Brian Niiya

Brian Niiya is a public historian specializing in Japanese American history. Currently the content director for Densho and editor of the online Densho Encyclopedia, he has also held various positions with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, the Japanese American National Museum, and the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i that have involved managing collections, curating exhibitions, and developing public programs, and producing videos, books, and websites. His writings have been published in a wide range of academic, popular, and web-based publications, and he is frequently asked to give presentations or interviews on the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. A "Spoiled Sansei" born and raised in Los Angeles to Nisei parents from Hawai'i, he lived in Hawai'i for over twenty years before returning to Los Angeles in 2017 where he is currently based.

Updated May 2020

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Ask a Historian: How Did Alaska Natives Wind Up Inside Japanese American Concentration Camps?

Por Brian Niiya
13 Feb 2023

Brian Niiya delves into the hidden history of a group of Alaska Natives caught up in the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans in our first “Ask a Historian” entry of 2023 at Densho's Catalyst. * * * * * Janice Sadahiro writes, “I just saw your YouTube video ‘Befriending a Native Alaskan boy in camp.’ I’ve never heard that Alaskan Natives were also sent to camps. Why? What other information do you have about this?” There were two different groups of Alaska Natives who were held in camps during World War II. The first was a group of …

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Two Books That Shine New Light on the Nisei Experience in Japan

Por Brian Niiya
19 Dic 2022

I’ve always thought of myself as a somewhat atypical Sansei in various ways, chief among them, that one of my Nisei parents—my mother in this case—was a bit more “Japanesy” because her family had spent significant time in Japan before, during, and after the war. As a result, I’ve had multiple relatives in Japan that I’ve kept in touch with, including my mother’s eldest brother, a Nisei born and raised in Hawai`i, who was involuntarily conscripted into the Japanese army during World War II, lost his US citizenship as a result, and lived out his l…

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Horse Stall Housing, Spoiled Ham, and Other Stories of Life in Tanforan - Part 2

Por Brian Niiya, Jonathan van Harmelen
5 Dic 2022

Read Part 1 >> Nisei Collegians Given its urban population and proximity to Bay Area colleges, it is likely that there was a higher concentration of college students at Tanforan than at most other “assembly centers.” Though most were not immediately able to continue their education, there were a few who were able to leave Tanforan to attend college—and thus avoid going to a WRA concentration camp—often with the assistance of the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council, which formed at the end of May 1942. Among them were former UC Berk…

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Horse Stall Housing, Spoiled Ham, and Other Stories of Life in Tanforan - Part 1

Por Brian Niiya, Jonathan van Harmelen
4 Dic 2022

The second largest of the so-called “assembly centers” with a peak population of 7,816, Tanforan was built on the site of the Tanforan Racetrack in San Bruno, California, near the present site of the San Francisco International Airport. Its inmate population arrived in late April and early May 1942, and came almost entirely from the San Francisco Bay area and was thus among the most urban of the short-term camps. Essentially the entire inmate population was transferred to the Topaz, Utah, concentration camp in September 1942. It is now the site of a shopping center and BART stati…

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African American images on a Nikkei Canvas: Black Characters in Japanese American Literature - Part 4

Por Greg Robinson, Brian Niiya
13 Feb 2022

Read Part 3 >> For the next twenty years, there was little in the way of Japanese American literature that included any mention of African Americans, even as more Japanese American writers began to be published. One notable exception comes in a trilogy of plays by Velina Hasu Houston that follow the lives of Creed and Setsuko Banks. Asa Ga Kimashita (Morning Has Broken) (1981), the first play in the series, is set in Ehime, Japan in 1945–46. It follows the Shimada family, whose members struggle to adapt to the new realities of a defeated Japan and American occupation. The buddi…