The earliest immigrants from Japan took risks, crossed oceans, embraced new communities, and established roots in unfamiliar places. Their children became the first Americans of Japanese ancestry; many created multiracial and multiethnic families. Whether in the Territory of Hawai‘i or the contiguous U.S., these pioneers established the early foundation of Japanese America.

The exhibition explores early Japanese pioneers to Hawai‘i (Gannenmono), California (Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm), and Oregon (Orient).

Miya Iwakoshi with adopted Japanese daughter Tama Nitobe (on left), Orient, Oregon, ca. 1901. Courtesy of Oregon Historical Society (48922).

For most of this country’s history, laws supporting racial segregation were part of the American legal landscape. Anti-miscegenation laws, or state laws that outlawed marriages between Whites and non-Whites, were in place since the 1660s and continued to persist until the late 1960s. The Cable Act of 1922 went so far as to strip U.S. citizenship from American women who married Asian immigrant men.

Such laws contributed to a hostile and even dangerous environment for mixed-race families and people, who often found themselves stuck between the status of legal and illegal. In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court finally struck down the last of these laws in the Loving v. Virginia case. Today, the scope and meaning of marriage continues to be a topic of much debate in American politics.

The exhibition presents the story of Fusataro Nakaya and Edith Morton. Because interracial marriages were illegal in California, they were married in Tijuana, Mexico. Edith was stripped of her citizenship after marrying Fusataro.

Robert Nakaya-Morton in military uniform. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Gift of Robert Nakaya-Morton and Family (JANM 95.99.2).

Questions around loyalty, citizenship, and belonging inevitably become magnified in times of war. During World War II, the United States government and military struggled to determine what to do with the hapa Japanese Americans who blurred the lines between us and them. The inconsistencies in policies towards mixed-race people—both in the U.S. and in Japan—highlighted the tenuous place of mixed-race Japanese in both societies.

The exhibition presents photos and artifacts from the Manzanar Children’s Village, an orphanage set up at the World War II concentration camp where about 20% of the children were multiracial, and the Elizabeth Saunders Home Orphanage for Mixed-Blood Children in Japan established during the American Occupation following World War II.

Dennis Tojo Bambauer War Relocation Authority Leave Clearance ID. Dennis Tojo was eight years old in 1943 when he was given clearance to leave camp and the Manzanar Children’s Village. Courtesy of Dennis Tojo Bambauer and the Manzanar National Historic Site.

The Japanese American community is on the cusp of becoming majority mixed. Does this mean the community will cease to exist? What does it mean to be Japanese American today?

Two prominent Japanese American community institutions that have helped to shape the way some people choose to answer these questions are the Japanese American basketball leagues and local Japanese American beauty pageants. Originally formed to provide Japanese American youth with opportunities to participate in activities denied to them by mainstream society, these leagues and pageants often offer up their own racial and ethnic eligibility rules. The controversies resulting from such rules have exposed some of the challenges and complexities of promoting spaces of belonging.

This section includes team jerseys and group photos from Japanese American basketball teams. There will also be photos and interviews with Hapa Japanese American Queens and Princesses.

Janet Barnes Cubak, 1982 Los Angeles Nisei Week Queen. Courtesy of Alan Miyatake (Toyo Miyatake Studios).

The exhibition features six individuals—Fred Makino, Isamu Noguchi, Melba Yonemura Matsuura, Virgil Westdale, Velina Hasu Houston, and Jero.

Whether by choice or by circumstance, each of these six hapas became the visible face of Japanese America at one point or another. Their stories reflect the deep connections that exist between mixed-race individuals and key moments in Japanese American history. Their struggles to find a place for themselves in Japanese American society and in the broader U.S. reflect the ongoing challenges of becoming a diverse community.

Fred Makino and family. Fred Makino was born in Yokohama, Japan to a Japanese mother and British father. He immigrated to Honolulu in 1899 and became a prominent advocate for labor and immigration rights. He founded the Hawaii Hochi in 1912. His older brother Jo immigrated to Hawai‘i in the 1880s. Courtesy of Hawaii Hochi.