Oral History Project

In November 2008, members of the Twin Cities chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League met with Tom Ikeda, executive director of Densho, an online initiative that teaches young people about democracy by sharing the stories of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II.

The committee was grateful to have the opportunity to work with Densho to add our community's perspectives to the online oral history collection and to use these firsthand accounts of our elders to educate future generations about Minnesota history, civil liberties and Constitutional rights.

Grants, matching funds, individual donations and garage sales (pictured here!) funded the recording of 10 individuals' stories. These 10 have been catalogued and are now part of the Densho collection. The committee is seeking funding to complete the recording, processing and archiving of an additional eight interviews conducted by documentary filmmaker Bill Kubota. All 18 interviews will also become part of the oral history collection at the Minnesota History Center.

Visit www.densho.org to see how these oral histories have been archived and catalogued for education and research purposes.

Consider a donation to help support the conclusion of the oral history recordings of our Nisei elders.