The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) in Los Angeles is taking a stand against President Trump’s DEI policies as $2 million of the institution’s federal funding hangs in the balance.
Over the last week, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has made severe cuts to the funding and staffing of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The JANM was one such institution impacted by these losses.
Under former President Joe Biden, the museum received a $175,000 NEH grant for its “Landmarks of American History and Culture” workshops, which teach the history of mass incarceration of Japanese American citizens by the US government during World War II in the city’s Little Tokyo neighborhood. Since the workshops’ inception two years ago, more than 100 teachers from 31 states have attended the two-week program to the benefit of approximately 21,000 students.
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“This is impacting many museums in the United States, especially cultural and ethnic museums,” Bill Fujioka, the Japanese American National Museum board chairman told the Los Angeles Times. “We already have a signed contract with the federal government for that money. And we’ve been told it’s being clawed back.”
The grant money was reportedly allocated on a reimbursement basis. Despite being previously approved under the Biden administration, the expenses will now not be reimbursed, per the NEH grant termination letter sent on Wednesday.
The JANM also received funding from the IMLS, which saw its entire staff laid off on Tuesday, through the state of California.
Since Donald Trump took office this year, there have been a number of changes including his dismantling of DEI efforts. While many organizations have updated their policies and websites to roll back DEI standards, the JANM is doubling down by not only “scrub[bing] nothing,” Fujioka said, but also by highlighting the importance of DEI.
“Our community is based on diversity, equity is guaranteed to us in the Constitution, and inclusion is what we believe in,” Fujioka added.
This moral stand comes as the museum’s $2 million in federal grants from the NEH and IMLS remains uncertain. A total of $1.45 million, which was approved during the Biden administration, now may not be used by the museum, while $522,000 in grants were applied for but had not yet been awarded.
The JANM’s approved grants included $750,000, as part of the NEH’s Save America’s Treasures program dedicated to historic preservation, which the museum planned to use for a climate control and HVAC system upgrade for its 160,000 artifacts.
