Previous Exhibitions

May 7, 2021–March 20, 2022

This exhibition shares the rarely revealed story of the grace, grit, and gaman (Japanese for perseverance) displayed by Japanese American women through five generations. As picture brides coming to a new land to meet their strange husbands for the first time, mothers forced to make a life for their families in remote and harsh concentration camps during WWII, and activists who took to the streets in the 1960s to fight for equal rights, Japanese American women have faced many challenges. The stories of both ordinary and famous women are told in their own words using diaries, letters, family photos, and oral histories.