Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program Blog

In 1955, Pan American World Airways sought to become the pre-eminent carrier for routes over the Pacific in part by recruiting Japanese American stewardesses as ambassadors to the growing tide of world travelers. The airline established an Asian language base in Honolulu and also expanded its “one-world” globe-trotting fleet with a record-sized order of airliners — 20 Boeing 707s and 25 Douglas DC-8s.

The National Air and Space Museum‘s Udvar-Hazy Center remembers the role of the Japanese American stewardesses who helped launch the Jet Age with an exhibition of memorabilia and period photographs.

The materials displayed, including uniforms, flight bags, and scrapbooks, come from the exhibition Airborne Dreams, which closed at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i in Honolulu. Christine Yano, a Guggenheim Fellow at the National Air and Space Museum and an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Hawai‘i, served as curator for the exhibition.