For more information about the CU Japanese & Japanese American Community History Project, watch this short informational video.

The CU Japanese & Japanese American Community History Project (2019-2022) documented the histories and experiences of Japanese and Japanese American students, faculty and staff on the CU Boulder campus from the university’s founding to the present day. The project was founded in 2019 in honor of the 75th anniversary of the end of Japanese American incarceration in the United States and was led by Megan K. Friedel (Assistant Professor/Head of Archives) and Adam Lisbon (Assistant Professor/Japanese and Korean Studies Librarian) in the University Libraries, with the support of other Libraries personnel.

Between 2019-2022, Friedel and Lisbon worked with undergraduate students to connect with current students, alumni, and former faculty and staff from CU’s Japanese and Japanese American communities and local community organizations affiliated with CU.  The purpose of this project was to document the wide array of experiences that this community has had at our university for over one hundred years, through unique primary sources such as oral histories and photos, letters, diaries, ephemera, and other archival items. The student team researched the collections of the University Libraries’ Archives to locate and make publicly accessible “hidden” materials documenting this story.  They also solicited donations of new archival materials from the community to add to the Archives’ collections and conducted original oral histories with community members.  This project is a part of the Archives’ ongoing commitment to document the histories of underrepresented communities on campus.

View digitized materials from the CU Japanese & Japanese American Community History Project on the CU Digital Library!

The project page on the CU Digital Library contains over 240 documents from the Archives, selected by our student team, that document the history of Japanese and Japanese American communities at CU Boulder. In 2021, the project team added 25 original oral histories with community members to the digital collection.

The CU Japanese & Japanese American Community History Project concluded in 2022.  However, if you identify as a member of CU’s Japanese or Japanese American community and would like to donate materials to the Archives or be interviewed for an oral history by the project leads, please contact Megan Friedel, Head of Archives, University of Colorado Boulder Libraries at megan.k.friedel@colorado.edu.

• Oral History Interviews with Community Members

  Additional Info

  Alumni, staff, faculty and other members of CU Boulder's Japanese and Japanese American communities are invited to join the CU Japanese & Japanese American Community History Project by contributing their oral histories. Oral history interviews are led by the project's student employees, under the supervision of faculty project co-lead Adam Lisbon (Japanese & Korean Studies Librarian).

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  Location

  on campus

  Dates

  9/1/2020 - 6/15/2021

  Public or Private

  Public Program (open to the public)

  Program Fee

  No charge to attend/participate in activity or program

• Digitized materials from the CU Japanese & Japanese American Community History Project are available on the CU Digital Library: https://cudl.colorado.edu/luna/servlet/CUB~19~19

  Additional Info

  The "Japanese & Japanese American Community History Project Collection" online on the CU Digital Library will reach over 5,000 people per year, including campus and Colorado community members, as well as out-of-state and international researchers.

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  Location

  on campus

  Dates

  Ongoing

  Public or Private

  Public Program (open to the public)

  Program Fee

  No charge to attend/participate in activity or program

• Oral history interviews available now on the CU Japanese & Japanese American Community History Project digital collection: https://doi.org/10.25810/4kzt-4253

  Additional Info

  25 video and/or audio oral history interviews with alumni and other Japanese and Japanese American community members affiliated with CU, conducted by the project team between Spring 2020 and January 2022. These oral histories are now available online on the CU Digital Library for public viewing and listening: https://doi.org/10.25810/4kzt-4253

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  Location

  online resource

  Dates

  Ongoing

  Public or Private

  Public Program (open to the public)

  Program Fee

  Not Applicable