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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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  • 2025 Natsumatsuri Family Festival is on Saturday, August 16

    Jul 22, 2025

    PSAWHAT: Celebrate summer with us at JANM’s Democracy Center and the Norman Y. Mineta Democracy Plaza featuring free cultural performances, crafts, and activities for families and kids of all ages!The festival is sponsored by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Nissan Foundation, and the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture. The media sponsor is The Rafu Shimpo, and the promotional ...

  • Ireicho National Tour—Minidoka

    Jul 11, 2025 - Jul 13, 2025

    JANM is partnering with The Irei Project and USC’s Duncan Ryuken Williams to travel The Ireichō: Book of Names in conjunction with pilgrimages to all ten former War Relocation Authority concentration camps, to other Department of Justice and Wartime Civil Control Administration incarceration sites, and selected cities across the US. The tour is part of JANM on the Go, a series of programs and exhibitions presented ac...

  • JANM Mourns the Passing of Margaret “Marge” Wada

    May 10, 2024

    LOS ANGELES, CA – The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) mourns the passing of Margaret “Marge” Wada, a dedicated JANM volunteer for twenty-three years. She worked for the State of California for nineteen years and retired as a Manager II. At JANM she taught origami to students during school visits and supported staff with mailings and other projects. Her passion for dancing led to her to recruit and organize v...

  • JANM Mourns the Passing of Sakaye Aratani

    Apr 02, 2024

    LOS ANGELES, CA – The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) mourns Sakaye Aratani, who passed away on March 18, 2024. Aratani grew up in Gardena, where her parents ran a chicken farm. When Pearl Harbor was bombed, her family lived with relatives in Reedley, California before being forcibly removed to the Poston concentration camp in Arizona. While visiting another camp she met her future husband, George, and they ...

  • Film Screening, Q&A, and Reception—"Masters of Modern Design"

    May 09, 2019

    FREE From the hand-drawn typeface on the cover of The Godfather to Herman Miller’s biomorphic coffee table, the work of Japanese American designers including Ruth Asawa, George Nakashima, Isamu Noguchi, S. Neil Fujita, and Gyo Obata permeated postwar culture. While these second generation Japanese American artists have been celebrated, less-discussed is how their World War II incarceration—a period of intense hard...

  • ZÓCALO—What Does the Life of Frederick Douglass Tell Us About America?

    Nov 29, 2018

    A Smithsonian/ASU "What It Means to Be American" Event at JANM’s National Center for the Preservation of Democracy Moderated by Baratunde Thurston, cultural critic, comedian, and author of How to Be Black American icon Frederick Douglass died in 1895, but he still makes the news. Indeed, he represents an increasingly rare sort of hero—one whose story is invoked across the political spectrum. Perhaps t...

  • JAPANESE AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSEUM RECEIVES BEQUEST FROM ESTATE OF SETSUKO OKA

    Sep 11, 2018

    Los Angeles, CA—The Japanese American National Museum has received a bequest in excess of $525,000 from the estate of Setsuko Oka, a longtime museum member who died in October 2017. The funds will go toward educational initiatives as well as exhibitions and programs focused on Japanese artistic and cultural heritage in the United States, through the soon-to-be-established Setsuko Oka Japanese Heritage Fund. A plaque ...

  • NEW JANM EXHIBITION TO FEATURE ORIGINAL EXECUTIVE ORDER AUTHORIZING WWII INCARCERATION OF JAPANESE AMERICANS, ON LOAN FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

    Jan 26, 2017

    From February 18 to August 13, 2017, the Japanese American National Museum will present Instructions to All Persons: Reflections on Executive Order 9066, a new exhibition that commemorates the 75th anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066, which led to the tragic and unlawful incarceration of 120,000 individuals of Japanese ancestry during World War II. For the first three month...

  • JANM TO PRESENT SPECIAL FREE SCREENING OF STEVE AOKI’S NETFLIX ORIGINAL FILM "I’LL SLEEP WHEN I’M DEAD"

    Aug 31, 2016

    I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, a new documentary on the life of influential DJ, music producer, and record label founder Steve Aoki, will be screened at the Japanese American National Museum on September 27, at 7:30 p.m. Free and open to the public, the screening will be followed by a discussion with Aoki led by Mike Shinoda of Grammy Award-winning rock band Linkin Park. I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead was shot over the c...

  • JANM ANNOUNCES NEW VP OF EXTERNAL RELATIONS

    Nov 30, 2015

    Rick Noguchi has been hired as Vice President of External Relations for the Japanese American National Museum. He began his role on November 16. Noguchi reports to JANM President and CEO Greg Kimura. The hiring marks a return to the museum for Noguchi, who previously held positions there in public programs and development. He has more than 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, serving in various mana...