Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, Los Angeles

Title of entry: BeHere/1942: A New Lens on the Japanese American Incarceration

About this entry: On the 80th anniversary of the government’s forced removal of west-coast Japanese Americans during WWII, an exhibition conceived by UCLA faculty opened at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM). Visitors entered 1942 through an augmented reality re-creation of the removal at the same site where they had once been ordered to report.

The exhibition, “BeHere / 1942,” offered an immersive and emotional new perspective, placing visitors at the scene. BeHere also offered an extraordinary reminder of a historic American failure of empathy and justice, and evoked disturbing parallels, as bigots twisted the Covid pandemic into an excuse for renewed anti-Asian hate.

The project demonstrated UCLA’s core principles: teaching (here, about Japanese American incarceration), research (extensive review of primary documents), and service (creating a valuable community experience); and one of its pillars, justice (countering AAPI hate).

BeHere used volunteers in 1940s attire to recreate the removal, including volunteers who survived the incarceration. Our team conducted multiple interviews with the survivors, the artist, and the professor heading the exhibition, creating a feature-style news release, press package, 3-minute video, sidebar, and social media. In collaboration with the museum and their PR agency, UCLA obtained coverage in more than a dozen local outlets to encourage awareness and attendance.

Attendance in the exhibition hall doubled compared to the previous year. Views of the UCLA story on UCLA Newsroom were 150 times the site median. Earned coverage appeared in more than 20 media outlets and 115 social media mentions.