This initial CSUJAD grant was awarded to CSU Dominguez Hills to plan and start the CSU Japanese American Digitization Project to bring together archival materials online relating to the history of Japanese Americans in California and elsewhere, not only covering the WWII incarceration, but pre- and post-war information too. The participating partners came from the following CSU campuses: Dominguez Hills, Fresno, Fullerton, Northridge, Sacramento, and San Jose. The project commenced with a two-day symposium that brought scholars, archivists and technical people together to discuss issues and generate a successful pathway for project and web portal development.
CSUDH Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities Grant
CSUJAD was enhanced with the digitization and cataloging of more than 7,000 historical items focused on Japanese Americans during the mid-20th century, specifically relating to the WWII incarceration. Participants included the CSU campuses at Dominguez Hills and Fullerton along with the Claremont University Libraries. Other aspects of the grant included two summer workshops, one for elementary and one for secondary teachers, focused on teaching Japanese American history using archival materials and the resources developed for CSUJAD. An exhibition of archival items, entitled, “Civil Liberties Tested—Roots of Activism—Japanese American Incarceration, the Watts Rebellion, and the Zoot Suit Riots/Chicano Activism,” was also developed at CSUDH.
A consortium of several California archives is digitizing and describing textual documents, images, and oral histories that shed light on the removal of 120,000 law-abiding U.S. residents of Japanese descent during World War II to enhance online discoverability and unite these collections through the CSU-sponsored Web site at: http://www.csujad.com. The partners include the CSU campuses at Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Monterey Bay, Stanislaus as well as the California Historical Society, Eastern California Museum, Go For Broke Foundation, Historical Society of Long Beach, Palos Verdes Public Library and the Whittier Library. The Los Angeles artist, Alan Nakagawa, thoroughly researched the Ninomiya Studio Collection in 2018 and completed over 20 watercolors based on the photographs. He then led art workshops for high school and college students in the Spring 2019 resulting in the creation of a “Ninomiya Zine” and an unanticipated exhibition in the CSUDH Art Gallery entitled “Unfinished Proof Ninomiya.” A public presentation and scanning day took place at the Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute.
CSUJAD is expanding its digitization and teaching program to compare and contrast the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II with the attempts by the U.S. Government to suppress dissent and immigration during the era known as the Red Scare (1940-1960). The project will digitize and describe over 4,500 archival objects as well as create a teaching guide following the California History-Social Science Content Standards/Framework and an update of the CSUJAD website. Materials to be digitized include family, camp and organization records dealing with the WWII incarceration, redress, the red scare and associated civil liberties violations.
CCLPEP- | $ | 2024-2025
CSUJAD expanded further with the digitization of and addition of 1,700 additional items to the project through the funding from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program (CCLPEP). Three collections were fully processed during the duration of this grant including the Kaji Family Papers, the Nishimura and Nagata Family Papers, and the Paul T. Bannai Papers. A particular focus on the Redress movement was made with the addition of photographs from the Janice Yen Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress (NCRR) Collection, as well as an art workshop led by Artist in Residence, Alan Nakagawa. This workshop allowed CSUDH students to utilize photographs from CSUJAD collections to create collages that were later painted and incorporated into a scrapbook crafted by Nakagawa himself. This grant also produced a community exhibition at the Katy Geissert Civic Center Library in Torrance, California, as well as a lesson plan devoted to teaching high school and college students about the Japanese American Redress movement.
This CSUJAD project and web portal were supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program, and later from the National Endowment for the Humanities and other generous funding agencies. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of the Interior. This material received Federal financial assistance for the preservation and interpretation of U.S. confinement sites where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended, the U.S. Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability or age in its federally funded assisted projects. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to, Office of Equal Opportunity, National Park Service, 1201 Eye Street, NW (2740), Washington, DC 20005.