Irene Hirano Inouye
Irene Hirano Inouye was elected to the Board of Trustees of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2007. Ms. Hirano Inouye is the former President and founding CEO of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles and continues to serve as its Executive Advisor. Ms. Hirano Inouye has more than 35 years of experience in nonprofit administration, community education, and public affairs, and serves as a trustee or board member to numerous foundations and organizations, including the Ford Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and the American Association of Museums.
We invited Ms. Hirano Inouye to share some insights and observations regarding her own career and America's Asian Pacific American history with us.
On establishing an American museum "dedicated to the experience of Americans of Japanese ancestry"
Irene Hirano tours Georgetown, CO
In 1982, two distinct groups--businesspersons in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo and a group of highly decorated World War II veterans--simultaneously began exploring the concept of a museum about Japanese Americans. The two groups joined forces, and in 1985, the Japanese American National Museum (Museum) officially incorporated as a private, non-profit institution.
The founders were motivated by a common vision: to insure that Japanese Americans preserved their rich heritage, cultural identity, and unique history. With the passing of the first-generation immigrants, Issei, the first person history had disappeared. The second generation, Nisei, realized their own children and grandchildren--the Sansei and Yonsei--often were unaware of the hardships and successes of earlier generations. Additionally, many of the artifacts, photographs, written records, and other materials documenting their lives had been lost or destroyed during the World War II incarceration. Those cultural artifacts that remained had often been forgotten in attics or were in danger of being thrown away.
I was recruited to join the Japanese American National Museum in 1988 as its first director. As we developed the Museum, we sought Japanese American leaders in communities around the country, personally inviting them to join us, share their stories, their personal collections and their support. The opening of the Museum in May 1992 was significant not only for the 1.2 million Japanese Americans in the United States, but we hoped for all Americans. The Museum shares a unique cultural experience and also serves as a sober reminder that one part of that history--the World War II incarceration--must never be repeated. By placing the Japanese American experience in the context of America's history, and by working to improve the understanding and appreciation of our country's ethnic and cultural diversity, the institution strives to serve and enrich a global audience.
The Museum's expansion to include the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy
The Museum created the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy, opened in 2005, to expand our work with diverse communities. By partnering with educators and community-based organizations, the National Center works to inspire youth and adults to become active, informed participants in shaping democracy in America. We currently have a traveling exhibition called "Fighting for Democracy" that examines the contributions of seven diverse individuals to World War II. The individuals the exhibit focuses upon were all excluded from full participation in society before the war but through their WWII service contributed to the integration of the military after the war. The exhibit features individuals from the Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee Airmen, the Women's Air Corps, and others whose stories are an integral part of our World War II experience. The exhibition is at the National WWII Museum and will go next to the Tuskegee Airmen Museum in Alabama and the National Archives in WDC.
Ms. Hirano Inouye's path as activist, advocate, and visionary
I did my undergraduate and graduate work in public administration and early in my career I choose to work in the non-profit sector. Before I joined the Museum, I had spent 13 years as director of a community-based health center serving women and families. I have always been committed to building stronger communities in collaboration with other organizations. The work of the Museum enabled me to help build a museum that would be community-based but which would reach across demographics and work with many different people and institutions locally, nationally, and even internationally. I am a third generation Japanese American and my grandparents came to the United States in the early 1900's. My grandfather and most of my aunts and uncles were incarcerated in Rohwer, Arkansas, during World War II and my father served in the US military as part of the Military Intelligence Service in the Pacific; the Museum provided an opportunity to link my personal history with my work to help build a "home" for Japanese American history and culture.
The Museum's relationship with the Arab American National Museum and similarities between America's beleaguered Arab community and the nation's WWII treatment of Japanese Americans
September 11, 2001 is a day that will remain significant in American history forever. It is also the day when the issue, "Who is an American?" was raised again. The terrorists' attacks in the U.S. resulted in homeland security becoming a central issue for all Americans concerning all aspects of their lives. Clearly, Americans wanted more security. But the United States is a democratic society and the Constitution was created to protect the rights and liberties of all of its citizens. Following September 11, 2001, some Americans and even government agencies cast a suspicious eye on Arab Americans and Muslims because of their ancestry. For Japanese Americans, these suspicions based on race were reminiscent of the days following the outbreak of World War II, when Japanese Americans were considered "the enemy" by their own government by virtue of their ancestry. The mistakes of the U.S. government's actions in 1942 were essential to remember in 2001 in order to prevent a similar miscarriage of justice.
Days after September 11, 2001, the Japanese American National Museum issued a public statement to its 60,000+ supporters nationally and to the media. The Museum crafted a statement that reaffirmed its mission to interpret and link the lessons of history to the present day and a commitment to reach out to Arab American and Muslim communities who could be unfairly targeted on the basis of their ancestry. Additionally, the National Museum held public programs that brought together Japanese Americans, Arab Americans, law enforcement officers, and federal agencies to discuss the challenges of maintaining national security while also protecting the civil liberties of America's residents.
The Museum believed it was important to share the lessons of history and create a dialogue about their relevance to the crisis of today. Unlike 1942, when the number of voices speaking out in support of Japanese Americans were limited to a courageous few, many individuals and political leaders referred back to the World War II experience and called for restraint and the protection of civil liberties in a time of fear over national security.
Michigan is home to the largest concentration of Arab people outside the Middle East. Over 450,000 million Arab Americans reside in the state, a majority of them in the southeastern part of Michigan. One of the most significant community organizations in Michigan is ACCESS, Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, located in Dearborn Michigan. ACCESS is a thirty-five year old human service organization, committed to the development of the Arab American community in all aspects of its economic, social, and cultural life. ACCESS made the decision to create a new Arab American National Museum with a mission to document, preserve, celebrate, and educate the public on the history, life, culture, and contributions of Arab Americans.
I had the opportunity to work with ACCESS in the beginning of their plans to develop the new Museum in mid-2001 as they brought together various museum and cultural specialists to advise them. Since its opening in 1992, the Japanese American National Museum has believed that it is important to "give back" to the field and to assist new organizations that are also striving to build centers for art, history and culture. Having always benefited itself from the advice and expertise of colleagues in the museum, funding and cultural fields, therefore the Museum expressed its willingness to assist ACCESS in whatever way possible to launch their new cultural center and museum. The Arab American National Museum opened its doors a few years ago and is a wonderful museum. Our two institutions continue to work together closely to this day and have learned from each other.
The stories and momentum of the All-Camps Summits
In November 2002, Mr. Ishmael Ahmed, then Executive Director of ACCESS (now Director of Health & Human Services for the State of Michigan) and Dr. Anan Ameri were invited to speak at the first "All-Camps Summit" in Los Angeles. The Summit was co-sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Park Service, and a Camp Advisory Committee comprised of former inmates from the ten World War II War Relocation Authority camps and the Justice Department Camp of Crystal City. The Summit focused on providing dialogues and discussions for sharing the World War II camp experience among former inmates, educators, scholars, and students and looked at efforts to preserve the World War II camp sites, showcasing on-going efforts by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Park Service.
The first All-Camps Summit and the later "Camp Connections" conference in Little Rock, Arkansas (2004), provided important ways to join former inmates along with educators, scholars, and students. These two gatherings were followed in 2008 by a conference in Denver, Colorado, Enduring Communities: The Japanese American Experience in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah, which was part of a three-year collaborative project among educators, communities, students and the Museum to create curricula about the Japanese American World War II experience for every classroom in these five states.
The Denver conference united many of those who had attended the previous two gatherings but also drew new audiences, especially families with young children. The enduring legacy from the camps must be education and the conferences have provided the opportunity for educators and students to learn first hand from those who experienced the WWII camps. These conferences also offer an opportunity for meetings among the many committees and organizations that are working to preserve the various camp sites across the country. It is very exciting to see the progress that has been made in engaging more people to help preserve and interpret the World War II camp sites and ensure that they will be preserved as sites of learning for the future.
Intergenerational dynamics and Japanese American history
One of my fondest memories from the 1999 opening of our new Pavilion is of the many families who visited on opening weekend with three generations -- in other words, grandparents, adult children and their children who came together to see the expanded Museum. As they walked through the galleries, grandparents talked about their recollections from World War II, telling stories, often for the first time, about their wartime experiences. Now the same thing is happening every weekend when families visit the Japanese American National Museum together.
At the Arkansas and Denver conferences, many families traveled together to visit the former camp sites in Arkansas and Colorado, as well as to hear the speakers and panelists. More recently, the Museum has been showcasing young Japanese American artists who are interpreting the World War II experience from their perspective. Mike Shinoda of the famed Linkin Park rock band did an album featuring "Kenji," a song about his family's incarceration in Arizona. After a visit to the Museum, Shinoda interviewed his father and many of his relatives to learn about their experiences and made the album to reach younger and newer audiences that were already Linkin Park fans.
On preservation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation
I consider myself a preservationist and I hope my work with the Museum has reflected the importance of preservation to strong community-building. Two of the Museum's largest artifacts are its original historic building, a former Buddhist Temple built in 1924 in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo, and one of the original barracks from the Heart Mountain World War II concentration camp. Both represent significant pieces of Japanese American history and are used to share countless stories with visitors today. The former Buddhist Temple was restored and became the home for the Museum when it opened to the public in 1992. The building is on the National Register for Historic Places and the block where it is located is part of a designated Historic District.
As we were working on the building's restoration we turned to many specialists and experts in the preservation field, which often seemed to lead us to the National Trust. We were honored to receive an award from the National Trust after the building was completed and the National Trust held an event at the Museum during its Los Angeles conference following the opening of the Pavilion, our second building, in 1999. From its regional offices to its headquarters in Washington, D.C., the National Trust has been a partner in many of our activities throughout the years.
I had gotten to know National Trust President Richard Moe and the current Chair of the National Trust's board of trustees, Cliff Hudson, through our work together as trustees of the Ford Foundation, so it was hard for me to turn them down when they asked if I would consider becoming a National Trust trustee myself.
Asian Pacific American History Month, honoring lessons from the past and diverse cultural traditions in America
I think that highlighting cultural heritage with scheduled affinity activities such as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is an important way to learn more about each other and about ourselves. The Asian Pacific American community is rapidly growing and changing. Many more ethnic communities exist today in America than previously and we need to better understand the history and culture of newer communities such as South Asians, Pacific Islanders, and others whose specific needs and experiences are often invisible. These groups are adding to the richness of our communities and we need to develop ways to share that wealth of experience and cultural traditions with all Americans. Ideally, the learning and cultural exchange isn't limited to one month a year and instead heritage months serve to celebrate and open us up to new experiences.
I think we have a unique opportunity with our new Administration to emphasize the importance of preserving and sharing our diverse American cultural experiences. While I have worked for over 20 years to preserve and share the Japanese American experience, our mission has always been to share that experience within the context of the diversity of America. Our lives intersect in so many ways that no single ethnic group's history and culture can be understood or appreciated unless we see it in the context of our nation's diverse history. So we must work to tell our collective story which can only be done if we deepen our understanding of each of our individual stories. I hope that our preservation work will encompass the broadest range of communities and institutions as partners and ensure that we let the lessons of our past guide our work in the future.
