Collections : [Center for Documentary Research and Practice]

This collection of interviews examines the experiences of Japanese Americans in the Indianapolis area. The interviewees, many of whom were born in Japan prior to World War II, focus on what compelled them to move to Indiana and their impressions of a Japanese American community. In particular, the interviewees detail the work of political and social organizations like the Japan America Society and Japanese American Citizens League. These groups' activities combined the fostering of traditional Japanese cultural forms like art, language, and dancing in the United States with political work like the Redress Movement to confront the experience of internment for many Japanese Americans during World War II.