Searching Japanese-American History

Kristine Kuramitsu’s “Internment and Identity in Japanese American Art” really got me thinking about the different experiences of immigrants thru World War II. On a broader scale, I came to realize that I know very little about Japanese-American history, except for what I learned close to three years ago in the last history course that I took. In addition, I have rarely been present at Japanese or Japanese-American cultural events [with a few minor exceptions]. This ignited my search for exhibits to expand my knowledge and broaden my gaze in terms of the different groups of people that contributed to the United State’s cultural past and steered it to it’s state as modern-day America. However, I wasn’t getting the results I wanted.

I found my search over when I went to one of the centers of the type of information I was looking for. At the Japanese American National Museum in Las Angeles, CA., there is an exhibit that has been there for 11 years: “Common Ground: The Heart of Community”. Including over 100 objects that range from art to artifact, the exhibit chronicles over 130 years of history that I have yet to learn.