Reservations are Full for Ireichō
Thank you for viewing and stamping the Ireichō, which contains the first comprehensive listing of over 125,000 persons of Japanese ancestry who were incarcerated in US Army, Department of Justice, Wartime Civil Control Administration, and War Relocation Authority camps. It has been an incredibly successful and moving project. With your help, we have stamped more than 60,000 names—honoring the former incarcerees and rectifying the historical record. The Ireichō will be on display until December 1, 2024.
At this time, all of the Ireichō reservations are full, but visitors are still invited to view the names online. If you would like to be added to the waitlist to stamp the book, please fill out the reservation form and our staff may contact you in the event that a reservation becomes available. If you would like to see if any reservations have been canceled or rescheduled, please contact Visitor Services by email at visitorservices@janm.org or call 213.830.5640. You are also invited to try The Irei Project’s new online feature called Voicing Refuge to learn how to create a communal monument with your voice.
You can also look for the Ireichō during JANM on the Go when the Museum will partner with The Irei Project and USC’s Duncan Ryuken Williams to travel the book in conjunction with pilgrimages to a number of former War Relocation Authority, Department of Justice, and Wartime Civil Control Administration incarceration sites. The Ireichō will return to JANM for long term care and conservation.
Irei: National Monument for the WWII Japanese American Incarceration is a multi-faceted project to address the erasure of the identities of individuals of Japanese ancestry who experienced wartime incarceration and to expand the concept of what monument is through three distinct, interlinking elements: a sacred book of names as a monument (Ireichō), a website as a monument (Ireizō), and light sculptures as monuments (Ireihi).
The project is funded by the Mellon Foundation and led by Duncan Ryuken Williams, professor of American Studies & Ethnicity and Religion at USC and director of the USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture, and Project Creative Director, Sunyoung Lee.
The Ireichō contains the first comprehensive listing of over 125,000 persons of Japanese ancestry who were incarcerated in US Army, Department of Justice, Wartime Civil Control Administration, and War Relocation Authority camps. Embedded into the very materiality of the Ireichō are special ceramic pieces made from soil collected by the project from seventy-five former incarceration sites from Alaska to Hawai‘i, Arkansas to California, and from almost every other region of the United States.
The Ireizō lists those names online at ireizo.com. Visitors can search for the person’s name by name, birth year, or camp.
Stamping of the Ireichō will require a reservation. All visitors are welcome to stamp the Ireichō. Each group may stamp up a total of up to six names per reservation. You do not have to be a former incarceree, a relative, or a descendant of a former incarceree to stamp the book.
When filling out the reservation, please provide the names, dates of birth, and camp location (if known) for the people you are stamping so that JANM can prepare for your visit. If you do not have six specific individuals, please type “NA” in the name fields.
Visit the Stamping Instructions page for information on how to make a reservation to stamp the Ireicho book.