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National Museum of American History

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Mark Your Calendar: Black History Month, Exhibits, Jazz and More at the National Museum of American History

This February at the museum, we're celebrating a new season of the podcast, commemorating Black History Month, and listening to some jazz. Check out the calendar to find out what's going on this month!

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These Astounding Relics From the Omaha Beach Battle Tell The Story of D-Day 80 Years Later

A jacket, coin and letter reveal what life was like for the brave soldiers who turned the tide of World War II on the Western Front

Hand-stitched American flag

How This WWII Flag Fulfilled a General's Dying Wish

Private José Quintero struggled to create this flag in secret while held as a prisoner of war during World War II

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Maggie of the Boondocks

In the Mekong Delta, there was nobody who could pick up your spirits like USO girl Martha Raye

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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