Japanese American National Museum

Educationin addition to serving more than 12,000 schoolchildren this year, janm is a remarkable resource for educators in los angeles and across the country. Janm's education team brought a group of teachers to santa anita racetrack to gain understanding of the temporary detention centers to which many japanese americans were first sent while america's incarceration camps were being constructed. In june, little tokyo: how history shapes a community across generation, an neh landmarks of american history and culture workshop, brought teachers from across the united states together for an in-depth exploration of the past's relevance to present day issues of identity and preservation. To bring these lessons to the business world, janm launched history unpacked, a virtual program for organizations engaging in diversity and inclusion efforts

Public programs, marketing and communicationssome 60 public programs for all ages included janm book club events with authors like naomi hirohara and george takei, art making workshops with an array of artists, the lively kcrw summer nights, a panel featuring dave roberts and other japanese american staff of the los angeles dodgers, and the popular giant robot konbini. More than 6,000 people celebrated summer and the new year at our family festivals.in december, janm relaunched the national center for the preservation of democracy as the daniel k. Inouye national center for the preservation of democracy and presented the smithsonian's initiative our shared future: reckoning with our racial past in los angeles, in partnership with the chinese american museum and la plaza de cultura y artes. In january, mitch landrieu, former mayor of new orleans and former white house senior advisor, delivered the inaugural norman y. Mineta distinguished lecture. The democracy center awarded the first irene yamamoto arts writers fellowships to two emerging arts writers of color and presented a resource fair for civic season (the season between the juneteenth and july 4 holidays), culminating in the powerful live storytelling event, my american story. In the summer, janm hosted the first cohort of watanabe democracy fellows from japan who visited los angeles, manazanar, and washington. D.c.the world premiere of the moving documentary nobuko miyamoto: a song in movement in may, to a full house of 600 people at vc fest, was a milestone in a year of accolades for janm's watase media arrst center. The film, a coproduction of mac and pbs socal, won both the audience award and best documentary at caamfest in san francisco, and the short film benkyodo: the last manju shop in j-town received the audience award for best documentary short at the seattle asian american film festival. Janm launched the new podcast japanese america in fy2024. More than 2000 listeners downloaded the podcast to hear hosts koji sakai and michelle malazaki chat about any and all aspects of japanese american life.

Developmentin august 2023, janm launched our promise, a $65 million comprehensive campaign to revitalize its campus, amplify its voice, deliver its programming in bold new ways, and secure its future.thanks to the generous response from donors, janm raised the campaign goal to $85 million in april 2024, securing 82% of that goal to date. Janm hosted its annual benefit and online auction on saturday, april 6, 2024. Set at the historic vibiana in downtown los angeles with the theme illuminating paths, the museum celebrated the vital paths of community leaders who wove courageous stories with poignant lessons to inspire and educate the next generation and raised over $1.1 million. The benefit honored duncan ryuken williams and sunyoung lee, director and creative director of the irei project, and david ono, host of defining courage.