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Japanese American National Museum
- Museum
- In Los Angeles, California
- 1.0 mi from Route 66
The Japanese American National Museum stands in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, CA, less than a mile off the old road. Founded in 1992, it preserves the culture and history of Japanese Americans, reaching back more than 130 years to the first generation of immigrants, the Issei. It is a Smithsonian Affiliate. For Route 66 travelers, it adds another community's story to the history of the West Coast.
What is Japanese American National Museum?
The museum works as both a gallery and an archive. Its collections include oral histories, photographs, textiles, art and other artifacts that record Japanese American life across generations.
One of its most unusual holdings is a film archive. It keeps more than 100,000 feet of home movies on 8 mm and 16 mm film, shot by and about Japanese Americans between the 1920s and the 1950s. Those everyday scenes of family, work and community give a personal view that official records rarely capture.
History of Japanese American National Museum
The museum was founded in 1992 in Little Tokyo, the historic Japanese American neighborhood near downtown. It belongs to the Smithsonian Affiliations program, which links it with the national museum network. That affiliation is a mark of the museum's standing among American history institutions.
Its home movies are cared for with help from the Academy Film Archive. A dedicated collection under the museum's name, begun in 1992, holds more than 250 home movies at the Academy and keeps growing. Together, the two institutions make these films available to researchers and the public.
Visiting Japanese American National Museum: tips
Allow about two hours. Admission is charged, so check the museum's website before you go.
Little Tokyo sits close to the city's other history museums. The Chinese American Museum is about 0.4 miles away, and LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes and the Italian American Museum of Los Angeles are each about 0.5 miles away, so a full day of walking between them is easy to plan.
Practical info
- Address
- 100 North Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012
- Phone
- +1 213-625-0414
- Website
- janm.org
- Hours
- Tu-We 11:00-17:00, Th 11:00-20:00; Fr-Su 11:00-17:00, Mo off
- On site & nearby
Sources: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Wikidata · official site — may be outdated. Suggest a fix
Where to eat near Japanese American National Museum
All diners on Route 66 →
On the map
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Stops near Japanese American National Museum
All of California
0.4 mi from Japanese American National Museum
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0.5 mi from Japanese American National Museum
0.5 mi from Japanese American National Museum
0.7 mi from Japanese American National Museum
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0.7 mi from Japanese American National Museum
0.7 mi from Japanese American National Museum
Questions about Japanese American National Museum
Where is the Japanese American National Museum?
In Little Tokyo, near downtown Los Angeles, less than a mile off the old Route 66 corridor.
Is the Japanese American National Museum part of the Smithsonian?
It is a Smithsonian Affiliate, part of the Smithsonian Affiliations program.
Own or run Japanese American National Museum? Send us a photo or a correction.