Densho’s mission is to preserve the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II before their memories are extinguished. We offer these irreplaceable firsthand accounts, coupled with historical images and teacher resources, to explore principles of democracy, and promote equal justice for all.
Densho is a Japanese term meaning “to pass on to the next generation,” or to leave a legacy.
Digitized archive of the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study, a research project initiated in 1942 at UC Berkeley. It aimed to document and examine the mass internment of Japanese Americans by embedding Nisei social science students recruited from the Berkeley campus into selected internment sites. The Study also documented the resettlement phase in the city of Chicago. The collection is comprised of daily journals, field reports, life histories, and secondary research materials collected and compiled by the research staff.
Searchable full text database of 25 newspapers written and produced by Japanese Americans interned during World War II.
"Although subject to censorship the newspapers document the day to day life of the internees. Titles includes: Rohwer Outpost, Poston Chronicle, Gila News Courier, Tulean Dispatch, Granada Pioneer, Minndoka Irrigator, Topaz Times, Manzanar Free Press, Denson Tribune, and Heart Mountain Sentinel. (1942-1945)"
Testimony and documents from more than 750 individuals involved in the Japanese American Internment during World War II.
"Includes material from more than 750 Japanese-Americans and Aleuts who had lived through the events of World War II, as well as government officials who ran the internment program, public figures, organizations such as the Japanese American Citizens League, interested citizens, historians, and other professionals who had studied the internment. Documents include personal stories, publications, reports, press releases, photographs, newspaper clippings, etc. (1981, principally covers 1942 - 1945)"
