JANM on the Go logo
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. 

Learn More

Search Results For

  • POSTPONED: Tea n’ Zines

    Nov 03, 2022

    EVENT UPDATE This event has been postponed to a later date. The new date will be posted online as soon as it is determined. Thank you and apologies for any inconvenience caused. Gather with us to share tea and conversation and explore creative expression. Interactive creative exercises will be led by traci kato-kiriyama, former Little Tokyo +LAB Artist-in-Residence at JANM, and Mya Worrell, zine artist. ...

  • Mottainai Yoga with traci

    Oct 29, 2016

    Roughly translated, mottainai means "don’t be wasteful" in Japanese. In this yoga and meditation workshop for all levels, certified yoga instructor traci ishigo invites participants to harness their own inner energy to prevent body, mind, and spirit from going to waste. Participants can expect the one-hour class to be both restorative and invigorating, with opportunities to practice deep stretches as well as streng...

  • "Gasa Gasa Girl Goes to Camp" by Lily Yuriko Nakai Havey

    Feb 07, 2015

    In this creative memoir, Havey combines vintage photographs with her own paintings and writings to tell the story of how she grew from a ten-year-old girl into a teenager while living in Santa Anita Assembly Center and Amache Relocation Center during World War II. Havey will read from and discuss her book. Audience Q&A to follow. Free with general museum admission. The book is available at the JANM Store....

  • "MIS: Human Secret Weapon"

    May 25, 2013

    Screenings to be held at 12PM and 2PM. Composed of Japanese American soldiers who were trained as linguists, the MIS were essential in helping the U.S. achieve victory in the Pacific Theater during WWII. Many of the soldiers fighting and translating on the frontlines were Nisei who had previously been incarcerated with their families in U.S. concentration camps. Q&A with MIS veteran Hitoshi Sameshima to f...

  • The All-American Fortune Cookie...from Japan?

    Sep 20, 2008

    While popular history has ascribed the fortune cookie's origins to California, it is actually originally from Japan. Jennifer 8. Lee, author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, and Derek Shimoda, director of “Killing the Chinese Cookie,” talk about their research in tracing the cookie trail back to Kyoto, where it is still being made in small family-run bakeries.

  • "My Life: Living in Two Cultures" by Shigeo Takayama

    Jan 28, 2007

    A successful businessman and philanthropist, Takayama's entrepreneurial endeavors have significantly advanced global technologies, and his dedication to public service has changed countless lives worldwide. Born in the United States in 1906, his story begins like many Japanese Americans but soon embarks on a remarkably different journey. From a childhood spent in Japan, to the neighborhoods of Los Angeles, to the bat...

  • "Beliz Brother, Mei-ling Hom, and Kim Yasuda: Celebrating U.S. - Japan Creative Artists Exchange Fellowship Program" Exhibition Opening Reception

    May 10, 2001

    Celebrate the opening of this exciting exhibition. Enjoy inspiring works of art and special live performances by Kinnara Taiko, costumer and performance artist Sha Sha Higby and Christopher Yohmei Blasdel performing on the shakuhachi (Japanese wooden flute). By invitation only.

  • AT&T East West Players New Voices Writers Gallery Series

    Aug 14, 1997

    Thursday Evening at the Museum New Play Reading This program features the winners of the New Voices Play writing Competition sponsored by East West Players. The plays of these talented young playwrights were selected from entries collected from throughout the country in a contest that EWP hopes to make international in scope in the near future. Follow the development of these plays that may someday progress t...

  • Ireichō—Event

    On September 24, 2022, the Japanese American National Museum hosted a private event to consecrate and install the Ireichō, a sacred book that records the names of over 125,000 persons of Japanese ancestry who were unjustly imprisoned in US Army, Department of Justice, and War Relocation Authority camps during World War II. A procession of interfaith clergy, survivors, and descendants from seventy-five World War I...

  • Cruising J-Town—Photos

    Southern California is one of America’s original autopias—a region built from and for car and truck culture. For over one hundred years, the Nikkei (Japanese American) community has shared a profound, complicated relationship with that culture.Whether driving fish trucks or drift racers, joining teenage car clubs or professional race teams, this community has long embraced the automobile to express creative identitie...