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Kokoro: The Story of Sacramento’s Lost Japantown
Explore the experience of local Japanese Americans in the early 20th century
Exhibit on view December 20, 2025 – March 29, 2026
We are pleased to announce the return of Kokoro: The Story of Sacramento’s Lost Japantown, an exhibition that first appeared at the California Museum in 2017 and remains one of our most beloved and impactful.
Featuring rare family photographs drawn from the personal collections of community members, the exhibit documents the memories at the heart of a once-thriving downtown community devastated first by forced removal during WWII and again by redevelopment in the 1950s.
Sacramento’s Nihonmachi (Japantown) spanned 8 city blocks, from 3rd and L Streets to 5th and P Streets, where over 120 businesses, civic organizations and churches were located in the early 1940s. Today, California’s first Nisei VFW Post, opened in 1947 on 4th between P and O Streets, is one of the few remnants of the once-thriving community.
Returning visitors can once again walk through the history and heart of this vanished neighborhood, while those experiencing it for the first time will discover a vital chapter of our city’s past—now enriched with additional rare photographs and artifacts from family collections.
Kokoro was developed in partnership with former residents of Sacramento’s Japantown, author of “Sacramento’s Historic Japantown: Legacy of a Lost Neighborhood“ Kevin Wildie and others.
Click here to download a map of Sacramento’s Lost Japantown (1940-1941).
1. Exclusion order posted on telephone pole, May 11, 1942, Sacramento. Photo by Dorothea Lange; courtesy National Archives and Records Administration.
2. Japanese American home two days before forced removal, May 11, 1942, Sacramento. Photo by Dorothea Lange; courtesy National Archives and Records Administration.
3. Kat’s Koffee Klub, 318 L Street, Sacramento, circa 1950s. Courtesy Murakami Collection.
4. Iroha and Yoshikawa restaurant, Japan Alley, between 3rd, 4th, L Street, and Capitol Avenue, 1913. Courtesy Center for Sacramento History, Sacramento Community Ethnic Survey Collection, 1983/146/2270.
5. 4th Street businesses after the war. Courtesy Center for Sacramento History, Frank Christy Collection, 1998/722/2435.
Plan a Visit
Advance tickets are available through the link below, and all visitor information can be found here. We look forward to welcoming you!