As DOGE cuts hit SoCal cultural spaces and libraries, Little Tokyo museum fights to keep programs alive

Throughout Southern California, museums and libraries in recent weeks have been learning they are collectively losing millions of federal dollars.

The Trump administration, led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, has been gutting agencies that support cultural and educational organizations around the country.

Against this bleak backdrop, one Los Angeles museum has stood out in speaking against the cuts.

Despite losing more than $1.45 million in federal funds, leaders at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo have been publicly saying they won’t stray from their defense of civil rights to appease the Trump White House.

An educator with the Japanese American National Museum speak to teachers participating in a workshop that was until a few weeks ago funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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Japanese American National Museum

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“We won't scrub any websites,” said Ann Burroughs, the museum’s president and chief executive, referring to the practice of federal agencies removing references to diversity and inclusion. “We stand up for our values, and we aren't prepared to sacrifice those values for federal funding."

Somewhere, somehow, the museum will have to recover the funds cut by National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

In the case of one program starting this summer, museum leaders knew they had to act fast.

Immersing teachers

For what was to be its third year of doing so, the museum was to host teachers for a continuing education program that, until this month, was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

More than 120 teachers have come from around the country to be immersed in every aspect of Japanese American history, including World War II incarceration and the post-war fight for civil rights. Last year's workshop included a trip to the former Manzanar War Relocation Center.

"Those individuals are reaching over 20,000 kids each year," said Lynn Yamasaki, the museum’s director of education. "The hope is that this is learning that they can apply throughout the rest of their teaching career."

Melissa Collins of Tennessee was part of last year’s teacher cohort. In a video about the program, Collins described wanting to be a better teacher because of the experience, which includes meeting Japanese Americans who were incarcerated.

“As they say, read history books, but I don't have to do that here,” Collins said. “I had an opportunity to talk to so many wonderful people who have impacted history."

Teachers participating in the museum's summer workshops went to the Manzanar National Historic Site last year.

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Adrianna Nicole Buenviaje

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With the latest round of teacher workshops scheduled to start in June, the Japanese American National Museum rushed to get the program funded. Days after its plight was covered in the news, an anonymous donor gave $85,000 dollars.

A bright spot

Museum leaders were so heartened they issued a fundraising appeal to supporters and have raised the $170,000 needed to put the program on.

“What they are doing is bold, and I think it is starting a movement of people wanting to resist what is happening in society,” said Rick Noguchi, the museum’s former chief operating officer.

Noguchi now leads California Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He says strong voices are needed as the Trump administration attacks diversity and inclusion initiatives. He thinks back to when his own parents were children incarcerated during World War II.

“They were being taken to concentration camps, and there was no one there to stand in front of them,” Noguchi said. “And to think that this small museum, this Japanese American National Museum, is standing up for all of us? Pretty powerful.”

The museum’s funding victory offers inspiration as Noguchi faces his own struggle. State humanities councils like his learned this month they would lose all their funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

California Humanities can no longer make $1 million in grants this year and expects it may have to close its own doors in about six months.

Noguchi hopes to raise funds and fight the federal cuts in court with the other humanities councils. The state is already suing the Trump administration over its dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

“There's an attack on culture, and there's a struggle of who tells the history of this country, and that's really what is at stake here,” Noguchi said.

Ripple effects around Southern California

Other smaller organizations across Southern California are also questioning how they will survive the federal cuts. The Santa Monica History Museum lost a $25,000 federal humanities grant that was earmarked for enhancements to its Tongva exhibit and programming.

Also, the museum will no longer benefit from a program that provided free promotion and advertising to underserved communities after the Trump administration shrunk the Institute of Museum and Library Services late last month.

“We’re gutted," Kathleen Rawson, chair of the Santa Monica museum's board of directors, said in a statement. "Due to the fires, the first quarter fundraising has been dismal. Now coupled with the clawbacks of these essential grants, the museum's existence is severely threatened.”

Meanwhile, projects that have been in the works for years are now stalled.

Coordinators of the Chinatown History Project say they've lost a $300,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities that was to go toward building out an augmented reality project that would tell the story of L.A's first Chinatown before it was razed in the 1930's to construct Union Station.

"We're still reeling, actually, from this news," said Elizabeth Logan, who's helping to oversee the project as co-director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West. "I think we just have to figure out what the path forward looks like."

Neither the National Endowment for the Humanities nor the Institute of Museum and Library Services has responded to requests for comment.

Running out of time

At the Japanese American National Museum, leaders say they have been lucky to have a loyal donor base and will keep raising their own funds to support upgrades to its buildings and programs.

There is a sense of urgency around supporting programs where older Japanese Americans share their experiences of being incarcerated, such as the teacher workshops.

“We're not going to have these voices forever, and this might be the last time we get to share them on this scale,” Yamasaki said.

Yamasaki says after finishing a workshop last year, an Arkansas teacher went back to her classroom and arranged a Zoom call between a camp survivor in her 90s and her students.

“They get to meet a person who lived in Arkansas during World War II, because she was forcibly removed from her home and incarcerated in their home state,” Yamasaki said. “And so, in that sense, it’s local history too.”