Since its inception in 1985, the Japanese American National Museum has chronicled more than 130 years of Japanese American history—from the first Issei generation through the World War II incarceration to the present-day. In 1999, the museum established the Manabi and Sumi Hirasaki National Resource Center (HNRC) to ensure that the story of Japanese Americans remains accessible to everyone. Located within the heart of JANM, the HNRC serves more than 8,000 researchers, writers, students, family historians, filmmakers, and other museum visitors annually both onsite and online through its reference, research and reproduction services.
This collection contains materials the American Friends Service Committee produced and collected pertaining to their activities and the experience of Japanese Americans during and after World War II.
Takeshi Ban was an Issei congregational minister from Kumamoto prefecture, and a president of the Pacific Society of Religious Education. The collection consists of documents, publications, and phonographs records, and 3D objects spanning from 1902 to 1986. The film portion of the collection has been transferred to the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo in 2007.
This collection contains the materials collected and created primarily by Marion Bell, dating from 1942 to 1978. The contents are primarily watercolor paintings and woodblock prints of the Topaz Relocation Center, as well as a diary, articles, ration books, and books.
John Bonomi worked for the Brunswig Drug Company and supplied pharmaceutical materials to Japanese Americans in concentration camps. This collection contains correspondences from various Japanese Americans who requested medicine and household materials, discussed payment methods, shared camp life, and friendly inquires. This collection also includes postcards and holiday greeting cards from Japanese Americans.
The online collection of Clara Breed, or “Miss Breed” as she was known by her young library patrons, includes over 250 letters and cards received by Breed from Japanese American children and young adults during their World War II incarceration. The collection also includes articles written by Clara Breed in library journals about Japanese American incarceration, pamphlets collected, a record of books sent to children in camp, and other items. Items in this collection were featured in the exhibition 'Dear Miss Breed: Letters from Camp' at the Japanese American National Museum.
The Civil Liberties Public Education Fund (CLPEF) was a government-sponsored program that developed from the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. The CLPEF's mission was to educate the public on the issues surrounding the wartime incarceration of Americans of Japanese ancestry. This collection contains the applications and projects of the CLPEF grant recipients.
The collection contains surveys, correspondence, administrative papers, and mailing lists created by and related to E.O 9066 Inc. from 1942 to 1994. The materials relate to the push by E.O 9066 Inc. for redress, and include primarily responses to a 1975 survey about redress (some with comments).
Emery Fast (ca. 1907-1997) worked for the War Relocation Authority during World War II. The collection is largely comprised of personal letters written to his wife, Ethel “Billie” Fast, as he worked in both Utah and California and she worked in Washington, D.C. but also includes a report, speech, staff directory, and WRA booklets that belonged to Emery Fast.
The collection contains letters sent to Miller Freeman, publisher and chairman of the Joint Committee for the Protection of the Pacific Coast Fisheries during the 1930s and 1940s. The letters range in date from 1939-1945.
Louis (Lou) Frizzell Jr. was a drama teacher at Manzanar during WWII, and later a character actor in Hollywood. The collection documents Frizzell's time as a teacher at Manzanar. This collection contains photo albums, a 1943-1944 yearbook, photographs, correspondence, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, and a play script.