JANM Hosts Manzanar Baseball Project Program December 7

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) will host a program and panel discussion about the Manzanar Baseball Project, on Saturday, December 7, 2024, from 2 p.m.–4 p.m. Admission is $16 ($9 seniors, students, and youth, free for JANM Members) and includes entry to the Museum. Tickets are available at janm.org/events.

During the 1940s, baseball was the national pastime of the US, including in America’s World War II concentration camps. Japanese Americans created leagues in all ten camps and the games drew huge crowds, with spectators often standing and sitting on bare dirt under the blazing sun. Baseball was a way for Japanese Americans to find a sense of normalcy, uplift their spirits, and claim a connection to American culture. Now, the Manzanar Baseball Project is rebuilding and bringing to life the baseball diamond at Manzanar National Historic Site.

Artist and Manzanar Baseball Project Director Dan Kwong will be joined by Josh Morey, Bobby Umemoto, Chris Komai, Japanese American baseball historian Kerry Yo Nakagawa, and Professor Susan Kamei to talk about the project, the history of Japanese Americans and baseball, and how they overlap in America’s history. The program will also feature footage from the historic first baseball games to be played on the newly restored field at Manzanar.

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About the Japanese American National Museum (JANM)

Established in 1985, JANM promotes understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. Located in the historic Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles, JANM is a center for civil rights, ensuring that the hard-fought lessons of the World War II incarceration are not forgotten. A Smithsonian Affiliate and one of America’s Cultural Treasures, JANM is a hybrid institution that straddles traditional museum categories. JANM is a center for the arts as well as history. It provides a voice for Japanese Americans and a forum that enables all people to explore their own heritage and culture. Since opening to the public in 1992, JANM has presented over 100 exhibitions onsite while traveling 40 exhibits to venues such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Ellis Island Museum in the United States, and to several leading cultural museums in Japan and South America. JANM is open on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday–Sunday from 11 a.m.–5 p.m. and on Thursday from 12 p.m.–8 p.m. JANM is free every third Thursday of the month. On all other Thursdays, JANM is free from 5 p.m.–8 p.m. For more information, visit janm.org or follow us on social media @jamuseum.