Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project facts for kids
 |
|
| Founded | 1996 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Seattle, United States |
| Location |
|
Densho is a nonprofit organization located in Seattle, Washington. Its main goal is to save and share the history of how Japanese Americans were held in camps during World War II. They do this to help create fairness and justice today. Densho collects video stories, photos, and documents from that time. They focus on the period when Japanese Americans were forced into camps. Densho offers a free online archive of these materials. They also have an online encyclopedia about important Japanese Americans and related topics. Plus, they create educational materials for schools.
How Densho Started
The Japanese word denshō (伝承) means "to pass on to future generations." This organization began in 1996. Its first main goal was to collect personal stories from Japanese Americans who were held in camps during World War II.
Over time, Densho's work grew. They now aim to "educate, preserve, collaborate, and inspire action for equity." Densho uses digital tools and good archiving methods. They collect, record, save, and share stories, documents, photos, and newspapers. These materials show how over 120,000 people of Japanese descent were held without a fair trial during the war.
Tom Ikeda, who started Densho, retired in 2022. Naomi Kawamura took over as the new leader.
How Densho Works
Densho is a 501(c) 3 organization, which means it's a special type of nonprofit. It started in Seattle in 1996. At first, it was part of the Japanese American Chamber of Commerce of Washington State. In 2002, it became its own independent organization.
Densho has a Board of Trustees with nine members. It also has a staff of 17 people. Naomi Ostwald Kawamura leads the team as the Executive Director. Volunteers and student interns help with many of their projects. Densho gets money from grants, special events, and donations from individuals.
What Densho Does
Densho's online archive has almost two thousand hours of video interviews. These interviews are indexed and have written transcripts. The archive also holds eighty thousand old photos and documents. Their website also offers free social studies lessons that meet Washington State standards.
More than nine hundred video interviews share people's experiences. These include stories from the ten War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps. They also include stories from Justice Department and War Department detention places.
Densho also interviews Japanese Americans who were not held in camps. They talk to white employees who worked in the camps. And they speak with non-Japanese Americans who saw the forced removal. They also interview people who supported the redress movement in the 1980s.
Famous people like Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, Norman Mineta, Daniel Inouye, Dale Minami, and Yuri Kochiyama are in the collection. But Densho also wants to capture the life stories of many different Japanese Americans. They continue to interview people who survived the camps. They also talk to others who can describe how the forced removal affected lives. Their main goal is to teach Americans about why the mass incarceration was wrong. This way, a similar unfairness won't happen to another group in the future.
Densho also holds public events like author talks. They work with other cultural and community groups. Some of these include the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience and the Museum of History and Industry. They also partner with the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center and the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington.
Densho helps other groups collect and save oral histories. For example, they've worked with the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community. They also work with the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. These efforts help Densho connect the Japanese American experience with other stories. These are often stories of racism and stereotyping that many ethnic groups have faced, both in the past and today.
Densho offers lesson plans about civil liberties. For example, one lesson helps students study immigration issues. It asks: "How do conflicts over immigration happen because of labor needs and social change?" Another unit, "Dig Deep," explores how the media covered the incarceration of Japanese Americans. It asks: "How can people in a democracy learn enough to take part responsibly?" In "Constitutional Issues: Civil Liberties, Individuals, and the Common Good," students find answers to: "How can the United States balance individual rights with what's good for everyone?" Densho's education efforts help students think critically. They also encourage respect for everyone's civil liberties.
The Densho Encyclopedia
The Densho Encyclopedia is a free online resource. It covers many important ideas, people, events, and groups related to the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans. The encyclopedia also includes the history of Japanese immigration to the United States. It talks about unfair laws and social discrimination before WWII. It also covers Japanese American efforts to get redress and reparations in the years after the incarceration.
Brian Niiya is the editor of the encyclopedia. Experts, students, journalists, and people who have helped tell the Japanese American story write the articles. Other experts review these articles.
The Densho Encyclopedia first went online in 2012 with about 360 articles. Now, it has almost 1,500 articles. It also includes photos, documents, and clips from oral histories. These come from Densho's archives and other places. The Densho Resource Guide to Media on the Japanese American Removal and Incarceration was added in 2017. Funding for the encyclopedia has come from the California State Library and the National Park Service. Most of the content can be used and shared under a Creative Commons license.
See also
- Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial
- Empty Chair Memorial
- Day of Remembrance (Japanese Americans)
- Fred Korematsu Day
- Go for Broke Monument
- Harada House
- Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II
- National Japanese American Veterans Memorial Court
- Sakura Square
- U.S.-Japan Council
