November 23, 2024 - Saturday - Today we were in Los Angeles to visit the Japanese American National Museum. Their current exhibit is called "Contested Histories" that is a collection of art and artifacts made by Japanese Americans during their World War II incarceration. Their program literature states: "During World War II, Japanese Americans incarcerated in America's concentration camps demonstrated their resilience, ingenuity, and creativity, from crafting necessities like furniture and tools to creating works of art."
It is a very impressive collection of artifacts considering that the incarcerees arrived at the camps with nothing, no tools, and no materials to work with. However, against all odds, they created. Today was a special day at the museum because they are going to remodel their main exhibit, Common Ground, that has been here for 26 years.
This is an actual barracks housing the Japanese Americans in a Wyoming camp.
It's a great exhibit and it drew a large crowd today. Upon exiting the museum we could see the newly painted mural of Shohei Ohtani overlooking the Little Tokyo Tower.
Before the museum, we had lunch at Philippe the Original.
We had our usual order here today. Two French dip beef sandwiches, "wet." Wet means each slice of the bun is dipped in the beef juice, so it's dripping. Potato salad, pickled egg for me, and two lemonades completed the order. Plus one custard pudding for dessert.
