In the 1970's Mr. Kaji, Merit Savings Bank President and Real Estate Developer became involved in the re-development of the Little Tokyo area in Los Angeles. Today this area is one of the most successful Redevelopment areas in the nation.

 

In 1982, two distinct groups--businessmen in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo and a group of highly decorated World War II veterans--simultaneously began exploring the concept of a museum about Japanese Americans. The right idea often crops up in different places at the same time. Bruce T. Kaji, a real estate developer and chairman of Merit Savings Bank, proposed incorporating a museum into a planned Little Tokyo residential complex. Meanwhile, veterans of the famed 442nd Batallion sponsored a "Japanese American Soldier" exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. They soon began searching for a permanent exhibit site. Headed by a Korean American, Colonel Young Oak Kim and a Japanese American, Y.B. Mamiya, the veterans approached Kaji. The two groups joined forces, and in 1985, the Japanese American National Museum officially incorporated as a private, nonprofit institution.When the Museum opened its doors in 1992, a full decade had passed since the founders conceived of an institution that would illuminate the Japanese American experience.

 

As founding President and Chairman Emeritus of the Museum Bruce Kaji's desire to build it was driven by his wartime concentration camp experience. In May, 1942 the teenager Bruce Kaji and his family, under Executive Order 9066, was transported to Manzanar Concentration Camp. The fact that the US Government removed 120,000 US citizens illegally and without a cause of action is something Mr. Kaji feels must never happen again. The Museum will "forever be a reminder to monitor the Government and protect ordinary citizens from the Government's monstrous powers of abusing civil rights". Due to being incarcerated in Manzanar Relocation Camp Mr. Kaji received his Roosevelt HS diploma in a Special Ceremony in 1994. In September of this year the opening of "Boyle Heights: Power of Place: exhibit opened. "The Boyle Heights Project explores the rich cultural history of this significant Los Angeles Neighborhood". One that when asked where you are from, Mr. Kaji and all Roosevelt HS Alumni are proud to claim as their "Power of Place."