Cultivating Community: The Essential Role of Intergenerational Relationships in Culturally Specific Museums

ABSTRACT

This article delves into the vital role played by intergenerational, cultural, and social relationships in the work of museum educators at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM). It highlights the relational exchanges among different generations of staff and volunteers. These relationships not only facilitate the intergenerational transfer of Japanese American history and culture, but they also help to cultivate a sense of community and shared experience. This case study underscores that these relationships not only contribute to the professional growth of museum educators, but also foster a community-centric approach to history education and the preservation of cultural heritage. The authors further emphasize the distinct organizational culture at JANM, characterized by care, familial connections, and mutual support. Through the cultivation of relationships and shared cultural traditions, an enriching environment is created at the museum that enhances the work of its educators and provides a richer experience for visitors.

KEYWORDS:

• Japanese American
• intergenerational relationships
• community
• cultural heritage
• culturally specific museums

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Okmin, “What Is the Job of a Culturally-Specific Museum?”

2 Brown et al., “Desegregating Conversations about Race.”

3 Bailey, “The Activist Spectrum in United States.”

4 Bunning, “Ethnic Heritage for the Nation.”

5 Kikumura-Yano, Hirabayashi, and Hirabayashi, Common Ground.

6 Densho is a nonprofit organization and community archives dedicated to preserving, documenting, and sharing the histories of the Japanese American wartime incarceration.

7 Omoiyari is the Japanese word for compassionate empathy or “altruistic sensitivity.” Hara characterizes this as an “intuitive understanding of others’ feelings that will occasionally lead us to conceive what to do or what not to do to others” (Hara, “The Concept of Omoiyari,” 27).

8 Smith, Emotional Heritage.

9 Interview with author Yamasaki, 2023.

10 Kawamura, “Intergenerational Transfer of Nikkei Memory.”

11 Ibid.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Naomi Ostwald Kawamura

Naomi Ostwald Kawamura is the Executive Director of Densho, a community archives and public history organization that preserves and shares the history of the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans. Prior to Densho, Naomi worked at the San Diego History Center, BAVC Media, and the Museum of Children’s Art. She holds a master’s degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and is a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia. Her doctoral research focuses on cultural memory practices at the Japanese American National Museum and the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

Lynn Yamasaki

Lynn Yamasaki is Director of Education at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) in Los Angeles. She has been with JANM since 2007. She has worked on the development and implementation of student experiences and education for teachers and families in support of museum content and exhibitions at JANM and its National Center for the Preservation of Democracy. Prior to her time at JANM, she spent several years in Education and Programs at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC.