There was standing room only for the opening of the “Overflowing with Hope: The Hidden History of Japanese Americans in Alameda” exhibit at Alameda Free Library on Wednesday afternoon, May 17. The crowd filled the Stafford Room for the opening program to hear musicians and speakers and to peruse the displays. The deeply detailed exhibit documents the Japanese American community in Alameda and how it was broken up, with residents forcibly removed and incarcerated in internment camps during World War II. The walls of the Stafford Room are full of deep insights into the devastation that Alameda’s Japanese neighborhood and its residents experienced.
The exhibit will be open to the public through July 15. It is part of a three-year initiative of the Alameda Japanese American History Project, a partnership between the Alameda Free Library, Buena Vista United Methodist Church, the Buddhist Temple of Alameda, Densho, the Internet Archive, and Rhythmix Cultural Works.