LOS ANGELES — Inside the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo, children sat with picture books, made bracelets and listened to stories that carried the weight of history in language meant for them.
The museum hosted its second Nikkei Children’s Book Festival, a day devoted to children’s literature, Japanese American identity and the stories families pass from one generation to the next.
“This is our Nikkei Children’s Book Festival,” said Joy Yamaguchi, director of public programs at JANM. “It’s our second time that we’ve done this event, but it’s just our day celebrating all things children’s literature and the Japanese American community.”
The festival brought together families, authors and community partners, including the Los Angeles County Library and Discover Nikkei. Tables were filled with books, crafts and activities. Children flipped through stories about family, sports, identity and the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans.
Yamaguchi said the festival is part of a larger effort to make Japanese American stories visible to children who might not otherwise encounter them in school or at home.
“There weren’t a lot of stories about Japanese Americans, about Asian Americans, even about people of color or any other kind of marginalized identities,” Yamaguchi said. “A lot of our authors are really working to make sure that those stories are being told now.”
For Russell and Joyce Chung, the event was more than a family outing. They brought their granddaughter Olivia to the museum to help connect her with a history that shaped their family.
“My wife, her family was interned,” Russell Chung said. “And so to bring our granddaughter here to share that story, I think it’s very important.”
Joyce Chung said the visit was meaningful because of her family’s direct connection to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Some images in the museum, the couple said, came from her family.
“Sometimes we’re not going to be here forever,” Russell Chung said. “But if you have something that is going to provide the memories and the history, what the truth is, it’s extremely important.”
Joyce Chung said her parents rarely spoke about what happened. Her father served in the military while her mother’s family was incarcerated. She said the silence around that history made events like the festival even more important for younger generations.
“When you think about it, it was such a horrific time in history, but it wasn’t really that long ago,” Russell Chung said. “It’s sad what you see today, and you go, are we going backwards? We’re supposed to step forward.”
Yamaguchi said picture books can help children approach painful history through emotion before policy. She recalled one child asking whether a character in a book ever saw his dog again after being sent to camp.
“It’s such a heartbreaking question because the answer is no,” Yamaguchi said. “He didn’t ever see his dog again.”
For Yamaguchi, that question showed how children understand separation and loss even when they are too young to grasp the full history.
“They could say, what is this expression that’s on this face? How are they feeling?” she said. “And being able to talk about that maybe instead of a fact or a history lesson.”
The festival also included authors writing new stories for children who have long been underrepresented in books. One children’s book author said representation was central to his work.
“One of the main things I feel like is for representation, Japanese American representation, which is important, and girl power,” he said. “I wanted to also show that girls do sports and can also be graceful.”
Around the festival, families moved between tables, activities and conversations. Some children paused over books. Others held hands with grandparents or leaned into adults reading aloud. The moments were small, but the purpose was larger: to give children a way into stories that many families once carried quietly.
Yamaguchi said the museum’s work continues even as JANM’s galleries are closed forrenovation. Public programs are still being held, and the museum plans to reopen at the end of the year with a new core exhibition.
For the children at the festival, history arrived through pages, pictures and family voices. For their parents and grandparents, the books offered a way to begin conversations that silence once made difficult.
