenir photo booth, docent-led tours, and a chance for visitors to contribute to our community memory archive booth. The core exhibition has been the center of the Museum for t...

  • "Hafu: The Mixed Race Experience of Japan" by Lara Perez-Takagi and Megumi Nishikura

    Apr 05, 2013

    Hafu: The Mixed Race Experience of Japan is the unfolding journey of discovery into the intricacies of mixed race Japanese and their multicultural experiences in modern day Japan. The film follows five hafus – the Japanese term for people who are half Japanese – who are compelled to explore what it means to be multiracial and multicultural in a nation that proclaims itself to be mono-ethnic. To RSVP for the event,...

  • East West Players presents a reading of IXNAY by Paul Kikuchi

    Oct 30, 2008

    Raymond Kobayashi is in the prime of his sansei life when he’s pulled up to Heaven. But when he finds out he’s been scheduled to return as a Japanese American again, Raymond flat out refuses. A comedy about an underachieving Asian who causes major havoc at the Reincarnation Station when he ixnays his Next Life.

  • The Art of Gaman: Arts & Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps by Delphine Hirasuna

    Apr 09, 2006

    Delphine Hirasuna presents a varied collection of artifacts photographed by Terry Hefferman in a tribute to the 120,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II. Hirasuna will speak on the art of gaman, "the art of enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity"; and on how crafts were produced in camp out of found materials. Objects presented in this colorful anthology are examples of what ma...

  • Hana to Tomo ni: The History of the California Flower Market

    Sep 13, 1997

    Featuring: Gary Kawaguchi, Ph.D. At the turn of the century, Japanese Chinese and Italian flower growers combined their efforts to wholesale their flowers in the San Francisco Bay area. Join Dr. Kawaguchi as he tells of the hardships and struggles faced for nearly a century by the Japanese American flower growers who continue to dominate the flower industry in the Bay Area. Reservations required. Free with Museum ...

  • The Life and Work of George Hoshida: A Japanese American’s Journey—Kilauea Military Camp

    1942 Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on December 7, 1941 policemen and soldiers began rounding up “suspects” in Hawai‘i and interning them at Kilauea Military Camp, located near Kilauea Volcano on the island of Hawai‘i. The government feared that people of Japanese ancestry would sabotage the war effort, even though investigators found only one case of disloyalty among islanders. At Ki...

  • Don’t Fence Me In: Coming of Age in America’s Concentration Camps—Resources

    Don’t Fence Me In: Coming of Age in America’s Concentration Camps explores the experiences of Japanese American youth who asserted their place as young Americans confronting the injustice of being imprisoned in World War II concentration camps. Check out our resources including: A video about conserving a Boy Scout drum An activity guide created by JANM’s Education Unit to accompany the exhibition ...

  • A Life in Pieces: The Diary and Letters of Stanley Hayami - Stanley Hayami

    Stanley Hayami was an ordinary American teenager from Mark Keppel High School in Alhambra, Calif. who enjoyed writing and sketching in his diary. Born on December 23, 1925, he was the son of Frank Naoichi and Asano Hayami. Stanley was the second youngest of four children, and in 1941, he was living the life of an average teenager in San Gabriel, Calif. The December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attack by Japan forever alte...