Projects
United States vs Masaaki Kuwabara
My grandfather was the lead defendant in the first civil rights case to be ruled in favor of Japanese Americans during WWII. But he never talked about it. I didn’t find out until after he passed, when a chance finding revealed a history I had never known.
I'm chronicling my journey of piecing together the story he never felt he could tell me in a forthcoming full-length book. I'm also developing an accompanying website where I'll be posting archival evidence about his court case and resources for further exploration.
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Share Your American Story
There’s more to the Japanese American wartime experience than we know and have been led to believe.
What other untold stories and unsung heroes are missing from that narrative?
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What secrets may be lurking within your own family that would make our community’s —our nation’s—story richer, more accurate, and more complete?
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Be a part of documenting the full Japanese American experience, one story at a time, by sharing your photos, stories, journey maps, and insights at My American Story.
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Need help getting started? Subscribe below and get a copy of my free quick-start guide "Starting the Conversation: Three Easy Ways to Get Started with Oral History."
Completing the Story: a Photo-Documentary Oral History of the Resettlement in California's Santa Clara Valley
Winner of a California Civil Liberties Public Education Grant, Completing the Story: A Community Remembers fills a gap in the historical record by shining a light on the Japanese American resettlement in Santa Clara Valley after their release from wartime detention camps.
Primary source materials in the form of photographs and first-hand accounts were gathered from the community through a series of photo collection events. Community members were asked to recount the stories behind the photographs, resulting in a unique and poignant exhibit at the Japanese American Museum of San Jose, by and for the very community who contributed to it.
