JAPANESE AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSEUM MOURNS THE PASSING OF MARGARET ODA

Los Angeles—The Japanese American National Museum mourns the passing of its Chairman Emeritus Margaret Y. Oda. Dr. Oda served on the JANM Board of Trustees from 1993 to 2005. She was Vice Chair from 1996 to 2003, and Chair from 2004 to 2005. She was named a Chairman Emeritus in 2006.

“Margaret Oda’s passing is a sorrowful occasion and the Japanese American National Museum’s leadership, staff, and volunteers send their sincere condolences to her family,’ said Norman Y. Mineta, current Chair of the JANM Board of Trustees. “Margaret’s deep expertise in education was a tremendous asset to the museum during her time on the board, as were her many relationships in Hawaii and Japan. She will be sincerely missed.”

During her chairmanship, JANM and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock hosted a national conference in Little Rock titled Camp Connections: A Conversation about Civil Rights and Social Justice in Arkansas. There, several dedicated instructors who helped provide an education to young Japanese Americans imprisoned with their families in the two concentration camps in Arkansas during World War II were reunited with their former pupils. The museum’s 2005 Gala dinner was themed Teaching from the Heart: Honoring Educators from America’s Concentration Camps, further spotlighting the vital role of education in the camps during World War II.

Oda also helped to spearhead From Bento to Mixed Plate: Americans of Japanese Ancestry in Multicultural Hawaii, an exhibition of personal artifacts, family photographs, and first-person accounts that traced the evolution of Japanese American identity in Hawaii and revealed the uniqueness of Island culture.

Margaret Oda was born on the Big Island of Hawaii, in Wailea. Her parents were Japanese immigrants from Hiroshima. She received her Master’s degree in Mathematics at Michigan State University and later her Doctorate of Education from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She began her teaching career in 1951 and then served as vice principal and principal at several public elementary and high schools throughout Hawaii. Dr. Oda later became Deputy Superintendent for the State of Hawaii Department of Education and twice served as Honolulu District Superintendent in the 1980s. She retired from her career in public education administration in the late 1990s.

About the Japanese American National Museum (JANM)

Established in 1985, the Japanese American National Museum 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 hybrid institution that straddles traditional museum categories and strives to provide a voice for Japanese Americans as well as a forum that enables all people to explore their own heritage and culture. Since opening to the public, JANM has presented over 70 exhibitions onsite and traveled 17 of its exhibitions to locations around the world, including the Smithsonian Institution and the Ellis Island Museum in the United States, and several leading cultural museums in Japan and South America.

JANM is located at 100 N. Central Ave., Los Angeles. Museum hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday from noon to 8 p.m. General admission is $12 adults, $6 students and seniors, free for members and children under age five. Admission is free to everyone on Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and every third Thursday of the month from noon to 8 p.m. General admission prices and free admission times may not apply to specially ticketed exhibitions. Closed Monday, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. For more information visit www.janm.org or call 213.625.0414.