Densho

Newspapers have played an important role in informing societies of current affairs and? influencing public opinion for centuries, as a primary form of communication and a main source of information before telephones, television, and the internet. Densho recently finished digitizing The Japanese American Courier, a Seattle, Washington newspaper created and edited by James Y. Sakamoto, a prominent figure in the Seattle Nisei community. The Courier ran from 1928 until 1942 and had significant influence for Japanese American communities, particularly in Seattle where it kept its audiences apprised of world events, community happenings, sports news, and Japanese American Citizens League activities. Densho Archives Intern Kathryn Bolin, who worked to digitize the Courier over the past year, looks at how this publication facilitated community building through food for Japanese Americans in pre-war Seattle.

Last month, Densho was invited to participate in Tsuru for Solidarity’s multi-day event Kintsugi 2024—a first-of-its-kind gathering for Japanese Americans focused on intergenerational trauma and repair. Densho Staff Writer and Project Coordinator Jennifer Noji joined teachers of the Rosa Parks Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program in a workshop on “Reclaiming our Language, Culture, and History.” She shares some reflections from that Kintsugi conversation here, offering a brief history of the forced assimilation and language loss experienced by Japanese Americans before, during and after WWII, as well as efforts to revive and preserve our language and culture decades later.

In light of the election results, Densho is more determined than ever to continue our historical and educational work in pursuit of equal justice for all. As we come out on the other side of the election with a president who has threatened to round up and deport immigrants using the same law behind Japanese American WWII incarceration, the need for education, critical thinking, and an accurate understanding of our nation’s history is more urgent now than ever before. This particularly contentious election cycle and its outcome have brought to the surface an unprecedented level of misinformation and political division. We must work together to continue learning from the lessons of our past and remain vigilant against the injustices unfolding before us now. As we move forward, Densho remains committed to equipping educators, researchers, students, activists, and the general public with the historical knowledge and educational tools needed to defend our fragile democracy and to strive towards a more just future. We’ve therefore curated some resources to guide conversations and deepen understandings around the increased racism and xenophobia characterizing our current moment and the history that brought us here.

This #ElectionDay, we take a look back at a little-known legal case for voting rights for Japanese Americans incarcerated during WWII. The Native Sons of the Golden West, a group that sought to strip all non-white Americans of their citizenship, stoked anti-Japanese American sentiment and supported mass incarceration after Pearl Harbor. In Regan v. King, they sought to rescind Japanese American voting rights in hopes that it would set a precedent for the disavowal of their citizenship, and eventually for the exclusion of other non-white citizens. In 1942 and ‘43 the Native Sons joined forces with the American Legion to sue San Francisco County’s registrar of voters in an attempt to remove Nisei names from the voter rolls and to prevent them from voting for the duration of the war. As reported in the Rohwer concentration camp newspaper, they contended that “dishonesty, deceit, and hypocrisy are racial characteristics of the Japanese” and that this made them “unfit for American citizenship.” The parties argued their case in California’s Federal District Court. Representing the Native Sons, former California Attorney General U.S. Webb made the brazenly bigoted argument that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were made entirely “by and for white people.” The Federal District judge rejected the Native Sons’ plea, but the case moved up to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. There it was quickly dismissed on the precedent of the 1898 Wong Kim Ark Supreme Court decision that had determined US citizenship for all American-born individuals. The ACLU saw parallels between this blatant case of racist nativism and their own fight for Black voting rights. They lent their support to the defense and served as counsel to the JACL in their drafting of the amicus brief that helped overturn the case. Defendant Cameron King later wrote, “the law makes no discrimination against any citizen because of ancestry” — a statement surely seen for its irony by the 120,000 locked away for the sole “crime” of Japanese ancestry. Read more >> https://lnkd.in/g8rWvEUM?

U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan leads the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which oversees billions of government documents, photos, and records. But instead of educating the public about WWII incarceration and other dark chapters of American history, Shogan has spent the last year quietly erasing that history. Shogan instructed employees to erase references to Japanese American incarceration from educational materials, and ordered the removal of Dorothea Lange’s photos of WRA concentration camps from a planned exhibit at the National Archives Museum — claiming it was too negative and controversial. Also targeted for removal were photos of Martin Luther King Jr. and labor activist Dolores Huerta, and references to the displacement and dispossession of Indigenous peoples. According to employees, after a review of an exhibit on Westward expansion, Shogan asked, “Why is it so much about Indians?” NARA defended this exclusion by claiming “it is imperative that the National Archives welcomes — and feels welcoming to — all Americans.” But let’s be clear: erasing the experiences of people of color in this country is not welcoming. Excluding our stories from the National Archives excludes us from American history. Whitewashing the “ugly” parts of our history because they might make viewers uncomfortable or anger certain politicians is an act of censorship. https://lnkd.in/g7D7fGAk

Fire, pests, and mold, oh my! These are the horror stories that keep our Densho archivists up at night. We’re wrapping up #ArchivesMonth with some of the most horrifying photos from this year… Okay, maybe these are mainly scary to a niche audience of archivists, but still we urge you to keep these frights out of your sight, and more importantly, out of your home archives!

At Densho, we field a lot of questions about where to find various resources related to Japanese American incarceration online. While some things can be found via your favorite search engine, others defy a quick and easy search. In the latest edition of Ask a Historian, Densho Content Director Brian Niiya tackles some of the things we are asked about most often, pointing you toward camp records and photos, redress hearings footage, as well as a few more online resources you might not have known to ask about.

At a rally in Aurora, Colorado last week, former president and 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump made a disturbing promise to round up and deport millions of immigrants if elected. While this anti-immigrant rhetoric is not new for the Trump campaign, what grabbed headlines this time around was his invocation of an 18th century law that grants the president sweeping power to detain and deport foreign nationals. That law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, was the same legislation that provided the legal basis for the internment and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. So what is the Alien Enemies Act, and is it as dangerous as it sounds?

Today is #AskAnArchivistDay, so we posed the question to the Densho team: how did you become an archivist? From family influences to impactful educators, Museum Studies versus Library Science, each archivist has a different story! Whether you’re interested in becoming an archivist yourself, or just want to know more about the team behind the scenes of the Densho archives, learn more about their pathways to the archives, what inspires their work, and more. Shout-out to our amazing archives team: Caitlin Coon, Sara Beckman, Kathryn Bolin, Darcy Ruppert, Micah Merryman, Christen Greenhill Robichaud, Will Mandel

Minidoka survivors, descendants and allies are fighting to protect the Minidoka National Historic Site in Idaho from the Biden Administration's Lava Ridge wind project. A unit of the National Park System, Minidoka tells the stories of the forced incarceration of Japanese Americans and Alaska Natives during World War II and the courage and sacrifice of Nisei veterans and those who resisted. For nearly 25 years, Minidoka has served as a place to learn, heal and share our stories.? Because it was sited near a railroad line, Minidoka is located in a network of current and planned transmission lines. Earlier this year, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) chose a preferred alternative for the Lava Ridge wind project that would have "disproportionately high and adverse impacts on the Japanese American community and Tribes." After the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation sends its comments to BLM on or before October 21, BLM is expected to make a final decision this fall. Please join the Minidoka Pilgrimage Planning Committee on Thursday, October 24th at 12pm PT for an update. Learn how we can protect Asian American and Alaska Native heritage from a massive wind project with 241 turbines covering over 100,000 acres. With your help, we can protect Minidoka for current and future generations.? Register at https://lnkd.in/geE-wq7k!