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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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  • Tea & Letter Writing: Letters of Solace

    Sep 09, 2020

    PAY-WHAT-YOU-WISH $10 suggested donation At the start of safer at home orders in Los Angeles, we gathered virtually for the first time to write letters to seniors who were isolating physically in their homes in Little Tokyo. Now, six months later, we will be writing again to our community elders to see how they are now and how we can continue to provide comfort and connection. Gather with us in the comfort of ...

  • Daughters of Hibakusha Tell Hiroshima Stories

    Aug 15, 2020

    PAY-WHAT-YOU-WISH Two award-winning Japanese American authors, Kathleen Burkinshaw and Naomi Hirahara, join together for the first time to discuss how they felt compelled to tell the stories of their Hiroshima hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) parents through novels. Burkinshaw’s middle-grade book, The Last Cherry Blossom, has become a resource for teachers and students under the United Nations Office for D...

  • The Etymology of Hapa

    Apr 28, 2018

    If you missed the program, you can watch it online on JANM’s YouTube channel. In conjunction with JANM’s hapa.me – 15 years of the hapa project exhibition, scholar Richard Keao NeSmith will discuss the origins and evolution of the word hapa, the Hawaiian interpretation of the English word “half.” His talk will address varying perspectives on who is hapa, who can or should rightfully use the term, and ...

  • 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...

  • SCHOLAR MICHIKO AYUKAWA TO DISCUSS PICTURE BRIDES COMING TO CANADA ON MAY 30

    May 18, 2010

    Japanese Canadian scholar Dr. Michiko Midge Ayukawa will provide insight into the history of Japanese "Picture Brides" and their contributions to their communities at a public program set for Sunday, May 30, beginning at 2 p.m. at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. While picture brides arrived in significant numbers in the early 20th Century in both the United States and Canada, Dr. Ayukawa exa...

  • JAPANESE AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSEUM TO UNVEIL 'TEXTURED LIVES' EXHIBITION ON FEB. 27

    Feb 25, 2010

    The Japanese American National Museum will premiere its latest exhibition, Textured Lives: Japanese Immigrant Clothing from the Plantations of Hawai`i, representing the beautiful and historically important textiles and clothing collected and documented by scholar and author Barbara Kawakami, on Saturday, February 27, and running through May 30, 2010. This exhibition is part of the National Museum’s 25th Anniversar...

  • TARGET FREE FAMILY SATURDAY, 'BE ANIMATED' SET FOR FEBRUARY 14

    Feb 05, 2009

    The Target Free Family Saturday series, a monthly Japanese American National Museum event, will have the theme, "Be Animated", and feature screenings of the new series, "Afro Samurai", an animation workshop, a family improv activity, and a special lecture about the history of anime/manga in the United States by author Oliver Chin on Saturday, Feb. 7, starting at 11 a.m. and ending at 4 p.m. at the National Museum in ...

  • FORMER SECRETARY PENA, GEORGE TAKEI, AUTHOR ADAM SCHRAGER SET FOR 'WHOSE AMERICA? WHO'S AMERICAN?' CONFERENCE

    May 14, 2008

    The national conference, "Whose America? Who’s American? Diversity, Civil Liberties, and Social Justice", organized by the Japanese American National Museum of Los Angeles and set for July 3-6 in Denver, Colorado, will feature former Secretary of Transportation Federico Pena, actor George Takei, 9News Anchor Adele Arakawa, 9News political reporter and author Adam Schrager(pictured left), and many others speaking at f...

  • LIVING FLOWERS: IKEBANA AND CONTEMPORARY ART EXHIBIT TO OPEN JUNE 15

    May 09, 2008

    The Japanese American National Museum will premiere its latest exhibition, Living Flowers: Ikebana and Contemporary Art, an innovative presentation that brings together representations of three traditional schools of ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) with the works of international contemporary artists such as Isamu Noguchi, Robert Mapplethorpe, Sherrie Levine and Judy Fiskin, beginning on Sunday, June 15, and con...