About the Japanese American National Museum:
 

Established in 1985, the Japanese American National Museum promotes understanding and

appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American

experience. Located in the historic Little Tokyo district of Downtown Los Angeles, JANM is a

hybrid institution that straddles traditional museum categories and strives to provide a voice

for Japanese Americans as well as a forum that enables all people to explore their own heritage

and culture. Since opening to the public, JANM has presented over 70 exhibitions onsite and

traveled six of its exhibitions to over 30 locations, including the Smithsonian Instituion, the

Ellis Island Museum, and leading cultural institutions in Japan and South America. For more

information, visit janm.org

 

About the Allen Hendershott Eaton Collection:

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Allen Hendershott Eaton’s historic 1952 book, Beauty Behind Barbed Wire: The Arts of the

Japanese in Our War Relocation Camps, explored art and craft objects created by persons of

Japanese ancestry while wrongfully incarcerated in the World War II American concentration

camps. In the course of conducting research for the book, Eaton amassed a significant

collection of such artifacts.

After many years of lying forgotten in storage, the collection’s eventual owners would put the

objects up for auction in April 2015. An outcry arose from the Japanese American community

leaders and activists, who rallied successfully to stop this insensitive sale of these important

artifacts of Japanese American history. Ultimately, the collection was transferred to the Japanese

American National Museum for safekeeping. This project was funded, in part, by a grant from

the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement

Sites Grant Program. Additional support was provided by George and Brad Takei, the Earle K.

& Katherine F. (Muto) Moore Foundation, and Richard Sakai.

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Details for Contested Histories Pop-up Display and Workshop:

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The pop-up display includes physical and/or digital representation of every item in the collection

— such as photographs, sculptures, artworks, and other items handmade by Japanese Americans

while incarcerated in American concentration camps. Contested Histories is intended to gather as

much information about each individual object so that the museum’s efforts to preserve and

catalog the collection can be complete as possible. People are encouraged to share with JANM

information they know or remember about the objects including who and/or what is depicted in

the many photographs or objects.

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Exhibition Contents/ Physical Dimensions:

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- 289 reproductions of photos and artwork in binders.

- 120 artifacts in 11 display suitcases.