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Abstract
A More Perfect Union was a revolutionary exhibition at the National Museum of American History that addressed Japanese American internment. The exhibition was part of the 1987 bicentennial celebration of the Constitution across Smithsonian Institutions. It also opened during the Redress Movement, when Japanese Americans were seeking reparations for internment. This monumental exhibition has been mentioned in multiple books; however, they often disagree about the exhibition and its impact. This is because none of them cited the Smithsonian Institution archives—except for one, who cited only a single accession. Despite this silence, the exhibition was cutting-edge due to its use of full-scale displays and AV technology, which allowed visitors to experience and hear interviews with victims of internment. A More Perfect Union’s impact extended beyond the walls of the museum and transcended time. The exhibition engaged with many movements and understandings of history. It had the same curator as the Enola Gay controversy and shifts our understanding of the “Culture Wars.” The exhibition also engages with our understanding of “prosthetic” memory, as it enabled the creation of a singular narrative of Japanese American identity, facilitated intergenerational bonding within the Japanese American community, and allowed other racial groups to construct their own memory of the incarceration. Interestingly, despite its importance it did not set a precedent leaving questions about our understanding of the shifting museum spaces.