National Museum of American History

Portrait of Anna May Wong. Wong wears a yellow dress and gazes to the side of the frame. She delicately holds a red folding fan behind her head.

Anna May Wong's Long Journey From Hollywood to the Smithsonian

Anna May Wong built a remarkable career, she became a legendary style icon.

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Answering Your Five Biggest Questions About American Sushi

How was sushi adapted to make it appealing to the American palate? And what does the government have to do with sushi?

Engraved cooking pan

Fall in Love With These October Events

Chilly weather got you down? Step inside and experience food history, fast cars, beer tasting, chamber music, and more this October!

Girlhood (It’s complicated) opened to the public on October 9, 2020. Artwork by Krystal Quiles for NMAH.

Why Did the Smithsonian Create an Exhibit About Girlhood?

The museum had a bold new idea—it was going to create an exhibition about girlhood

Alice Tetsuko Kono in her Women's Army Corps uniform, around 1943 (NMAH)

Why Japanese American Alice Tetsuko Kono Joined the WAC During World War II

Japanese-American Alice Tetsuko Kono served a country that considered her an "enemy alien" and enlisted with the Women's Army Corps during WWII

This black metal suitcase belonged to Iku Tsuchiya. It went with her to Tanforan Assembly Center, then to the Topaz camp, and back home to San Leandro, California. (NMAH)

What Happened to Japanese American Houses During Incarceration?

As the federal government evicted and incarcerated Japanese American citizens living in the western United States, their homes were neglected, ransacked, and looted

While held at the Poston camp in Arizona, Yasu Takei made this one-thousand-stitch sash to bestow good luck and protection to her son Jim Kuichi Takei, who was fighting with the 442nd in Europe. (NMAH)

Memories of Japanese Incarceration Camps Remind Us That Our Freedoms Are Fragile

Seventy-nine years ago, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. For years afterward, people like my grandmother were forced to live behind barbed wire, under the gaze of armed guards.

The all-star team from Gila River (Arizona) that played at Heart Mountain (Wyoming). Tetsuo Furukawa is in the top row, fourth from the right. (NMAH)

Baseball Behind Barbed Wire

Prisoners in WWII Japanese incarceration camps were still American, and took part in baseball, the great American pastime

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