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
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.
Moab Isolation Center
In January 1943, the U.S. government opened the Moab Isolation Center in Utah to imprison Japanese American men labeled “troublemakers.” They were already incarcerated. Moab existed to punish those who refused to stay silent.
Mamie Tape
On January 9, 1885, the California Supreme Court ruled that denying Mamie Tape admission to public school because she was Chinese violated the Fourteenth Amendment. The law was clear. California’s response was not.
Kakurō Shigenaga
On January 7, 1942, authorities arrested Kakurō Shigenaga by mistake. They were looking for his brother. When they realized the error, they arrested the brother too — and kept them both.
Sue Kunitomi Embrey
Sue Kunitomi Embrey was known in Manzanar as prisoner 2614F. She spent the rest of her life making sure that number, and what it represented, would never be forgotten, becoming the driving force behind preserving Manzanar and its history.
The Eagles of Heart Mountain
The Heart Mountain Eagles were an all-Japanese American football team that played and defeated outside Wyoming high schools while imprisoned in a World War II incarceration camp.
Trending Stories
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor shook the nation — and fear quickly turned on Japanese Americans. Propaganda, arrests, and mass incarceration followed, reshaping more than 120,000 lives.
Executive Order 9066
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forced removal and incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans. The order paved the way for one of the largest violations of civil liberties in U.S. history.
Military Intelligence Service (MIS)
The government imprisoned people for teaching Japanese, while secretly teaching it themselves.