Japan » Locality Specific

California Japantowns

Digital information about the towns where Japanese Americans lived. Through this website, we hope to engage new audiences and educate visitors about the historic legacies of Japantowns, or Nihonmachis, across the state. We introduce you to the vibrant communities of the three remaining Japantowns in California and the results of Preserving California

FamilySearch - Japan Village Records, 709-1982 ^FREE

A collection of village records from all localities in Japan. Browse by locality, beginning with the Prefecture of interest, then County/City or Town/Village, then by Record Type. Record types can include: Religious Inquisition Censuses (shumoncho), Tax records, Financial records, Buddhist records, Shinto records and Registers of officials and employees. Records will be added as they become available. Click on the locality of interest to see records from that area.

Japanese Canadian History

Historical information about the Japanese Canadian experience.

Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai

Archival collections, oral histories, historic photos. Catalog is searchable online. Some translation services available.

Japantown Atlas

The Japantown Atlas maps nearly two dozen communities in California where Japanese Americans lived and worked prior to World War II. Drawing from historic maps, business directories, and photos, we show a variety of Japantowns as they existed in 1940. Our project both memorializes the Issei (first generation Japanese immigrants) in their first 20-50 years in America - the businesses, churches and schools they established - and documents the hometowns that 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were forced to leave behind during their incarceration in "Assembly Centers" and "Internment Camps" during World War II (1942-1946).

Okinawan Genealogical Resources

Searchable database of over 50,000 Okinawans who emigrated to over 29 countries around the world between 1900 and 1926. Contents: emigrant names, birth dates, passport numbers, travel dates, addresses, and destination countries. The original kanji source data has been translated to English.

Okinawan Genealogical Resources

This is a database of over 50,000 Okinawans who emigrated to over 29 countries around the world from 1900 to 1937.

SEDAI: The Japanese Canadian Legacy Project

Site contains many oral histories, photographs, archival material related to the Japanese Canadian experience.