Japanese American National Museum

The Japanese American National Museum is the largest museum in the United States dedicated to sharing the experience of Americans of Japanese ancestry. The museum protects and shares the rich oral histories of first generation immigrants, or Issei, and the artifacts, photographs, written records and other materials documenting the lives of Japanese Americans before, during, and after the World War II mass incarceration.

The museum has featured a wide range of exhibits chronicling Japanese Americans' experiences in the United States, including Japanese Pioneers of Oregon and the Kona Coffee Story. The history is brought to life and made even more poignant through the stories shared by the docents, many of whom are elderly Japanese-American citizens who were interred in the resettlement camps during the war.

The museum is located in a renovated historic building that was the first structure designed specifically in Los Angeles to house a Buddhist place of worship, the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple. In 1999, the museum added a new 85,000-sq. foot pavilion to broaden its resources and activities in the presentation and preservation of Japanese American art.