Learning Resources

JAMO Resources and Services
The Japanese American Museum of Oregon’s resources and services are designed to collect, preserve, and share Nikkei history with a broad range of audiences.

• Speakers Bureau: Schedule a speaker for schools, services clubs, and community organizations
• Museum in a Suitcase: Bring a speaker and portable exhibit to your classroom.
• Guided tours: Visit our museum exhibits or the Japanese American Historical Plaza.
• Plaza Tour App: Experience this virtual guided tour of the Japanese American Historical Plaza, narrated by George Takei, featured on the Public Art PDX app. Created with funding by the Regional Arts and Culture Council.
• JAMO’s Oral History Archives: are available via the Densho Digital Repository.
• Research library: JAMO’s collections of books and other texts are available on-site to the public.
• JAMO Collection Online: Many of the historic documents and artifacts in our collection are available online.
• JAMO on-site archives: Not all our collection is available online. Contact the museum to arrange a research visit to our archives.

Books and Film
Never Give Up: Minoru Yasui and the Fight for Justice Documentary and Educational Package

Never Give Up! Minoru Yasui and the Fight for Justice tells the story of Min Yasui, the only Oregonian to have received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Born and raised in Hood River, Oregon, Yasui was the first Japanese American admitted to the Oregon Bar Association. During World War II he initiated a legal test case to challenge the incarceration of over 110,000 persons of Japanese ancestry. He spent nine months in solitary confinement awaiting his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and the rest of his life fighting for the civil rights of all people. To learn more about Minoru Yasui’s legacy, please visit www.minoruyasuifilm.org/about.

The Never Give Up! Educational Package includes the feature film, seven special bonus short films, a study guide, and primary source historical and legal documents. 

Order the Never Give Up! Educational Package.

Portland’s Japantown Revealed by Peter Pappas
This free e-book is an enhanced, multi-touch experience that tells the story of a vibrant Japanese American community in Portland, Oregon, that disappeared with the forced removal and incarceration of its citizens. Innovative in approach, Pappas uses historical photographs, video interviews, and rarely seen artifacts largely selected from the collections of the Japanese American Museum of Oregon.

Additional Resources

• Densho: the Japanese American Legacy Project
• Discover Nikkei
• National Veterans Network & Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center Curriculum for Elementary and Middle School Students
• Go for Broke National Education Center
• Learning for Justice
• The Orange Story: A Digital humanities project about the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans
• No-No Boy and Portland Taiko – “Orient, Oregon”
• University of Washington Libraries
• Japanese American Citizens League: Education
• Smithsonian: A More Perfect Union
• Oregon Encyclopedia
• Oregon State University Library
• Washington State University Libraries
• George and Frank C. Hirahara Photograph Collection, 1943-1945, Washington State University Libraries, Digital Collections

Local Community

• Oregon Historical Society
• JACL – Portland Chapter
• Four Rivers Cultural Center
• Minoru Yasui Legacy Project
• Portland Taiko
• Oregon Cultural Trust
• Oregon Humanities
• Lan Su Chinese Garden
• Portland Chinatown Museum
• Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education
• Portland Japanese Garden
• Japan-America Society of Oregon
• Oregon Museums Association

National

• Discover Nikkei
• Go for Broke
• Densho
• Japanese American National Museum
• Japanese American Citizens League
• Pacific Citizen
• National Japanese American Historical Society
• Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience
• Yakima Valley Museum
• Association for Asian American Studies
• Western Museums Association
• Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center