- Following 780
- Followers 16.4K
- Engagement 2.18%
- Avg likes 373
- Avg comments 6
About Densho
Densho (@denshoproject) is a Non-Profits & Religious Organizations creator on Instagram, also filed under Spirituality & Religion. The account has 16,369 followers and 1,541 published posts. Recent posts average 373 likes and 6 comments, an engagement rate of 2.18%.
With 16.4K followers, Densho is a micro creator by the common 10,000 to 100,000 definition. Set against 780 accounts followed, the audience works out to about 21 followers per account Densho follows. Densho is set up as an Instagram business account. Flinque files Densho under Non-Profits & Religious Organizations, with Spirituality & Religion as a secondary category.
The Instagram bio for Densho runs to 11 words. The latest activity Flinque has on record for Densho dates from February 2026.
Story Highlights
Unlocking shows the title and cover image of every story highlight this creator keeps pinned to the profile.
1,541 Posts
Of the 10 most recent posts shown for Densho, 5 are videos, 4 are carousels and 1 is a single image. No single format accounts for most of them. Densho has built a substantial archive of 1,541 posts. Against the audience, that is roughly 11 followers for each post published. Densho also keeps 6 story highlights on the profile. All 10 carry captions, averaging 271 words each. The captions are written mainly in English. Words that recur across them include japanese, incarceration, americans, were and work. The captions tag #japaneseamerican, #japaneseamericanhistory, #japaneseamericanincarceration, #wwiihistory and #historymatters.
This first video features an interview with the leader of Heart Mountain’s Fair Play Committee, Frank Emi, from the documentary, Rabbit in the Moon. Emi recalls how he and his brother answered Questions 27 and 28 on the “loyalty questionnaire” given to all incarcerated in the camps. Their answers read: “Under the present conditions and circumstances [mass incarceration without any due process], I am unable to answer these questions.” They then posted their answers and their rationale up in communal places across Heart Mountain, educating and encouraging the community to answer with courage and to resist responding “yes” to those questions. (Swipe for next caption)
Quoted from her interview is activist and author Michi Weglyn. Weglyn recounts being deeply impressed by the courage of Frank Emi and others who encouraged the Fair Play Committee, and their collective work, to take a stand against the U.S. government, knowing there may be unforeseen legal consequences. Weglyn reflects on her deep admiration for the Fair Play Committee and the comprehension of American constitutional rights from the younger members. She recalls that “They believed [so] strongly in the righteousness of their cause that we have no right in a democratic America to have concentration camps for U.S. citizens who are guaranteed their inalienable rights in the Constitution.” (Swipe for next caption)
In this third clip, Frank Yamasaki talks about making the decision to resist the draft when the opportunity to volunteer was positioned as a way to prove one’s loyalty to the U.S. In his court hearing to address his draft resistance, Frank shared his reason for resisting: “If you will restore our lifestyle like before this evac
Taiko (“drum”) covers a wide range of instruments and musical genres. In the United States, taiko is most often used in group drumming and to accompany dances (Bon odori) at summer Obon festivals, a Buddhist tradition honoring deceased family members and ancestors.
When it comes to their presence during the incarceration, Shikuma explains that they were a part of camp life: “We know that there were drums in the camps.” There was one small taiko drum on display at the Japanese American National Museum in which Buddhist sutras were inscribed, noting its use for services and ceremonies by the Buddhist reverends in camp.
Shikuma recalls how taiko, which commands attention, helped shake the model minority myth and shatter the enduring stereotypes that people had of Japanese Americans in particular. He describes “Taiko [as] loud and really out there.”
Shikuma continues that taiko “was a way for Sansei to reclaim some of the cultural heritage that had been lost or severely damaged by the war, to express pride in that heritage and establish an identity that was in many ways at odds with what the dominant society, white society, wanted or expected of us. So in that sense, it was kind of a revolutionary undertaking.”
Shikuma has led several prominent Seattle-area taiko ensembles, and he remains involved in numerous Japanese American community and activist groups such as the Japanese American Citizens League, Tule Lake Committee, and Tsuru for Solidarity.
Support Densho in preserving the testimony of other community members, like Stanley Shikuma. Your support today allows for our history to be recorded for future generations. Make a gift with the link in our bio.
As part of the WRA’s strategy to encourage people to leave the concentration camps, Jerome was chosen as the one to close due to its relatively small population size, its proximity to Rohwer, and the recent attrition in administrative staff. Ultimately, 2,750 people were transferred to Rohwer, 2,077 to Gila River, 587 to Amache, and 507 to Heart Mountain.
This film is preserved within Densho’s Digital Library of Japanese American Incarceration Films. See the full, nearly 17 minute version in Densho’s Digital Repository.
In this oral history – the fifteenth of our 30 Stories for 30 Years series – Roy recounts this traumatizing night as a child. He recalls “just crying and crying, just living in fear, and so then we all cried and cried, us kids.” When asked if he remembers seeing the mob approaching he says, “Yeah, as they come out of the tunnel, you could see way down there with oil torches, oil torches, and apparently shotguns, I don't know what kind of guns.”
All Japanese Americans living in Clovis were rounded up that same night and were taken to an unused former Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp at Old Raton Ranch, where they were held under guard until the end of 1942. This moment brought up old conflicting thoughts: “We're being protected at the same time we were held in suspicion.” Later, Roy and his family were transferred to Topaz in Utah. The family learned that their home was looted, and eventually bulldozed to the ground.
Explore his story and thousands more in the Densho Digital Repository. Densho preserves and shares oral histories like Roy Ebihara’s as part of our ongoing commitment to documenting lived experiences, expanding public understanding, and ensuring that these histories remain accessible and remembered. Your support makes this work possible. Make a gift today with the link in bio.
“Dear Gloria and Makiko,
I am very sorry to Makiko. Last time I was [to] send [a] picture for Hidemaro’s birthday. I know Maki [wanted one], too but I was very busy to draw [a] picture.”
Kubota was sending letters to his incarcerated family at Heart Mountain from the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was detained. He was separated from his family and imprisoned for draft resistance and his involvement in the Fair Play Committee (FPC). Kubota was the only Issei among the leadership of the FPC. In an effort to secure Issei support for the work of the FPC, Kubota wrote and translated Japanese materials, which caught the administration’s attention and led to their suspicion of him.
He, along with six other leaders of the FPC and journalist James Omura, were later charged with conspiracy to counsel, aide, and abet draft resistance, with all but Omura found guilty. Kubota was given a sentence of two years. His conviction, and those of the other FPC leaders, was overturned on appeal at the end of 1945, and, with the government ultimately deciding not to pursue the case further, he was released from prison in February 1946.
To learn more about Leavenworth, visit the Densho Encyclopedia page with the link in our bio.
Image description: A censored letter and watercolor drawing of a child playing on a beach, sent by Guntaro Kubota to his family at Heart Mountain incarceration camp from Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, from the Frank Abe Collection.
We recognize how the forces that led to the Japanese American incarceration were at play long before World War II, and have affected African Americans, as well as other marginalized communities, for centuries and continue to do so. In our 2025 Remembering Resistance program, lawyer and community stalwart, Don Tamaki, encapsulates this idea in his remarks about America’s foundation of racial oppression.
Tamaki served as the only non-Black member of the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, which delivered its final report in 2023. During our program, Tamaki explained:
“This racial pathology that ended up targeting our community didn’t start in 1942, it started in 1619. And that is the ideology that was necessary to prop up the institutions of slavery and Jim Crow. By the time Japanese Americans arrived in California in the late 1800s, California was pretty much a Jim Crow state. It was complicit with slavery and separation. There were sizable Klan chapters up and down the state, and that’s the environment our ancestors parachuted into.”
“When you could treat and subjugate an entire population into property, the removal of Japanese Americans was so normal and so logical, nobody questioned it. So what we are talking about is a continuum of [racial] pathology. Until that is identified – and reparations does that – and until we reckon with that, it just continues to recycle.”
The Japanese American community was deeply influenced by the Black civil rights movement, inspiring and serving as a model for Japanese Americans to organize, advocate, and demand reparations for their unjust incarceration. All these connections, through struggle and solidarity, remind us of our deep interconnectedness to work towards a better future. Read the full California Reparations Report at the link in our bio.
Yukiko recalls being grateful to this Issei woman, who she did not know well, but also that she and her friends were wary of consuming anything that was made in a chamber pot.
“I never ate her otsukemono, but I always had to tell her how nice it was and ‘thank you very much.’ I never knew who the lady was, but she was always bringing otsukemono over. But my friends said, ‘No, don't touch it. Don't touch it.’”
Yukiko’s story sheds light on aspects of camp life that are often overlooked, including everyday acts of generosity, unexpected resourcefulness, and intergenerational relations.
Make a gift today to help preserve stories like Yukiko Miyake’s, ensuring that these histories remain accessible. Your support makes this work possible. Donate today: or with the link in bio.
This history asks more of us than commemoration. At Densho, it asks us to consider what we are building now to ensure that this history remains visible, durable, and accessible.
On this Day of Remembrance, Densho is launching a new initiative, the Densho Public Index of Japanese American Collections. We are grateful to the Henri & Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation for partnering with us to launch this first-of-its kind project. Over the coming years, we will identify, map, and connect archival materials related to Japanese American history across institutions and communities.
By creating the Public Index, we are strengthening the connective tissue between repositories and historical materials, so that they are easier to find, use, and preserve. This work intentionally includes collections of every size, from large institutional archives to small, community-rooted organizations, recognizing that safeguarding memory requires honoring stewards at every scale.
Recent events make clear that we cannot assume reliable access to historical materials. With the stories and contributions of immigrants and communities of color increasingly minimized, challenged, or removed from our nation’s history, building a durable infrastructure of Japanese American memory becomes essential. Through this work, Densho ensures that history remains accessible not only for this generation, but for all the ones that follow.
Remembering requires care and long-term commitment. This initiative reflects ours.
Executive Director Naomi Ostwald Kawamura reflects on the organization’s past, present, and future, honoring the community that built Densho and addressing the urgent work of protecting public history in an increasingly divided moment.
“What began as a small grassroots project to preserve stories of the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans has become an important digital archive relied upon by people and institutions across the country. Today, Densho is home to the largest oral history collection on this history, alongside more than 140,000 digitized historic photographs and documents, as well as the Densho Encyclopedia—a widely recognized and trusted resource.
This milestone arrives at a time when history is increasingly contested, when we are seeing deliberate efforts to distort the past. In a world marked by instability and uncertainty, the responsibility to preserve memory with care, clarity, and integrity feels especially urgent.
Anniversaries matter. They become symbolic touchpoints in time, a moment when we can pause to remember, reflect, and reimagine. They also give us an opportunity to honor legacy, take stock of where we are, and ask hard questions about where we are headed.
At 30, we are asking: how are memories passed down or lost between generations? What do we want the next generation to remember? What stories will Densho need to preserve over the next 30 years? To answer these questions, we will be launching new initiatives to safeguard access, expand the narratives we tell, and ensure that this history is taught, remembered, and passed on.
To everyone who has supported Densho, especially in moments when this work feels difficult: thank you. Your belief in this work is what makes this possible. Here’s to a year of reflection, recommitment, and imagination as we step into Densho’s next thirty years.”
Since the 1970s, Japanese Americans, historians, educators, journalists, and others have increasingly advocated for the use of terminology that more accurately represents this history. Rather than repeat the euphemisms used by the U.S. government and other defenders of WWII incarceration, we encourage individuals to think critically about the impact of words like “internment,” “relocation,” and “evacuation.”
In the words of Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, a camp survivor who would go on to play a pivotal role in obtaining redress for Japanese Americans, “words can lie or clarify.” When we use language that distorts the past, we lose our ability to recognize patterns of repeating history. But language that imparts truth and understanding can help us avoid repeating those same mistakes today.
#JapaneseAmerican #JapaneseAmericanHistory #JapaneseAmericanIncarceration #WWIIhistory #HistoryMatters
Densho's engagement
Densho's engagement rate on Instagram is 2.18%, between 1% and 3%, or 1 to 3 likes and comments per 100 followers. On a typical post that comes to about 1 like or comment for every 46 followers. Likes outnumber comments by roughly 62 to 1, with 373 likes and 6 comments on an average post, so most reactions are taps rather than replies.
Engagement rate
2.18%
- Avg likes
- 373
- Avg comments
- 6
- Interactions : followers
- 1 : 46
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Frequently asked questions
These answers about Densho are generated from the Instagram profile data Flinque holds for the account.
Who is Densho?
Densho (@denshoproject) is a Non-Profits & Religious Organizations creator on Instagram, also filed under Spirituality & Religion. Densho is set up as an Instagram business account. The Instagram bio for Densho runs to 11 words.
How many followers does Densho have?
Densho has 16,369 followers on Instagram (16.4K). Set against 780 accounts followed, the audience works out to about 21 followers per account Densho follows. Densho has built a substantial archive of 1,541 posts.
What is Densho's engagement rate?
Densho's engagement rate on Instagram is 2.18%, between 1% and 3%, or 1 to 3 likes and comments per 100 followers. On a typical post that comes to about 1 like or comment for every 46 followers. Likes outnumber comments by roughly 62 to 1, with 373 likes and 6 comments on an average post, so most reactions are taps rather than replies.
What does Densho post about on Instagram?
Flinque files Densho under Non-Profits & Religious Organizations, with Spirituality & Religion as a secondary category. Of the 10 most recent posts shown for Densho, 5 are videos, 4 are carousels and 1 is a single image. The 10 recent Instagram captions Flinque holds for Densho repeatedly use the words japanese, incarceration, americans, were and work. Densho's captions carry hashtags such as #japaneseamerican, #japaneseamericanhistory and #japaneseamericanincarceration. Densho writes those captions mainly in English. Densho keeps 6 story highlights, which open with a free Flinque account.
How do I contact Densho for a collaboration?
Densho's contact details are not published on Flinque's public profile. The Instagram bio links to 1 external site, and a free Flinque account opens that link. The account is registered as an Instagram business account. Brands with a free Flinque account can shortlist Densho and use Flinque's outreach tools wherever a contact route is on file.
Links
Densho's own Instagram profile is the one outbound link Flinque publishes for the account, and the bio link opens after signing up.
Public profile data sourced from Instagram. Flinque is not affiliated with Densho.