Japanese American National Museum Reopens Jan. 23
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| Rendering of first-floor core exhibition galleries, Japanese American National Museum |
The Japanese American National Museum has announced its reopening date: Jan. 23, 2027. A two-year refresh has improved and expanded exhibition space, allowing for larger temporary shows. First up will be "Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi and Mine' Okubo." Organized by JANM, the show debuted at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Feb. 2024 and has traveled to Washington, Philadelphia, and Monterey.
JANM's 160,000-piece collection is said to be the largest archive of Japanese-American material anywhere.
Comments
I wonder to what extent, if any, the Trump White House will have whitewashed the barbarous history of that community's experience in this country, via the museum's program.
What say the museum: Have you been yellowwashed? Is that an offensive expression? If yes, it is unintended.
The internment of Americans of Japanese descent in 1942 and other signs of unscrupulous behavior decades ago crossed ironic, interesting cultural, political lines. Some of the same trends are evident in 2026, but not in the way they may be framed, referring to conventional wisdom.
Google AI:
In a series of columns written for the Georgia Warm Springs Center in the 1920s, FDR explicitly stated his opposition to the "mingling of Asiatic blood with European or American blood." He claimed that in "nine cases out of ten," such unions produced "the most unfortunate results"—a common eugenics-based prejudice of that era. [End quote]
Google/AI:
[Jesse] Owens remarked, "Hitler didn't snub me—it was [Roosevelt] who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram.
"'Political Context: Owens was a registered Republican and actively campaigned against FDR during the 1936 presidential election. [End quote]
TimesofIsrael .com:
“Roosevelt used almost identical language in recommending that the Jews and the Japanese be forcibly ‘spread thin’ around the country,” [Rafael] Medoff told The Times of Israel. “I was struck by the similarity between the language FDR used regarding the Japanese, and that which he used in private concerning Jews — that they can’t be trusted, they won’t ever become fully loyal Americans, they’ll try to dominate wherever they go.”
During the 1920s, when Roosevelt was already a seasoned politician and a vice presidential candidate, he expressed racist views in editorials and interviews. Regarding new immigrants — and Asians in particular — he bemoaned the creation of ethnic “colonies” in major cities. [End quote]
^ Such ironies and contradictions are another version of both rubes and sophisticates favoring Govan's-Zumthor's LACMA and both rubes and sophisticates dismissing Govan's-Zumthor's LACMA.
As it turns out, he was way more of a rube than generally assumed. He should have known better too. What he did and the way he thought have been dealt with by museums (of art, history and even science) exactly in what manner?
Switching from a museum in downtown LA to a museum several miles west on Wilshire Blvd: A guy presumably skilled in the arts (and aesthetics too?) and who manages a supposedly major museum shouldn't be such a rube either. However, I'll give him credit for not turning off people like the following:
Romi Cortier, Facebook (L.A. and Beyond Architecture and Art Tours):
My sister and I went today. I wasn’t prepared to love it so much!! It made me emotional a few times. The pastels colors of the arts and crafts period stood out against the concrete in a way I couldn’t imagine.
And my sister made a really good point: because it’s not all square rooms, your eyes don’t get tired. You can look out at the vistas and organic shapes, and then come back to the art.
Her burn out period is about an hour… and 90 minutes in we were still loving it. There was also a moment that I could look in three different directions, which was very captivating. I loved the gilded frames against the flat concrete walls, I felt like I was forced to examine the frame even further. [End quote]
Of the major art museums in America (much less the world), how many generate the controversy that LACMA has received?
Rube.
Quite seriously, Ted, your comments have the maturity of a hick.