GI Bill

Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, the GI Bill helped thousands of Japanese American veterans attend college, build careers, and rebuild their lives after incarceration and World War II.

the first evacuation claims check presented to Tokuji Tokimasa by Claims Agent William H. Jacobs, photo by Jack Iwata. Courtesy of the Japanese American National Museum

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.

Hawaii National Guard, Company D, Library of Congress

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.

The Second Market Street Chinatown arson fire, 1887. Courtesy of History San Jose Research Library and Archives

San Jose Chinatown Fire

On May 4, 1887, San Jose’s Chinatown was destroyed in an arson fire, just weeks after city officials voted to remove it. The attack displaced nearly 1,400 Chinese residents and erased one of the largest Chinatowns in California.

Japanese American farmer family in Auburn, California. Courtesy of the White River Valley Museum

Alien Land Law

California’s 1913 Alien Land Law never mentioned Japanese immigrants, but it didn’t have to. By barring “aliens ineligible for citizenship” from owning land, it effectively targeted Japanese farmers across the state.

Sei Fujii. Courtesy of the Japanese American National Museum, gift of Hiro Hishiki

Fujii V. California

The California Supreme Court struck down the Alien Land Law in Fujii v. California (1952), nearly 40 years after the state first barred Japanese immigrants from owning land through laws rooted in race.

Taky Kimura

Bruce Lee changed martial arts forever. His films, philosophy, and revolutionary approach to combat made him one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. But one of the most important people in Lee’s life never chased the spotlight. Taky Kimura chose to teach.

Frank Chin

In 1978, when redress seemed stalled and political leaders dismissed reparations as “guilt mongering,” playwright Frank Chin helped rewrite the script. He helped launch the first Day of Remembrance, urging a community to publicly relive incarceration, reigniting a movement that would eventually lead to the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.

Quiet Americans

Asian American