Rosalind Tonai

Rosalyn Tonai is the Executive Director of the National Japanese American Historical Society, Inc. (NJAHS) where she has served since 1990.  Under her directorship, NJAHS has produced and curated numerous exhibitions, public programs and documentaries that have had national impact such as Dislocation & Divergence, Prejudice and Patriotism, the story of the Japanese Americans in the Military Intelligence Service 1941-1952; Katami: Objects of Memory (2006); Carrying ON: 100 Years of San Francisco’s Japantown (2006), The Enemy Alien Files: Hidden Stories of WWII (2001); Children of the Camps, An American Story of Civil Liberties (1999), Exhibit consultant to Diamond in the Rough, Japanese Americans in Baseball (1998), Reminiscing in Swingtime, Japanese Americans in American Popular Music (1997), LATENT AUGUST, the Legacy of Hiroshima & Nagasaki (1995), Children of Detention Camps (1992), Resilient Images: Reflections On Internment (1999), Strength & Diversity (1995), Children of Detention Camps (1992), Strength & Diversity: Japanese American Women, 1885 to 1990 (1990).
 

Together with the National Park Service/Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the Presidio Trust, NJAHS has developed the Military Intelligence Service Historic Learning Center, a $5 million adaptive reuse project at Building 640 in the Presidio of San Francisco.  NJAHS offices are currently headquartered in San Francisco Japantown, where Ms. Tonai oversees its gallery, education, collections and archives operations. She serves as a board member of the Japantown Task Force, a preservation and planning body for one of the last remaining Japantowns in the U.S.  She is an Advisory Board Member of the National Veterans Network, promoting the Congressional Gold Medal of the 100/442/MIS, and is a member of the Amache stakeholders committee.

Ms. Tonai has been an awardee of the Veterans Advocate Award, Japanese American Veterans Association (2022), Kimochi Spirit Award, for extraordinary leadership and lifelong giving (2014), Certificate Award of Recognition, Ministry of Foreign Service, Consulate of Japan (2013), Honoree, Japanese Cultural Community Center of Northern CA Annual Dinner, “Issei Women’s Hopes and Dreams: A Quest for Justice.” (2001), Distinguished Alumna of the Year, College of Professional Studies, University of San Francisco, Commencement Speaker up 10th year anniversary of graduation fro USF MPA program in Nonprofit Management Institute. (1996)
 

Ms. Tonai is a graduate of the Getty Museum Management Institute and the Coro Foundation Asian Pacific leadership program.  She received her M.A. degree in nonprofit management from the University of San Francisco’s College of Professional Studies.  She holds a BA degree from the University of California, Berkeley.