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Bruce Lee and his diverse class at LA Chinatown School on 628 College St.

Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco in 1940, the only American-born member of his family, and spent his life challenging the racial barriers that defined Hollywood and the world around him. He taught students of every background, refused stereotypical roles, married across racial lines, and showed that strength and dignity belong to all people — not any one race.

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Manzanar Project Director Ralph P. Merritt

Ralph Merritt

Ralph Merritt walked into Manzanar just weeks before the camp exploded into unrest. What followed was a tenure defined by tension, compromise, and unexpected humanity. His leadership wasn’t perfect, but he helped steady a fractured community, supported photography and the arts, and later became a key ally in preserving Japanese American history after the war.

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Attorney Wayne Collins in his San Francisco office c1942. The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley

Wayne Collins

Wayne Collins spent decades defending Japanese Americans’ civil rights. Born on November 23, 1899, he fought cases from Korematsu to the Tule Lake renunciants, restored citizenship to thousands, and challenged the government’s wartime abuses. His work helped protect the Constitution when few others would.

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Takuji Yamashita's portrait from Tacoma High School

Yamashita v. Hinkle

Takuji Yamashita fought racism in Washington’s courts long before WWII. His 1922 case, Yamashita v. Hinkle, exposed how the Alien Land Laws targeted Japanese immigrants.

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Richard Aoki with beret and sunglasses

Richard Aoki

Richard Aoki was the only Asian American leader in the Black Panther Party. He spent his childhood behind barbed wire at Topaz, served in the U.S. Army, helped launch the Third World Liberation Front, and became a key figure in the fight for ethnic studies. Decades later, newly uncovered FBI files revealed he had also been an informant. His story remains one of the most complex in civil rights history.

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Chiura Obata teaching a childrens art class at Tanforan Art School, 1942

Chiura Obata

Passionate to teach art, Chiura Obata turned an incarceration camp into an art school.

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Mike Masaoka shaking hands with Mayor Fletcher Bowron, Los Angeles, 1946, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA

Proposition 15 (1946)

California voters rejected Proposition 15 on November 15, 1946, marking the first time the state voted down an anti-Asian law and shifting the civil rights landscape.

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Technical Sergeant Ted Takayuki Tanouye of 442nd Regimental Combat Team

Ted Takayuki Tanouye

Ted T. Tanouye, a Torrance-born hero of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, fought for America while his own family was incarcerated during WWII. His courage, sacrifice, and Medal of Honor legacy continue to define Japanese American history.

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