Donate
Donate to the Collection
The Japanese American History Archive (JAHA) is a special community archive that focuses on pre-war Japanese American life from (1880s - 1942), primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area.
This wonderful repository shares a firsthand account of the early Issei life. It describes how Japanese American families built farms, businesses, churches, clubs, and neighborhoods across this region and beyond.
Why donate?
Sadly, many people, both within our community and beyond it, have never had the chance to learn what it took to build the community and institutions we have today. Without this knowledge, part of our history risks going unrecognized and, eventually, forgotten.
Please help us close this gap.
You may have a document, letter, photograph, or object at home that you’ve always wondered about. Perhaps it’s written in a style of Japanese you’ve never seen before. Not knowing where to begin can feel overwhelming, but you don’t have to figure it out alone.
If you reside in the San Francisco Bay Area, we’d be happy to visit you in person. We can also arrange a FaceTime or Zoom visit with TIHC staff. Together, we can help you understand what you have: its context, its historical significance, and its place in history.
If you believe your items fall within the scope of our community archive, you may choose to donate them to our digital repository, so others can see, use, and appreciate them while the originals stay with you. We follow established standards for archival digitization, creating high-resolution files for your family to keep.
Your materials don’t need to be in perfect condition. We can stabilize and rehouse your materials safely before returning them to you, if that’s what you decide is best for your collection.
What we accept:
Japanese American History Archive-Community Collection
Textual records, (e.g. documents, letters, association records, business records, government records, autograph albums, (e.g. ledgers, postcards, letters, receipts, newsletters) etc.
Photographs (e.g. negatives, albums, and microfiche).
Oral histories, memoirs, diaries, journals, family history publications, etc.
Audio and video recordings, (e.g. home movies, microfilm, audio/video by or about Japanese/Japanese Americans)
Artwork by Japanese/Japanese Americans
Objects, (e.g. items that relate to the experiences of our community before World War II; industry items; household items; handmade items; clothing and kimono, etc.).
Ephemera, (e.g. menus, advertisements, travel documents, recipes, handwritten notes).
Seizo Oka Reference Library
Publications by Japanese/Japanese American authors.
Publications about Japanese/Japanese American history, heritage, arts, culture.
Publications about Japanese diaspora communities.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’d be happy to talk with you and plan whatever approach feels right for you and your collection.
We are interested in almost anything from the pre-war period in all forms. If you’re unsure whether something belongs in the collection, reach out and ask. A single item can reveal far more than it appears to at first glance.
Ledger donated from the Okamura Family. CCD_OKU_0005, Japanese American History Archive-Community Collection.
Ledger donated from the Okamura Family. CCD_OKU_0005, Japanese American History Archive-Community Collection.
A Koseki 戸籍 (family registry) donated by John M. and Vickie Yumoto, CCD_KIM_Box1_0047, Japanese American History Archives-Community Collection.
A Koseki 戸籍 (family registry) donated by John M. and Vickie Yumoto, CCD_KIM_Box1_0047, Japanese American History Archives-Community Collection.
A wedding photo of Kimiye Okamura and Sam Masami Ono, 1938, donated by the Matoba, Ono, and Okamura Family. CCD_MAT_1938_0001, Japanese American History Archive-Community Collection.
A wedding photo of Kimiye Okamura and Sam Masami Ono, 1938, donated by the Matoba, Ono, and Okamura Family. CCD_MAT_1938_0001, Japanese American History Archive-Community Collection.
Physical and/or Digital Inclusion
Donors can choose how their materials are kept.
Physical Inclusion:
Materials donated to our collection are housed in our climate-controlled facility, which maintains stable temperature and low humidity to slow deterioration and protect fragile paper and photographic materials. Donors find more comfort in their collection being stored safely in an archive safe space where your materials will be regularly checked on for its well-being and restoration needs.
Digital Inclusion:
If you’d like your original materials returned to you, we can create digital copies and keep them in our online repository. This gives your family access to the material and makes it available to researchers and community members, while the originals stay with you. We will let you know after dropping off, the condition of your items, and how we suggest you continue to best preserve your items at home.
Digitization Service
Once we’ve assessed and digitized your items, we’ll send you a link to download your digital files. You’ll receive two versions of each file: high-resolution TIFF files, the standard format for long-term digital preservation, and JPEG or PDF copies that are easier to open, print, and share with family.
Digitization is free of charge. If you’d prefer to receive your files on a USB flash drive instead of a download link, we just ask that you provide or cover the cost of the drive.
Metadata creation service:
TIHC staff can create a metadata record for your collection, a detailed inventory that describes each item. This makes it easy to search your materials by year, name, or subject for years to come.
If your materials include Japanese text, whether printed or handwritten, TIHC staff can transcribe the original Japanese and provide an English translation. We’ll add both to your inventory spreadsheet, so you can read and search your documents in either language.
TIHC uses a combination of text-recognition software and careful review by our staff to transcribe the original Japanese and provide an English translation.
We recommend this service if your collection includes more than 10 documents in Japanese (printed or handwritten), or more than 20 documents in any language.
Metadata services with OCR: $25, flat fee
Metadata service w/o OCR: $15, flat fee
Donation Pick-Up
We want to make donating as easy as possible.
We offer free pickup anywhere in the SF Bay Area, so you don’t need to transport anything yourself or make a trip to our facility. TIHC staff will coordinate a time and location that works for you.
Remediation and restoring of a JAHA Collection.
Remediation and restoring of a JAHA Collection.
Who uses our Collections?
Currently, the JAHA is only available for closed research. Any personal or sensitive information about your family will be redacted from the public. Some of our collection is published in our quarterly newsletter, our digital collections, and displayed in our annual TIHC Public Talks.
Contact Us
To donate or ask a question, contact jaha@jcccnc.org or call (415) 567-5505 ext. 231.
Tell us briefly what you have, send a photo, and we’ll follow up on best procedures. Let us know if you are a third-party management for a family of a collection, (e.g. attorney, executor, or professional organizer).
Takahashi Issei Heritage Center (TIHC)
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