Each family can bring up to 20 items for digitization. We welcome photographs, documents, and small artifacts. Unfortunately, bound items such as albums, scrapbooks, or yearbooks cannot be digitized on-site.

This Community Scanning Day aims to provide families with an opportunity to digitize cherished photos and artifacts from the pre-WWII, exclusion, and relocation periods, preserving these invaluable pieces of history for future generations.

In partnership with Twin Cities JACL and the Minnesota Historical Society, this event will take place at Historic Fort Snelling, where thousands of Nisei were trained with the Military Intelligence Service in Japanese language and interpretation.

Densho will be in Minnesota next weekend for our next Community Scanning Day!

[CORRECTION on slide 5: the question should be, "If you could have dinner with anyone from history, who would it be?"]

In his own words, “I've come to learn the importance of the individual, and that's why I am speaking out more and doing more, because you realize that, historically, one person can really make a difference.”

He also speaks about the importance of history, especially when centering the perspective of an individual.

On the eve of our 30th Anniversary Gala, we are featuring an oral history interview clip from Densho’s Founder, Tom Ikeda. As a chemist and former engineer, he reflects on how hearing personal stories encouraged him to see the world in a more nuanced light.

Learn about what they will be working on during their first few months at Densho, admired historical figures, and their lifelong hobbies!

Densho's historical content team is growing! Meet the newest hires, Lisa Doi, Curator of Public History, and Jonathan van Harmelen, Editorial Manager and Staff Historian, in this Q&A!

The impacts of these raids and arrests remained with many Japanese Americans who were just children at the time, impacting them for years beyond the war.

Kitajima’s father was one of many Issei community leaders that were detained without any warning or due process in the weeks following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The family would eventually be sent to the incarceration camp in Jerome, Arkansas, reuniting with his father in late 1943 after two years of separation.

Kitajima recalls the moment when this grim reality sunk in: “When I heard Mom crying at night, I kind of... I think that changed my life. I kind of felt my carefree life, living as a child, no longer existed... I feel like I lost something.”

After his father, a prominent Buddhist minister and community leader, was arrested from their home on Kauai, young Kitajima was tasked to step up to help lead and care for the family, without knowing if he would see his father again.

Masamizu Kitajima, who was only eight years old at the time of Pearl Harbor, recalls his reaction to the FBI arresting his father from their home, in the 20th installment of our 30 Stories for 30 Years series.