a photo collage of people with their cars

開催予定の展覧会

A blue car license plate that says: JANM 2025  Cruising J-Town Behind the wheel of the Nikkei Community

Explore the world of cars and trucks as powerful vehicles for personal expression, collective identity, and social mobility.

2025年07月31日-11月12日

Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery

ArtCenter College of Design

1111 South Arroyo Parkway

Pasadena, CA 91105

Explore the world of cars and trucks as powerful vehicles for personal expression, collective identity, and social mobility.

2025年07月31日-11月12日

Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery

ArtCenter College of Design

1111 South Arroyo Parkway

Pasadena, CA 91105

Explore the world of cars and trucks as powerful vehicles for personal expression, collective identity, and social mobility.

Related Content

mikado car club members in front of their cars

Nikkei Car Clubs

The history of Japanese Americans in Los Angeles car culture dates back at least as early as the 1910s when Fred Fujioka teamed up with George Kawamoto to found F&K Garage in Little Tokyo.

READ MORE

cars in front of fukui mural

Cruising Nisei

If you arrived after dark to the Nisei Week carnival back in the 1980s, you likely would have encountered the following scene: a seemingly endless parade of cars, trucks, and motorcycles circling the streets, blaring music, revving engines, burning rubber. 

READ MORE

the atomettes group of women pose for a photo under trees

On the Road with the Atomettes

One summer in the early 1950s, a small group of young Nikkei women from the Sawtelle neighborhood of West Los Angeles squeezed into a Chevy Bel Air. They were bound for Northern California and as part of their planning, the group picked one route in particular.

READ NOW

Hikotaro Yamada army veteran opening car door talking to men

Hikotaro Yamada—The Mystery Veteran Rediscovered

Who is the US Navy veteran getting out of his car in 1942 at the Santa Anita temporary detention center, incarcerated by his own government? Follow Cruising J-town curator Oliver Wang’s journey to put a name to a face and recover the identity of Hikotaro Yamada.

READ NOW

group of men in front of trucks

Remembering the L.A. Retail Fish Association

The Los Angeles Japanese Fish Peddlers Association, formed in the early 1960s by Nikkei fish truck operators delivered fresh seafood, mochi, rice, tofu, candies, and other Japanese treats to the doors of Nikkei families across the Southland. 

READ NOW 

Little Tokyo Drift

Body

On August 21, 2021, veterans of the Nisei Week cruises and organizers of the Showoff discussed the history and legacy of nikkei car culture in Los Angeles in a conversation moderated by Oliver Wang with Janet Fujimoto, Tod Kaneko, Brian Karasawa, and Ken Miyoshi.

Little Tokyo Drift: Nisei Week Car Culture

Little Tokyo Drift: Nisei Week Car Culture

日系アメリカ人の経験に対する理解と認識を深めていくため、当館にご支援をお願いいたします。

会員になる 寄附をする