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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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  • Contested Histories Upper Level Members and VIP Reception

    Oct 18, 2024

    Celebrate the return of the Eaton Collection with the unveiling of JANM’s new exhibition, Contested Histories: Preserving and Sharing a Community Collection. Enhanced with new findings from around the US that fill gaps in the historical record, the exhibition returns to the Museum, where many of the recently restored artworks that sparked a national protest, decisive action, and multigenerational conversations within...

  • Exhibition Tour of BeHere / 1942 with artist Masaki Fujihata

    May 26, 2022

    FREE Join Masaki Fujihata, the visionary Japanese media artist behind BeHere / 1942: A New Lens on the Japanese American Incarceration, for a guided tour of JANM’s newest exhibition. Photo credit: Jim Conner

  • On the Passing of Lawson Iichiro Sakai

    Jul 01, 2020

    Los Angeles, CA – It is with great sadness that the Japanese American National Museum acknowledges the passing of Lawson Iichiro Sakai, 96. He was a decorated member of the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the founder of the Friends and Family Nisei Veterans (FFNV) group that organized annual get-togethers in Las Vegas and trips abroad for the Japanese American World War II veterans and their families. Lawso...

  • JANM Free Family Days: Handy Crafts

    Jul 09, 2016

    FREE ALL DAY Inspired by Above the Fold, this Family Day will explore origami and other fun handmade crafts. ALL DAY ACTIVITIES: Learn to fold a paper frog at Ruthie’s Origami Corner—a JANM favorite! Visit our various origami stations to work on projects at the skill level of your choice. There will be beginning, intermediate, and advanced stations available. We will even have a pop culture...

  • ORIGAMI EXHIBITION TO UNFOLD AT JANM

    Apr 08, 2016

    The Japanese American National Museum will present Above the Fold: New Expressions in Origami, a traveling exhibition featuring the work of nine contemporary artists working in six different countries, from May 29 to August 21, 2016. Origami—the Japanese tradition of folding paper into recognizable objects—dates back at least 1,000 years, with possible roots in Shinto purification rituals and gift exchanges am...

  • Making Waves

    Feb 28, 2016 - Jun 26, 2016

    In the early 1900s, groups of Japanese Americans formed photography clubs along the Pacific coast from Los Angeles to Seattle. Their photographs were exhibited and published internationally to considerable acclaim, and admired by other photographers including Edward Weston and László Moholy-Nagy. Through artfully arranged images, the photographers represented the Japanese cultural heritage that they knew and loved; a...

  • Before They Were Heroes

    Jul 14, 2015 - Sep 06, 2015

    Before They Were Heroes: Sus Ito’s World War II Images is the inaugural exhibition in Sharing Our Stories, a new series of exhibitions drawn from JANM’s extensive permanent collection. A celebration of the donation by Susumu “Sus” Ito of his vast archive of photographs and negatives taken while on duty during World War II, Before They Were Heroes gives the public a rare and breathtaking look at the daily lives of the...

  • Colors of Confinement

    May 03, 2014 - Aug 31, 2014

    SPECIAL ENGAGEMENT Colors of Confinement presents 18 rare Kodachrome photographs taken by Bill Manbo during his incarceration at the Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming in 1943 and 1944. It shatters preconceptions about this episode of injustice by showing it to us in vivid and beautiful color. Manbo was ahead of his time—while others were shooting in black-and-white, he shot in Kodachrome, a technolog...

  • NATIONAL MUSEUM SETS 2011 OSHOGATSU FAMILY FESTIVAL ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 2

    Dec 24, 2010

    To open 2011, the Japanese American National Museum will once again hold its free annual Oshogatsu (New Year) Family Festival on Sunday, January 2, 2011, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., at its facility in Little Tokyo, featuring taiko performances, food demonstrations and tastings, and arts and crafts related to the arrival of a new year. At the MOCA Geffen facility (next door to the National Museum), a special Sunday Studio...

  • ‘CROSSINGS’ EXHIBITION FEATURES ARTISTS' TAKE ON WWII CONCENTRATION CAMPS

    Mar 31, 2009

    Crossings: 10 Views of America’s Concentration Camps, a new exhibition providing an artist’s perspective into the mass incarceration of Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II by the U.S. government, looks at artwork from the past and present in an attempt to provide greater insight into a dark episode of American history. The exhibition opens April 2 at the National Museum. By comparing works from the...