Museum Fund-Raising Drive Begins

Trustees of the Japanese American National Museum, set to open in Little Tokyo in late 1990, kicked off a fund-raising drive this weekend that they hope will bring in $20 million.

The official campaign began Friday with a $100,000 contribution from Bank of America, said Irene Hirano, the museum’s executive director. That brings to $4 million the amount donated so far, including a $1-million grant from the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency last year, she said.

The CRA funds will be used for the first phase of construction--the $10-million renovation of the 64-year-old Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple at 1st Street and Central Avenue. The three-story brick temple is set to open as a museum by late 1990. It will house the museum’s first exhibit, a collection of photographs and other items documenting the Issei, or first wave of Japanese immigrants to the United States between 1885 and 1924.

Museum trustees plan to eventually construct a second building on an 8-acre parcel just north of the temple, Hirano said.