Search the Media Repository
Discover the curated images, videos, and primary sources featured throughout Foundations and Futures
History is more than just text on a page; it is the photographs, voices, and artifacts of the people who lived it. The images and recordings featured across Foundations and Futures are part of a meticulously curated media repository. Whether you are building a lesson plan or investigating an artifact, you can use this database to trace the provenance of our media: discover who created an asset, the historical context behind it, and how it can be used to bring Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences into your classroom.
Multimedia
Chapters
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Image
Barrack Interior at Manzanar Concentration Camp
Families or other groupings of up to eight people occupied a single 20-by-25-foot barrack room with a stove for heat, a single hanging light bulb, and metal cots. Inmates often hung blankets from the rafters, as shown here at the Manzanar camp, to create some semblance of privacy.
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Making Straw Mattresses
One of the first things Japanese Americans, like the Yasui family, did upon arriving at “assembly centers” was to stuff bags with straw to make their mattresses.
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Temporary Detention Centers and War Relocation Authority Camps Map
Map of Temporary Detention Centers and War Relocation Camps.
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Video
Looking Like the Enemy
Japanese Americans recount the fear prevalent after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and what it was like to be forced from their homes.
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Kimiko Kitagaki Waiting for a Bus
Young Kimiko Kitagaki waits in Oakland for a bus to transport her to a government camp. Like all other Japanese Americans, the Kitagaki family attached tags with their names and government-assigned family numbers to their suitcases. They tied the same tags to the clothing they wore.
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Instructions to Japanese Americans Poster
Signs like this appeared in Japanese American communities along the West Coast in the spring of 1942 ordering them to leave their homes.
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Video
American Concentration Camps
In this short video, Japanese Americans’ accounts of life in the camps contrast with the government’s depiction of them.
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FBI House Raid
FBI agents searched the homes of many Japanese American families, like this one, and the Yasui family in Hood River, Oregon.
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Hood River Community Welcome
Masuo Yasui led a successful effort to create a Japanese Community Hall in Hood River, Oregon, where local Issei held cultural events, holiday gatherings, and Japanese language classes for children.
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Signs Discriminating Against Japanese Americans
In the decades before World War II, Japanese Americans along the West Coast faced discrimination in their daily lives: Restaurants denied them service. Barbers refused to cut their hair. Landlords would not rent to them. This woman in Hollywood, California, made clear that Japanese Americans were unwelcome.
