What they have recorded will be on view in a public exhibition set for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 30, in the university's Campus Theatre on the southwest corner of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.

The rare photos and vignettes in "Telling Our Stories--Japanese American Experiences from the 1910s to the 1950s in the San Fernando Valley," co-sponsored by the Chicano/a Studies and Women's Departments, focus largely on the lives of some of the 3,200 Japanese Americans who resided in the Valley during the pre-war period--some of them on farmland now occupied by CSUN.

For two semesters, Asian American Studies professor Edith Chen and her students have been on a mission to gather for exhibition all the stories and documents they can while they can. They are aware that time is not on their side.

"We can assume that the generations who lived during that time are not going to be with us much longer," said senior Peter Ngotngamwong. "It's important that we get their histories before it's too late."

A film called "Stand Up for Justice: The Ralph Lazo Story" will be screened at the exhibition to highlight the close relationships between Japanese Americans and Mexican Americans in the pre-war Valley and larger Los Angeles community. Lazo, a Mexican American high school youth, voluntarily accompanied his Japanese American friends to the Manzanar internment camp. He later earned a master's degree in sociology from CSUN.

Following the film will be a question and answer session with the filmmaker, John Esaki of the Japanese American National Museum, producer Amy Kato of Visual Communications and members of Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress.

Guests also will view the students' videotaped documentary based on 25 interviews with Nisei (second generation Japanese Americans)--many in their seventies, eighties and older.

When Japanese Americans were ordered out of their Valley homes and into internment camps after the U.S. entry into the war, explained junior Amy Ikeda, many lost all of their family photos and much of their written history.

"They were only allowed to take a couple or so bags each," she said. "So there are lots of pictures documenting the camp periods, but not of their life before internment."

Senior Michael Razon said many families also burned or buried their records.

"Because many of their parents were immigrants," Ikeda added, "they didn't want Americans to think they had ties to Japan."

Their fears were fed by the actions of the FBI. "It was not uncommon at this time that the FBI would go into people's homes and search through their belongings," Chen said. "So they thought any evidence linking them to Japan furthered this notion that they were the enemy, they were not true Americans."

Chen said the project was initiated by Nancy Takayama of the San Fernando Valley Japanese American Community Center in Pacoima, who in the summer of 2003 sought the help of CSUN's Asian American Studies Department in collecting the oral histories.

Gordon Nakagawa, interim associate dean in the College of Humanities, brought the idea to Chen. "He thought the Asian American Studies Communities and Field Practicum class would be the perfect forum to get students hands-on, practical field experience and training in collecting oral histories," she said, "as well as providing service and filling a community need."

Though the project has attracted support and collaboration from within the university, it is in need of greater financial support for its substantial equipment needs and time commitments, Chen said.

In the meantime, the project is evolving. The "Telling Our Stories" exhibition will travel to Mission College in the spring, and will be transformed into a play by drama teacher Randy Olea for a San Fernando Valley High School showcase in April 2005.

"Many of our students went to high school in the Valley, yet they have never heard about any of this," said Chen. "This is a great way of getting high school students to learn about their history, to learn about the Japanese American experience in these creative ways. This project is not just a one-shot deal; this is something that will have long-term impact."