Legacy Center of the Japanese American Service Committee (JASC)

The sign of The Japanese American Service Committee

Inside of the Legacy Center

The Japanese American Service Committee was founded in 1946.¹ 

The JASC Legacy Center archives, which was formed in 1999, is one of the cultural arm of JASC and houses the largest accumulation of Japanese American materials in Chicago. This is believed to be the only institution dedicated to collections-holding of this type in the Midwest area, recording Japanese American life outside of the West Coast population centers. In total, the Legacy Center archives have about 400 collections, or about 850 linear feet of material.

The Legacy Center archives contains a mix of documents, photographs, audiovisual materials, artifacts, and collectibles providing a window into the experiences of Japanese American families, individuals, organizations, and businesses from the late 19th century to the present day. The collections are especially stressing on the topics of incarceration during World War II and after war resettlement in Chicago. Materials contain letters sent during and after the incarceration and photographs of business and daily life in the “Japan town” in the 1940s and ’50s; diaries and journals; sketchbooks and drawings of incarceration camp life; artifacts made by people in the camps; rare materials published such as camp newspapers and high school yearbooks; information pamphlets targeting Japanese Americans; and important records such as alien registration cards and US Army records. The archives also include JASC’s own institutional records such as annual newsletters, which record how the organization has been doing from 1946 to the present.

The director Ms. Emma Lincoln Saito (as well as librarian and archivist) of the Legacy Center is in charge of organizing tons of archival data of Japanese American history. Not only the Legacy Center maintains and organizes archives, they show the archive to people such as scholars and students, who need help for their work or simply to learn. People can access the archive by reaching out to them via email.²

Ms. Saito, when people visit the Legacy Center to look at the archives, tells people how to handle old fragile artifacts and historical evidence. This is so that people in the present and in the future can continuously learn something from the past, that's our responsibility to preserve history for the future generations. She also tells people about little tips of how they should look at the historical facts. For the visitors, she prepares the specific part that we really needed to pay attention to. It is helpful for people who are beginners in this topic and want to learn about history effectively.