A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans & the U.S. Constitution

During World War II, approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans were forced out of their homes and placed in detention camps established by the U.S. government. A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution, a Web site for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, explores a period in U.S. history when racial prejudice and fear upset the delicate balance between the rights of citizens and the power of the state. It tells the story of Japanese Americans who suffered a great injustice at the hands of the government, and who have struggled ever since to correct this violation of civil liberties guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Site visitors experience the story through interactive galleries comprised of photographs, artifacts, and oral histories from the Smithsonian collection. In addition, visitors can search an online database of more than 800 artifacts from the collection, submit memories and responses to the site, and link to more resources and classroom materials. The heart of this online exhibition is the Story Experience, which features hundreds of items from the Smithsonian’s collection along 30 “gallery walls” within the site. The presentation borrows on traditional exhibit design principles, as opposed to print page-based or linear broadcast designs. Visitors scroll across panels filled with photographs, paintings, objects, artifacts, documents, first-person audio accounts, and interpretive text panels. Each of the six sections of the experience features a distinctive look and sound: visual design elements were derived from traditional Japanese fabrics, and an original score was inspired by the Japanese Gagaku style of music.