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
A.L. Wirin
Born in Russia to a Jewish family, A. L. Wirin became one of the fiercest legal defenders of Japanese American civil rights, helping challenge California’s alien land and discriminatory fishing laws in landmark Supreme Court cases.
Native Sons of the Golden West
California’s anti-Japanese hostility did not begin with Pearl Harbor. The Native Sons of the Golden West helped turn decades of prejudice into policy.
Richard Sakakida
Before Pearl Harbor, Richard Sakakida was one of only two Japanese American spies the U.S. government ever publicly identified — both created by the government itself.
Mitsuye Endo
After California fired Mitsuye Endo in 1942, she became the lead plaintiff in a case challenging the government’s incarceration of Japanese Americans. When officials later offered to release her if she dropped the fight, she refused. It kept her in camp for two extra years.
Gonzo Mimaki
Gonzo Mimaki’s life spanned the arc of Japanese American history: samurai roots in Kumamoto, railroad labor, California farming, community leadership, and wartime incarceration at Heart Mountain.
San Maló
The first Asians in America may not be who most people expect. Lafcadio Hearn’s 1883 account of San Maló captured the story of the Manilamen, Filipino fishermen who built what is likely the first Asian American settlement in the United States.
Trending Stories
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.
Angel Island Immigration Station
Angel Island Immigration Station opened in 1910 to enforce anti-Asian immigration laws. Asian immigrants were detained, interrogated, and excluded by design, turning immigration enforcement into incarceration decades before WWII.
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.