Quiet Americans is a digital storytelling project about Japanese American history — stories of injustice, resilience, and resistance. We explore the lessons we’ve learned and the ones we failed to, from the past.
This project is inspired by the life of one Nisei (a second-generation Japanese American) who went from incarceration camps to volunteering for the U.S. Army. He served in the Pacific, worked in post-war Japan as a Military Intelligence Service officer, and later fought in the Korean War. Yet, like so many in his generation, he rarely spoke about it. He carried his story quietly. We’re here to tell these stories, so we never forget.
Latest Stories
Evacuation Claims Act
They were welcome to file a claim. Compensation was another matter. Although the Evacuation Claims Act offered reimbursement for wartime property losses, many Japanese Americans recovered only a small fraction of what they had lost.
Chien-Shiung Wu
By the time Chien-Shiung Wu died in 1997, she had helped build the atomic bomb, become one of the world’s foremost experimental physicists, and overturned one of the most important laws in modern physics. Yet she never received a Nobel Prize. Many scientists have spent decades asking why.
National Japanese American Student Relocation Council
Behind barbed wire, thousands of Japanese American students faced a future that suddenly seemed impossible. Through determination, community support, and the work of the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council, more than 4,000 students found their way back to college.
Tacoma Nihongo Gakkō
A school built to preserve language, culture, and dignity for Tacoma’s Japanese American children later became a registration site for their forced removal during World War II. The same place that taught them how to belong became one of the places where they were ordered to disappear.
Z Plan
In May 1944, Japanese American Military Intelligence Service linguists began translating the Japanese Navy’s secret “Z Plan” after critical documents were recovered from a plane crash in the Philippines. The intelligence would help shape one of the most decisive American victories of the Pacific War.
Selective Service Act of 1917
For Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans, the Selective Service Act of 1917 exposed a contradiction that would continue for decades: America was willing to accept their military service long before it was willing to fully accept them as Americans.
Trending Stories
Japanese Canadian Incarceration
January 14, 1942 marked the beginning of a seven-year exile for Japanese Canadians. More than 27,000 people were removed, incarcerated, and barred from returning home until 1949.
Miyoshi Umeki
In 1958, Miyoshi Umeki became the first Asian actress to win an Academy Award. It was a historic moment, but not a turning point. Her career reflects the limits placed on Asian performers in Hollywood, even after the highest recognition.
Kanaye Nagasawa
Kanaye Nagasawa was the first Japanese national to live permanently in the United States and became the first Wine King of California. His legacy tells a story of ambition, success, and an American dream that could not be passed on because of discriminatory laws.