Japanese American Resource Center/Museum, California, United States

5The_Chez 5:00 PM Apr 18, 2015

A Must for Japanese History
We visited here on a Sunday, arriving at 1pm, just in time for Rich to start his tour-led guide around the museum. This man is a genius, he said at the start that the tours takes about an hour. It was 4pm when we left and all we did was the tour with Rich. He is amazing and brought the whole history of Japantown, Japanese way of life and world war two treatment of Japanese in America to life. The way it was brought to life meant you could almost feel what it was like to be there, you were able to understand things that would simply have passed you by if you had just gone around the museum by yourself. Rich didn't rush any part of the museum and had time for each and every question no matter how big or small. The museum itself looks small, but holds a lot of powerful, educational information and artifacts. There are also further outside displays behind the museum. We loved this museum, it is 100% worth the small entry price. If you get to tour with Rich you will be in for a treat. We got so much from the museum and are so glad we fitted in time for it. Just make sure you give yourself plenty of time as you wouldn't want to cut this tour short.

5rasillon 5:00 PM Sep 1, 2014

You can hate museums and love this place
Short story: Walk in and get a tour guide who will structure the tour to your request. You can look without a guide if you wish. Suggestion: Get a guide. Our guide, Rich Saito (I think) led our group of four; we massively enjoyed the tour even though it was educational. Although TripAdvisor wants a long explanation I cannot because the tour is adapted to your group and the guide's knowledge. You will learn the strengths of the American-Japanese and how they have added to the meaning of being an American. Objects in the museum: things brought on the trip to California from Japan, objects and photographs of early San Jose Japan town, an impressive display of the hard work of American-Japanese farmers with innovative farm machines galore, a reconstruction of housing in the internment camps, uniforms and stories of the most decorated unit in U.S. military history (the all Japanese 442nd)