Kristen Hayashi, PhD, the Director of Collections Management and Access and a curator at JANM, delves into how collections staff handles and stores three-dimensional artifacts within the museum’s permanent collection. Proper object handling and storage are the first steps to ensuring long term preservation of artifacts. As keeper of your family treasures, you can incorporate these basic best practices into care for your own artifact collection.

Catch up with Emily Anderson, curator at JANM, as she shares a variety of recipes from the Topaz concentration camp newspaper. Emily also attempts to make a chocolate pudding pie following food columnist Evelyn Teiko Kirimura’s recipe step by step. From the graham cracker crust to the faux whipped cream topping, you’ll learn how camp inmates used ingenuity and perseverance to bring some normalcy to their lives.

In this program at the Japanese American National Museum on June 29, 2019, JANM’s Kristen Hayashi and Densho Content Director Brian Niiya discussed the post-camp experience. They answered questions from the audience following their presentations.

Maria Kwong, JANM’s Director of Retail Enterprises, and Chado Tea Room’s Tek Mehreteab presented a livestream program on July 19, 2020, about Japanese American tea culture, how the concept of the JANM Generations Teas came about, and how Maria collaborated with Tek and the tea specialists at Chado to create this unique collection of tea blends that represent each generation —from the early Issei immigrants to the fifth generation Gosei.

Julio Mizzumi Guerrero Kojima and Belen Torres Morales are descendants of immigrants who left Japan to work in the sugar plantations in Veracruz, Mexico, in the early 1900s. They are musicians with expertise in the Fandango, a tradition specific to Veracruz that is rooted in community convening and participation. On September 29, 2018, they performed with musician César Castro and spoke about their family's history, their expertise in Fandango, and their environmental project.

Watch the 15th anniversary celebration discussion of the film, Big Drum: Taiko in the United States, with featured performers Kenny Endo, Kay Fukumoto (Maui Taiko), Teddy Yoshikami (Soh Daiko), and PJ Hirabayashi (Artistic Director Emeritus, San Jose Taiko), and curator Sojin Kim and filmmaker Akira Boch.

Featuring America’s pioneering taiko figures, this film documents the development of American taiko and includes interviews and footage of drum-making and performances that reflect the ongoing transformation and diversification of this exciting performing art.

Masters of Modern Design is just one of many projects by the Watase Media Arts Center ( MAC) at JANM, which has been producing community-based media about the Japanese American community for almost 30 years. Learn more about this award winning center, its current staff, and their work on the recent LA Emmy Award-winning film.

Read more Nikkei entertainment stories from Discover Nikkei’s August newsletter here.

In commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, join a conversation on what today’s audiences can learn and build on from the story of Floyd Schmoe, a lifelong grassroots activist for peace. The panel and Q&A will be moderated by Dr. Gail Nomura, Professor at the University of Washington, and feature 75-year-old atomic bomb survivor Koko Kondo, who spent time with Schmoe as a young girl, as well as Kumiko Ogoshi Takai, the documentary’s director. They will be joined by Clement Hanami, VP of Exhibitions and Art Director at JANM; Takuo Takigawa, Director of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum; and Mike Carr, CEO of the Battleship Missouri Memorial.

JANM members are invited to meet authors Naomi Hirahara and Kathleen Burkinshaw for a virtual Members Only Meet-and-Greet. Naomi Hirahara is an Edgar Award-winning mystery writer, social historian, and a former editor of The Rafu Shimpo. Kathleen Burkinshaw is a Japanese American author of The Last Cherry Blossom, a United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs Resource for Teachers & Students. Both are children of hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Join them for an exclusive conversation on how their family histories impact their writing and their work as both novelists and advocates.

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Two award-winning Japanese American authors, Kathleen Burkinshaw and Naomi Hirahara, join together for the first time to discuss how they felt compelled to tell the stories of their Hiroshima hibakusha parents through novels. Burkinshaw’s middle-grade book, The Last Cherry Blossom, has become a resource for teachers and students under the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs. Hirahara’s Mas Arai mysteries span seven books, including the Edgar Award-nominated final novel, Hiroshima Boy, which is being translated in Japanese for a 2021 release by Shogakukan. These two women, who live on different sides of the United States, will also share the back story of their novels, the problems of white-washing the atomic-bombing, and their quest for peace.

Visit the award-winning JANM Store for that unique gift! Follow the new store Instagram @ShopJANMStore

This week ’ s featured item: Nagata Kaiju Socks!

JANM Members get 10% off!

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JANM is proud to support the 2020 Nisei Week Virtual Series, bringing the spirit of the Nisei Week Japanese Festival online to viewers everywhere. Watch from the comfort and safety of your home via Facebook and YouTube.

The two day virtual series kick-off will include musical performances, culinary and cultural demos, as well as traditional Nisei Week favorites such as the ondo dancing.

JANM is honored to be a part of this collaborative undertaking between the National Park Service and the

Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages (JAMP), involving representatives from many different contingents of the Nikkei community, as well as scholars, artists, and educators committed to actively memorializing the history of Japanese American incarceration during World War II. Tadaima! means “I’m home!” in Japanese —it is our way of acknowledging that we are all home and the important reasons for why that is, while also celebrating the history, diversity, strength, and vibrancy of the Nikkei community.

This pilgrimage will run continuously for nine weeks, with new content provided

daily. The pilgrimage is free and open to the public and is available online at

jampilgrimages.com.