Image credits: The included photos are U.S. Navy Official Photos located at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. The photos depict the processing and loading of the M.S. Gripsholm at the Port of New Jersey/New York on September 2, 1943.
Iritani joins Densho Senior Development and Communications Manager Jennifer Noji to discuss the book’s revelations, how it complicates prevailing narratives about wartime incarceration, and why this history remains urgently relevant today.
Read the full conversation online at densho.org/catalyst
Simultaneously, the U.S. government was incarcerating Japanese Americans at home. The book sheds light on the painful choices faced by families behind barbed wire, the debates over “repatriation,” and the lesser-known role of Japanese Latin Americans who were brought to the U.S. as bargaining chips.
Through the stories of diplomats, community leaders, and families—including Densho Content Director Brian Niiya’s family—Iritani traces how international treaties and diplomatic norms were tested as the U.S. government sought to rescue Americans captured across the Pacific.
Evelyn Iritani’s new book, Safe Passage, uncovers a little-known chapter of World War II history: the secret negotiations and perilous sea voyages that led to the exchange of thousands of American and Japanese civilians.
Thousands of American and Japanese civilians were exchanged by sea during World War II—but few people know this story.
We look forward to seeing how new creative works can deepen public understanding, foster healing, and spark meaningful dialogue in this moment.
Apply now: belredartsdistrict.org/stories/dens...
🗓 Residency dates: May 1–July 31, 2026
📍 Location: Fully funded private studio at BelRed Arts Studio in Bellevue
🎨 Eligibility: Career-level artists in the Greater Seattle Area (preferably Eastside), working in any medium
⏰ Deadline: April 3, 2026 at 11:59 PM PT
Before incarceration, 70 Japanese American family farms shaped the Eastside landscape. This residency honors that legacy while asking artists to connect these histories to urgent issues today: racial injustice, civil liberties, and the experiences of immigrant and marginalized communities.
This residency invites artists to engage deeply with the history of Bellevue’s Japanese American community—who made up 15% of the city’s population and 90% of its agricultural industry before World War II—and who were unjustly incarcerated alongside more than 125,000 others across the West Coast.
Announcing Densho’s Artist-in-Residence Program!
We’re thrilled to relaunch our Artist-in-Residence Program in partnership with the BelRed Arts District Community Alliance.
By preserving and sharing stories like hers, Densho ensures that the racial logic underlying this grave injustice is not erased or forgotten.
Your support helps keep these stories accessible for future generations. Please consider making a gift today: densho.donorsupport.co/-/XNXLLTQD
The dehumanizing ideas taught to a young soldier were part of the same system that allowed families to be imprisoned behind barbed wire because of their ancestry.
Mutsu Homma’s testimony makes clear how racism was not incidental but foundational to the unjust incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Over time, she says, his view began to shift: “You people look like a human being, and you people [are] all wearing beautiful clothes.”
The soldier explains that he “came from South Carolina, [and there] they said that [a] J*p is not a human being. They are like a gorilla, so if you want to, kill them. That’s what I [learned] when I came.”
She recalls that this soldier was a young guard and that his question stemmed from what he was told upon arriving at Amache.
For the fifth installment of our “30 Stories for 30 Years” series, Mutsu Homma reflects on her time at Amache (Granada) and an encounter she never forgot: a soldier’s question, “Are you a human being?”
4) Black-and-white photograph of several Japanese American men outdoors on a dirt field. One man in the foreground runs forward while others behind him duck and shield themselves, possibly reacting to a thrown object. Trees and a vehicle are visible in the background.
3) Black-and-white photograph of two boys practicing boxing with an instructor observing behind them. They are practicing outside, and the boys are wearing boxing gloves. At the time of the photo, one boy lands a punch on the other’s jaw.
2) Black-and-white portrait of two Japanese American men standing side by side outdoors in front of a house. They wear light-colored suits with suspenders, straw boater hats, and large floral boutonnieres pinned to their shirts. One rests his arm on the other’s shoulder as both face the camera.
Image descriptions:
1) Black-and-white photograph of a Japanese American father on hands and knees on a lawn, with two young children sitting on his back. The children wear light-colored dresses and smile toward the camera. A hat rests on the grass beside them, and leafy bushes fill the background.
Densho is deeply grateful to be entrusted with family archives that preserve these histories. Together, these images remind us of what was disrupted, and what endures.
In this second installment, we highlight three photographs that offer a glimpse into life before World War II in Japanese immigrant and Japanese American communities. They capture moments of family, belonging, and everyday life before everything changed.
Together, these 30 objects hold memory and meaning: the lived experiences of those who endured incarceration and the ongoing commitment of those who work to preserve their stories.
Each was chosen for its particular resonance: some for their historical significance, offering vivid snapshots of Japanese American life before, during, and after World War II; others for their special connection to Densho’s own history, including materials from our earliest collections.
In honor of Densho’s 30th anniversary, Densho staff selected 30 of their favorite objects from the Densho Digital Repository (DDR).
This historian's Bluesky handle is @selenammoon.bsky.social
Currently, researching disabled and mixed-race Japanese Americans during WWII incarceration. Includes the link densho.org/catalyst.
4) Graphic titled “About the Historian” with a headshot of Selena Moon; photo courtesy of Selena Moon. Text provides a brief introduction: she is a disabled public historian and writer based in Minnesota and a PhD student in American Studies at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities . . .
