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Introduction: Commitment to Community,
- University Press of Colorado
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INTRODUCTION 1 Introduction Irene Y. Hirano COMMITMENT TO COMMUNITY THE OPENING OF THE JAPANESE AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSEUM (National Museum) in May 1992 was significant not only for the 850,000 Japanese Americans in the United States but for Americans of every ethnicity. The National Museum shares with visitors a unique cultural experience while serving as a sober reminder that one part of that history—the World War II incarceration—must never happen again. By placing the Japanese American experience within the context of America’s history and by working to improve the understanding and appreciation of ethnic and cultural diversity, the National Museum has striven to serve and enrich a global audience. What does it mean to be a “national” and an “international” museum? What does it mean to be a “community-based” institution? These are questions the National Museum leaders and staff continually consider in all of their work. Although based in Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo, the National Museum has uniquely presented an extensive schedule of collaborative programs around the country, extending its work from Hawai‘i to New York. It has also striven to connect the Japanese American experience with national institutions and leaders. IRENE Y. HIRANO 2 The National Museum’s long-awaited opening on April 30, 1992, did not take place as planned. Civil unrest broke out in Los Angeles the preceding night following the verdict in the Rodney King trials. A smaller private opening was held, since many guests had already arrived in Los Angeles for the weekend’s events. A public opening was held ten days later that included an announcement that the National Museum would work with community institutions to promote human understanding through education. The public opening illuminated the fact that although the Japanese American National Museum focused on the experience of a particular ethnic group, its stories could be poignant and revealing for many other groups—a lesson brought home at the public ceremony by an African American man, Gregory Alan Williams, who had saved the life of a Japanese American, Takao Hirata, just ten days earlier during the 1992 Los Angeles civil unrest. Although it interprets the past, the National Museum is also committed to building bridges among ethnic and cultural groups for the future. It is committed to bringing together people in the telling of their stories. The National Museum continually seeks to redefine the meaning of the word museum. Its programming offers more than a passive experience in which visitors simply observe. The deep connection with the Japanese American community 0.1The Pavilion and Historic Building of the Japanese American National Museum at dusk. Photograph by Marvin Rand, Japanese American National Museum. [34.203.221.104] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 20:34 GMT) INTRODUCTION 3 reinforces a sense of involvement. From volunteer docents who help bring stories alive through their personal experiences to the thousands of donated artifacts, photographs, films, and other materials, the National Museum embodies an intensely personal experience of historical events. EARLY HISTORY: A COMING TOGETHER The Japanese American National Museum is the only national institution in the United States dedicated to sharing the experience of Americans of Japanese ancestry . The founding of the National Museum represented high hopes, achievements , and persistence. Like the story of generations of Japanese Americans, it is a story of tenacity. In 1982 two distinct groups—businesspersons in Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo and a group of highly decorated World War II veterans—simultaneously began to explore the concept of a museum about Japanese Americans. Bruce T. Kaji, a real estate developer and banker in Little Tokyo, proposed incorporating a museum into a planned Little Tokyo residential complex. Meanwhile, the veterans sponsored a Japanese American soldier exhibition at a Los Angeles museum. The veterans soon began to search for a permanent exhibition site. Headed by a Korean American, Colonel Young O. Kim, and a Japanese American, Y. B. Mamiya, the World War II veterans approached Kaji. The two groups joined forces, and in 1985 the Japanese American National Museum was officially incorporated as a private, nonprofit institution. This coming together of these two constituencies represented the first major milestone in the National Museum’s development. Rather than compete against each other, the two groups set their sights higher by agreeing to a partnership to further their mutual goals. The founders were motivated by a common vision: to ensure that Japanese Americans’ heritage and cultural identity were preserved. With the passing of the first-generation immigrants, Issei, the first...