Common Ground: The Japanese American National Museum and the Culture of Collaborations

15. Museum Exhibitions in a Transnational Setting

MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS IN A TRANSNATIONAL SETTING 189 15 15 Museum Exhibitions in a Transnational Setting Yoshi Miki THE TRAVELING EXHIBITION From Bentö to Mixed Plate: Americans of Japanese Ancestry in Multicultural Hawai‘i provided the Japanese American National Museum (National Museum) with an opportunity to extend its philosophy of community participation into the international arena. The exhibition traveled to five venues in the United States, attracting more than 400,000 visitors. Keichi Inamine, the governor of Okinawa Prefecture, visited the exhibition when it was at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Noting that about 40 percent of the Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i were descendants of emigrants from Okinawa, he invited the National Museum’s development team to his Prefectural Museum. The development team, in collaboration with Yoshin Hirata, director of the Prefectural Museum, created Japanese-language texts, retained a Japanese design company, and developed an exhibition that resonated with the local Okinawan audience. Professor Ishige, director of Minpaku (the National Museum of Ethnology), one of the five national museums in Japan, visited the exhibition in Okinawa and COLLABORATIONS IN EDUCATION METHODOLOGY YOSHI MIKI 190 invited the National Museum to bring it to Osaka. The exhibition drew over 60,000 visitors, mainly schoolchildren and families, during its four-month exhibition period. It was a stunning success. George Takei, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Museum at the time, visited Governor Fujita of Hiroshima, who invited the developmental team to bring the exhibition to the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum. Subsequently , the Niigata Prefectural Museum of History invited the National Museum to bring the exhibition to northern Japan. Staffing adjustments were made when the National Museum decided to travel the exhibition to Japanese venues so as to bridge the cultural gap between American and Japanese perspectives. Makoto Arakaki, associate professor at Okinawa Christian Junior College, was added to the staff as an associate curator. I was on the education staff of the National Museum and was assigned to oversee the development of the exhibition’s education materials. The primary task of the National Museum’s education staff was to adapt the text of the exhibition to communicate the Japanese American experience, originally designed for American audiences, to regional Japanese audiences. It was a delicate problem, as we were dealing with two distinct cultures, historically related but with divergent developments in different national settings. THE MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION INITIATIVE The Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership provided funds to support the Multicultural Education Initiative (MEI), a collaborative project of Japanese and Japanese American National Museum personnel to develop educational activities for Japanese audiences viewing From Bentö to Mixed Plate. In Japan, the majority of museums are public museums controlled by the cities or prefectures. Heretofore, museum exhibitions in Japan had not played a significant role in the education of schoolchildren. At the time, however, the Japanese Ministry of Education was undergoing a major educational reform, and Professor Ishige saw an opportunity to enhance the museum’s educational role. The primary goal of the project became working with museum professionals and local communities to develop new models for education in the Japanese setting. As the project started, the National Museum focused its partnership goals on building relationships with school programs. However, after conferring with the Center for Global Partnership and further examining the educational system in Japan, it became clear that the program would be of greater value if the National Museum established relationships with local community organizations. Among them were after-school programs and youth-oriented community organizations such as the Jido-kan, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, and day camps. Out of these interactions a model of community partnership was developed. MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS IN A TRANSNATIONAL SETTING 191 MEI Program Goals and Achievements The program had three major goals: (1) to promote mutual understanding by sharing the history and culture of Japanese American audiences in Japan, (2) to develop innovative educational approaches for Japanese museums and audiences, and (3) to engage in the process of educational program development with museum professionals and community volunteers. These goals were achieved by targeting a broad audience and collaborating with partners in each of the venues. The project team visited many local schools and cultural organizations.Teachers began calling us, and the museums received positive feedback from the schools. Volunteers were recruited and trained prior to the exhibition opening. Volunteer manuals, educational kits, and activities were developed to support the...