Reviewed by Jeffrey A. Ow | Reviews | Journal of American Ethnic History, 27.1

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Reviewed by Jeffrey A. Ow | Reviews | Journal of American Ethnic History, 27.1 | The History Cooperative

Reviews

*Common Ground: The Japanese American National Museum and the Culture of Collaborations*. Edited by Akemi Kikumura-Yano, Lane Ryo Hirabayashi, and James A. Hirabayashi. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2005. viii + 227 pp. Maps, photographs, notes, and index. $45.00 (cloth); $24.95 (paper).
Asian American museums and historical sites have only recently received national recognition despite the long presence of Asians in the Americas. In 1985 and 1996 respectively, the Japanese internment camp at Manzanar and the Angel Island Immigration Station became National Historic Landmarks after decades of community campaigns. Within this context, the proactive establishment of a national museum celebrating Japanese American social history merits special attention. Common Ground: The Japanese American National Museum and the Culture of Collaborations is a rare collection offering seventeen different, yet interlocking perspectives on the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) in Los Angeles's Little Tokyo. The authors are museum staff, trustees, consultants, scholars, and affiliated others who emphasize multi-ethnic collaboration in the planning, implementation, and maintenance of the museum. The details of these collaborative projects provide an excellent institutional history of JANM, including specific strategies applicable to others working in the museum industries.	1
How can the social history of Japanese Americans be honored, preserved, and exhibited to interest non-Japanese without diluting the specificity of the community? This anthology's first section, "The National Museum: Mission and Leadership," provides some answers through six essays describing the goals of the museum and its fund-raising and outreach strategies. JANM conscientiously "builds community" by working collaboratively on projects that emphasize shared experiences, a paradigm that moves the museum beyond specifics of Japanese American experiences to highlight cross-ethnic narratives: resentments during periods of war or social upheaval, daily life in immigrant enclaves, sports narratives, and ethnic foodways.	. . .

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