About the NJAHS Digital Archives
The NJAHS Digital Archives serves as the entry for access to NJAHS digital databases. Currently NJAHS’ primary repository is hosted via University of San Francisco’s Gleeson Library’s Digital Collection. NJAHS is in the process of bringing online a new Collection Management System (CMS) CatalogIt and with it we will be publishing our collection to the public via our new HUB: Link Coming Soon
The Digital Archive represents hundreds of hours of labor by NJAHS staff, interns, contractors and volunteers. From 2009-2025, the collection has been digitized with the assistance of the US Department of the Interior National Park Service Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) Grant Program. As we as the cooperation of the University of San Francisco’s Gleeson Library, and the USF College of Arts And Sciences, especially the School of Architecture and the Museum Studies MA program. Without the help of so many people this archive would not have been possible. Thank you.
Leaving Traces: Camp Life Digitization Project 2023-2025
Project Status: Completed!
Leaving Traces sought to build upon the previous digitization efforts of NJAHS by focusing on the archival collection held by NJAHS and making them available to the public. The project digitized some approx. 320 archival folders and entries. Some of them are over 200 pages long. The goal was to provide key context to the eviction and incarceration of Japanese Americans via this archival collection to include prewar archival material of incarcerees, as well as post war material related to resettlement, and efforts around memorialization and redress for the incarceration.
We gratefully acknowledge the participation of the following individuals and institutions in creating this website:
Class of 2023 Masters of Art in Museum Studies at San Francisco State University
Emma De Graaf, MA
Class of 2024 Masters of Art in Museum Studies at University of San Francisco
Donovan Hernadez, MA
NJAHS Collection Intern
Jesse Yagi
Bear Witness: Camp Oral History Digital Collections
Project Status: Completed!
Bear Witness is a digital collections collaborative preservation project of the National Japanese American Historical Society, Inc. (NJAHS) and the University of San Francisco (USF) that provides first time access to 181 oral history interviews from the NJAHS permanent collection. The selection includes the stories of Japanese Americans who were evicted from their homes and imprisoned at the Japanese American confinement sites and Japanese Americans who fought in the U.S. Army during WII. Full transcripts will be created, digitized, and / or edited and made available by request, while summaries, keywords, quotes, and indexes for each interview will be available from the USF Gleeson Library Digital Collections. Each full interview will be digitized from the original recording media and excerpts from select interviews will be made available online. With this project, NJAHS and USF will preserve and amplify the voices of those who lived through the Japanese American experience before, during, and after WWII.
181 new oral history interview excerpts have been added to the online database. View 48 video excerpts here.
We gratefully acknowledge the participation of the following individuals and institutions in creating this website:
USF 2018 Undergraduate Interns:
Benjamin Nhuch Aubrey Welchelberger-Muniz
USF Museum Studies Program Class of 2019:
Megan Udell
NJAHS 2019 Summer Interns:
Catherine Sakurai Hiro Edeza
NJAHS 2020 Summer Interns:
Yi-Shen Loo Charlene Tonai
Connor Nakamura
2019 Oral History Interviews:
Claudia Katayanagi – Biosphere Productions
Specialized Videotape Digitization:
Calvin Roberts – Granma Productions
From the Camps they Served: Nisei Soldier Digital Archives
Project Status: Completed!
From the Camps They Served is a digital collections collaborative preservation project of the National Japanese American Historical Society, Inc. (NJAHS) and the University of San Francisco (USF) that provides for the first time online public access for 300 rare objects and documents from Japanese Americans who served in the US Army from WWII Japanese American confinement sites. Selection of at least 300 items will be made from the NJAHS permanent collection, which includes objects from the Nisei military personnel of the 100th Infantry Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion and the Military Intelligence Service, including the Women’s Army Corps that tell a story of their unique experience dealing with the exclusion, incarceration and their military service to their country. From the private collections of Nisei soldiers, this project showcases such items as their diaries, correspondence letters, v-mail to and from family members, specially – sized military uniforms, camp – made good luck mementos, blue star emblems, private photographs, scrapbooks and albums from camp to overseas, drawings, and memorabilia that represent their perspectives as Nisei soldiers from behind barbed wire. Other featured objects such as dog tags, patches, medals, daily reports, POW tags, banners, flags shall illustrate their unique encounters with their combatants of Japanese, German and Italian descent, as well as their special relationships as liberators of the French, Filipino and Okinawan people.
277 new entries into the online database representing 304 WWII artifacts have been uploaded.
We gratefully acknowledge the participation of the following individuals and institutions in creating this website:
USF Museum Studies Program Class of 2018:
Catherine Armstrong Jamie Blankenship
Jennifer Cha Michael Reyes
USF Museum Studies Program Class of 2019:
Lauren Dillon
USF Museum Studies Program Class of 2020:
Chloe Clouse Sarah Wehlage
NJAHS Interns:
Nathaniel Yu
