The mission of the Japanese American National Museum is to promote understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. The Japanese American National Museum is the largest museum in the United States dedicated to sharing the experience of Americans of Japanese ancestry as an integral part of U.S. Over the next several years, volunteers sought backing from community groups. Seeking to safeguard the rich oral histories of first generations 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, National Museum founders enlisted the support of the Japanese American community. In 1992, the Japanese American National Museum opened its doors to shed light on the Japanese American experience--a process of immigration and re-settlement common to so many Americans.
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Core exhibition
Common Ground: The Heart of Community
Incorporating hundreds of objects, documents and photographs collected by the National Museum, this exhibition chronicles 130 years of Japanese American history, beginning with the early days of the Issei pioneers through the World War II incarceration to the present. Among the notable artifacts on display is a Heart Mountain barracks, an original structure saved and preserved from the concentration camp in Wyoming.
