Sharing the Stories: Documenting Japanese American Confinement and Northern Baptists’ Response

The Problem:

• Our society is confronting questions of history, remembering and sometimes mis-remembering; race-based violence is on the rise. 
• ¨Many Americans know little about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the work of Northern Baptists to assist internees.
• The individuals for whom the events of the 1940s are living memory are elderly.  As this generation dies, we lose their memories, their voices interpreting these events, and possibly even the documentation of their experiences.

Our Project:

• ¨ABHS will digitize the records in its collections that are related to the experiences of Japanese Americans during the World War II years;
• We invite families and churches to add their materials to a digital collection by participating in a Community Scanning Day;
  Seattle: late May
  Los Angeles area: June 20-24
• ¨Digitized records will be preserved through an active digital preservation program.

The Outcome:

• Increased access for researchers, via an easily-accessed, digital collection of records that will be searchable in the ABHS online catalog;
• An online exhibit where the public can learn about the historical context of Japanese American internment and the lived experience of internees, as well as Northern Baptist work on behalf of Japanese Americans;
• A traveling exhibit that can be used by congregations for their own educational programs.