Densho is a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

based in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

whose mission is “to preserve and share history of the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans to promote equity and justice today.” Densho collects video oral histories, photos, documents, and other primary source materials regarding Japanese American history, with a focus on the incarceration of Japanese Americans during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Densho offers a free digital archive of these primary sources, in addition to an online encyclopedia and curricula, for

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

al purposes.

History

The

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

word means "to pass on to future generations." The organization was founded in 1996 with a primary goal of collecting personal testimonies from

Japanese Americans are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...

who were incarcerated during

. Over the years, its work expanded to "educate, preserve, collaborate, and inspire action for equity." Densho uses digital technology and best archival practices to collect, record, preserve, and share its oral histories, documents, photographs, newspapers, and other primary source materials documenting the wartime detention of over 120,000 people of Japanese descent without due process of law. Densho's founding director Tom Ikeda announced his retirement in 2022. He was succeeded by Naomi Kawamura.

Organizational structure

Densho is a 501(c) 3 organization, with tax-exempt status, founded in Seattle in 1996 as a project of the Japanese American Chamber of Commerce of Washington State. It became an independent organization in 2002. Densho has a Board of Trustees with nine members and a staff of 17, led by Executive Director Naomi Ostwald Kawamura. Program activities are supported by volunteers and graduate student interns. Financial support is provided by foundation and government grants, the annual Densho fundraising event, and individual donations.

Awards

Densho received the first NPower Innovation Award for groundbreaking use of technology; the Association of King County Historical Organizations Long Term Project Award; an

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...

citation for online history; the Washington State Historical Society David Douglas Award; the

Stetson Kennedy William Stetson Kennedy (October 5, 1916 – August 27, 2011) was an American author, folklorist and human rights activist. One of the pioneer folklore collectors during the first half of the 20th century, he is remembered for having infiltrated t ...

Vox Populis Award of the

Oral History Association The Oral History Association (OHA) is a professional association for oral historians and others interested in advancing the practice and use of oral history.Japanese American Citizens League Biennium Award; the

Japanese American National Museum The is located in Los Angeles, California, and dedicated to preserving the history and culture of Japanese Americans. Founded in 1992, it is located in the Little Tokyo area near downtown. The museum is an affiliate within the Smithsonian Affil ...

Founders’ Award; the Association of King County Historical Organizations’ Charles Payton Award for Cultural Advocacy; and the Washington State Historical Society’s Robert Gray Medal; among other honors.

Activities

Densho's online archive contains nearly 2,000 hours of indexed and transcribed video interviews and 80,000 historic photos and documents. The website also includes free social studies curricula meeting Washington-State standards. Over 900 video interviews detail individuals' experiences at the ten

War Relocation Authority The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was a United States government agency established to handle the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It also operated the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, New York, which was t ...

(WRA) camps as well as the Justice Department and War Department detention facilities. In addition, Japanese Americans who were not detained, white employees in the camps, and non-Japanese Americans who witnessed the forced removal during World War II or supported the redress movement of the 1980s tell their stories to Densho. Prominent people such as

Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga (August 5, 1925 – July 18, 2018) was a Japanese American political activist who played a major role in the Japanese American redress movement. She was the lead researcher of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Intern ...

Norman Mineta Norman Yoshio Mineta ( ja, 峯田良雄, November 12, 1931 – May 3, 2022) was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, Mineta served in the United States Cabinet for Presidents Bill Clinton, a Democrat, and George W. Bush, a ...

, Daniel Inouye,

Dale Minami Dale Minami (born October 13, 1946) is a prominent Japanese American civil rights and personal injury lawyer based in San Francisco, California. He is best known for his work leading the legal team that overturned the conviction of Fred Korematsu ...

, and

Yuri Kochiyama was an American civil rights activist. Influenced by her Japanese-American family's experience in an American internment camp, her association with Malcolm X, and her Maoist beliefs, she advocated for many causes, including black separatism, ...

are included in the collection, but the organization's goal is to capture life stories of diverse Japanese Americans from all walks of life. Densho continues to interview survivors of the camps and others who can describe how the forced removal and detention affected people's lives. The broader goal is to inform the American public about the false basis for the mass incarceration, so that a similar injustice would not affect another group in the future. Densho presents public education programs such as author talks, and has collaborated with cultural and civic organizations such as the

Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience is a history museum in Seattle, Washington, United States, which focuses on the culture, art and history of Asian Pacific Americans. It is located in the city's Chinatown-Internationa ...

, the

Museum of History and Industry The Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) is a history museum in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the largest private heritage organization in Washington state, maintaining a collection of nearly four m ...

, the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

of Washington, and the Washington chapter of the

Council on American-Islamic Relations A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...

. Densho assists oral history generation and preservation by other ethnic heritage and cultural organizations, such as the

Bainbridge Island Bainbridge Island is a city and island in Kitsap County, Washington. It is located in Puget Sound. The population was 23,025 at the 2010 census and an estimated 25,298 in 2019, making Bainbridge Island the second largest city in Kitsap County. ...

Japanese American Community and the

in Los Angeles. These efforts expand and enrich Densho’s mission by drawing connections with the Japanese American experience and other little-recorded and seldom discussed stories of discrimination,

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...

, and

stereotyping In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

faced by many ethnic communities, both in the past and today. Densho offers curriculum units investigating civil liberties issues. For example, the lesson "Causes of Conflict" guides students through a study of the issues of immigration via the essential question: "How do conflicts over immigration arise from labor needs and social change?" In the unit "Dig Deep", they explore the media and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II by asking the question, "How do members of a democracy become fully informed so that they can participate responsibly and effectively?" In the unit "Constitutional Issues: Civil Liberties, Individuals, and the Common Good", students find answers to the question, "How can the United States balance the rights of individuals with the common good?" Densho's education efforts encourage students' critical thinking and respect for everyone's civil liberties.

''Densho Encyclopedia''

The ''Densho Encyclopedia'' is a free, publicly accessible resource that covers many key concepts, people, events, and organizations relevant to the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans. The encyclopedia also covers the history of Japanese immigration to the United States, legal and social discrimination prior to WWII, and Japanese American efforts to obtain redress and reparations in the decades after incarceration. Brian Niiya, director of content at Densho, is editor. Articles are peer-reviewed and contributed by professional scholars, graduate students, journalists, and individuals who Densho describes as having “played a role in telling the Japanese American story or who have been active players in that story.” The Densho Encyclopedia initially went online in 2012 with about 360 articles and currently has an article count of nearly 1,500, along with photos, documents, and oral history clips drawn from Densho’s archives and other sources. The Densho Resource Guide to Media on the Japanese American Removal and Incarceration went online in 2017. Funding has come from the

California State Library The California State Library is the state library of the State of California, founded in 1850 by the California State Legislature. The Library collects, preserves, generates and disseminates a wide array of information. Today, it is the central ...

's California Civil Liberties Public Education Fund and the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

. The content, including most 3rd part materials, is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

References

External links

*
Densho Digital Repository

Densho Encyclopedia
{{coord, 47.599312, -122.313388, display=t Civil detention in the United States Internment of Japanese Americans Japanese-American culture in Washington (state) Non-profit organizations based in Seattle 20th-century encyclopedias Oral history