Our Vision.
Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages is dedicated to honoring our shared history while building bridges to our collective future through digital storytelling, educational content, and community connection. We amplify and uplift Nikkei voices across generations, ensuring that our diverse stories, experiences, and perspectives are heard, valued, and preserved through online platforms, in-person events, and collaborative programming.
We create engaging digital content and host meaningful in-person events that inspire and engage youth, fostering their active participation in our community's ongoing narrative. We believe that every young person holds the power to shape our future while honoring our past, and we meet them where they are through accessible online experiences and community gatherings.
Our work centers on reconnecting and strengthening the Japanese American community that was fractured by the trauma of World War II incarceration. Through virtual gatherings, digital archives, and educational in-person events, we create spaces for healing, understanding, and unity, bringing together families and individuals whose bonds were disrupted by historical injustice.
As proud supporters of the broader Japanese American community, we elevate and share the important work of fellow organizations, amplifying their events and initiatives to strengthen our collective impact and reach.
We proudly affirm that everyone is welcome in our community. We embrace all who seek to learn, contribute, and belong. Our community is strengthened by its diversity and enriched by every person who joins our journey.
Through digital storytelling, educational programming, and community collaboration, we ensure that our history informs a more just and inclusive future for all.
The guiding principle for our work is drawn from the art of Kintsugi. By accepting the flaws and traumas inherent in each of us and in our communities, by mending the breaks and transforming them into something stronger, accepting the fractures as part of our history, we can truly heal from the pain of our past. As broken pots are mended, they become stronger. The fractures are incorporated as unique features that contribute to the beauty of the object. By accepting our flaws, our pain, we too can become stronger and more beautiful.
The art of Kintsugi teaches us that as we cherish the objects in our lives, we should also cherish ourselves. The ugliest, most painful parts of us can become the most beautiful, but only if we accept those parts for what they are, put in the work to mend them, and incorporate them as part of our story. The goal is not to change the fractures, to mask them or cover them up, but to highlight them as a part of what makes us unique. As a community, we have been fractured, pieces scattered to all corners of the earth, but by collecting those pieces and remaking them into a cohesive community, we will become whole again. The breaks become the strongest parts once we take the time to heal them properly.