Discover the History ofWWII Incarceration
120,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly incarcerated during World War II. Learn about this unprecedented denial of civil liberties and why it still matters today.
Explore Personal Stories
Learn about Japanese American history and the legacy of WWII incarceration by exploring personal stories from those who lived through it.
Promote Equity Today
History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Join us in putting the lessons of Japanese American WWII incarceration into action today.
Densho Catalyst: History, Essays, & Opinion
Dive into hidden histories and learn why these stories matter today with the latest essays and opinions from Densho and other community voices.
A Healing Journey to Tule Lake — and the Hidden Family History Uncovered Along the Way
Densho staff were honored to attend last month’s Tule Lake Pilgrimage, joining nearly 400 fellow pilgrims in returning to this important WWII incarceration site to remember its history and reflect...
Remembering the Lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Earlier this month, we gathered at Seattle’s Green Lake for a solemn and deeply meaningful commemoration of the events of August 6 and 9, 1945, when the cities of Hiroshima...
Ask a Historian: Could Japanese Americans Drive Themselves to Camp?
Oliver Wang, curator of the Japanese American National Museum’s summer 2025 exhibit, Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community, which looks at how car and truck culture have...
Manzanar CloseUp
Welcome to Densho’s newest digital platform, Manzanar CloseUp! An evolution of Densho’s popular Sites of Shame project, Manzanar CloseUp applies similar data extraction and visualization tools to offer a close-up view of Manzanar concentration camp. Users are able to see geographical and population features of the camp with an unprecedented level of detail, including information about camp population down to the individual family and barrack level.
Upcoming Events
Liberation Obon
IN-PERSON EVENT
Come be a part of the first ever Liberation Obon on September 1st at 1pm outside the Northwest Detention Center (1623 E J Street Tacoma, WA). It will be a celebration of ancestors and resilience to end immigrant detention in Washington state and across the country. We will be honoring Charles Leo Daniel who died inside NWDC on March 7th and all we lost to US Concentration Camps and celebrate the resistance of communities in the face of state violence.
Join our friends La Resistencia and Tsuru for Solidarity to show your solidarity with those inside who are protesting their wrongful imprisonment. Bring the entire family! We will have traditional circle folk dancing from multiple communities, children’s art making, a giant daruma, food trucks, multi-faith healing ceremonies, speakers from inside NWDC and an opportunity to wear your yukata or other heritage clothing.
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Campu: A Podcast
Campu weaves together the voices of survivors to spin narratives out of the seemingly mundane things that gave shape to the incarceration experience: rocks, fences, food, paper. Follow along as hosts Hana and Noah Maruyama move far beyond the standard Japanese American incarceration 101 and into more intimate and lesser-known corners of this history.
Encyclopedia
Thousands of articles about the history of the Japanese American WWII exclusion and incarceration experience. Here are a few to get you started:
Documentary films/videos on incarceration
The following is an attempt at a comprehensive listing of documentary films/videos that include a significant treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II, broken up into several broad categories.
Scene (magazine)
Japanese American pictorial monthly magazine that ran from 1949 to 1955. Largely produced by and for Nisei, Scene magazine highlighted "successful" Japanese Americans as well as Japanese culture.
Owens Valley (detention facility)
The Owens Valley Reception Center—later the Manzanar Reception Center—was the first of the WCCA -administered short-term detention camps to open when the first "volunteers" from the Los Angeles area arrived on March 21, 1942.