Japanese American National Museum director stepping down

After four years as president and chief executive of the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles, Greg Kimura is stepping down at the end of June, the museum has announced.

The organization said it was launching a search for his successor.

Kimura — the first hapa, or person of mixed race, to head the museum — said in a phone interview Monday that he had given himself three main goals since he was named president in January 2012. First, in the aftermath of the Great Recession, he wanted to make the museum “a resonant and sustainable institution.” Second, he wanted to expose the “Japanese American story” to a broader audience, and third, to reach out to a younger generation of Japanese Americans.

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“I came in with a pretty bold agenda, and for the most part I feel I’ve accomplished that,” Kimura said.

Established in 1985 in Little Tokyo, the museum was founded to commemorate and convey the Japanese American experience, including the pivotal incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II by the federal government. Kimura cited how one special exhibition in particular helped to expose more visitors to the heart of that mission.

“The biggest success was ‘Hello! Exploring the Supercute World of Hello Kitty,’” he said of the exhibition that ran from October 2014 to May 2015. “That exhibition broke every record at the museum — attendance, museum store sales. It gave us tremendous media exposure.” The exit of the “Hello!” exhibition led right to “Common Ground: The Heart of the Community,” the museum’s permanent exhibition tracing Japanese American history from the early days of immigration, through World War II to present day.

In a good year, Kimura said, the museum attracts about 100,000 visitors, but “Hello” pushed fiscal year 2015 numbers over 200,000.

A smaller exhibition Kimura cited as especially powerful was “Before They Were Heroes: Sus Ito’s World War II Images,” an exhibition of photography taken while Ito served with the decorated 442nd Regiment during World War II. Last year, the museum acquired the Eaton collection, important art and artifacts made by Japanese Americans during the internment, before it could be auctioned off and potentially dispersed.

One of the challenges of the job, Kimura said, has been to find a new audience for a museum founded on a historical event. However, the museum’s mission remains profound and timely, Kimura said.

“The core story the museum tells — which is a cautionary tale about what happens when we let prejudice and racism take over in times in crisis — that story is all the more relevant right now,” he said.

Kimura moved to Los Angeles from Alaska, where he was CEO of the Alaska Humanities Forum, the state humanities council. He has a master’s in divinity from Harvard and a doctorate in philosophy of religion from Cambridge. When asked about his future plans, he noted that he has been a college professor and is an ordained Episcopalian priest, but declined to give specifics of his plans.

Norman Y. Mineta, the former congressman, secretary of Commerce and secretary of Transportation, is chairman of the museum’s board of trustrees, which will provide executive leadership until an interim CEO is named. The trustees also will work with the Center for Nonprofit Management to search for a permanent successor to Kimura, the museum said.

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