“Suddenly and Deliberately: The U.C. Berkeley Japanese American Concentration Camp Project” Collective Digital Bibliography

This selected bibliography of archival sources related to UC Berkeley’s relationship to the history of Japanese American concentration camps during World War II was compiled by UC Berkeley undergraduate students enrolled in History 137 AC taught by David M. Henkin during March 2020 and edited by Zoey Rothenberg.

“Suddenly and Deliberately: The U.C. Berkeley Japanese American Concentration Camp Project

Collective Digital Bibliography

Short Cuts

Academic Research by UC Berkeley Faculty and Students (Primary Sources)

Colson, Elizabeth, E. H. Spicer, and A. H. Leighton. “A Brief History of Poston I (First Nine Months).” May 1943. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder J10.06. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk000403n69/.

“A Brief History of Poston” is a collection of observations made by Poston’s “Community Analysts” which included UC Berkeley Professor and Anthropologist Elizabeth Colson, Anthropologist Edward Spicer, and Anthropologist A.H. Leighton. The three anthropologists describe the first few months of the Japanese Americans’ transition to life at the Poston camp. Poston was the largest of all the internment camps with almost 18,000 prisoners at its peak. The text includes an overview of the creation of the Poston Civic Planning Board and the Poston’s Temporary Community Council, a description of community efforts to make the camp more livable, patterns of organization or grouping within the camp, and sources of contention between groups.

Grodzins, Morton. Pro and Con; Resolutions, Ordinances, etc.. 1943. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder A 15.18:2. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0014b173b/.

Morton Grodzins was a research assistant at UC Berkeley during the 1940s. In this letter, he explains UC Berkeley (and other campuses in the University of California system) endorsed projects on Japanese “evacuation and resettlement.” In the letters we see how both UC Berkeley and the City of Berkeley responded to citizens during the crisis.

Sakoda, James Minoru. “As They Await Evacuation: the Impact of the War Between America and Japan on the Values of Different Types of Japanese on the Coast.” April 22, 1942. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder A17.03. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0014b1g98/.

This is a class report by UC Berkeley student James Sakoda, for Psychology 145. In this paper, Sakoda analyzes other Japanese American students’ experiences, including how American Japanese students felt about the war and adjusted to their imprisonment.

Spencer, Robert F. “Family Life in the Gila Center.” November 2, 1942. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder K8.43. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0013c947w/.

This report was written by Robert F. Spencer, an anthropologist and researcher from San Francisco who taught at Cal. It focuses on family life and structures in Japan compared to the Gila River Relocation Center. It discusses Japanese societal structures and their relevance in camps, as well as the structure and living situation of detained families.

“The Story of Poston.” BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder J2.43. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/k63202wh/.

This type-written and scanned essay of “The Story of Poston’” is from the perspective of an unknown student evacuee in the Poston Japanese internment camp in Arizona. The student provides a first-hand account of his/her experiences at the camp, organizing by sub-sections, including “Living Quarters at Poston,” “Fun at the Colorado River,” “My Feelings Toward Poston,” and “Government and Management.” In addition to serving as a sort of journal, it details certain rooms, centers, or meeting places in the camp that were of relevance and importance to youth culture. Moreover, it reveals a young person’s understanding of the structure of government and management in the camp as well as the reasons and processes behind the camp and evacuation of Japanese-descended people as they were understood by students.

Yamashita, Kiyeko C. “Vocational Attitudes and Goals: A Tabulated Report of the Vocational Attitudes and Goals of the Second-Generation Japanese Students at U.C. Berkeley.” May 2, 1941. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder W 2.32. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk00138672w/.

Kiyeko C. Yamashita, a UC Berkeley student, conducted a survey of 171 undergraduates for Psychology 145B in Spring 1941. His survey focused on Nisei college graduates and whether or not they were socially maladjusted. This document highlights the backgrounds and demographics of students in UC Berkeley right around the time evacuation happened. The report was made by Yamashita, Kiyeko C. and Prof. Tryon of the Psychology department of UC Berkeley to study the influence of the background of second-generation Japanese students (as they called them) and their vocational choice. The report showed the difficulties the Japanese students faced as a minority even before the evacuation order and analyzes the role of educational counseling in the development of vocational goals amidst a climate of hostility and discrimination.

Administration and Faculty – University of California, Berkeley

Bitler, Don C. Don C. Bitler to Edward N. Barnhart. June 6, 1949. BANC MSS 67/14c, Folder A 15.06:2. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Edward N. Barnhart, an Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley, wrote letters to county clerks requesting a copy of any local resolutions, ordinances, or regulations in the months after Pearl Harbor adopting or approving the evacuation of Japanese Americans from the West Coast. Many county clerks responded that there was no resolution. However, Don C. Bitler responded to Professor Barnhart with the resolution decided by the Imperial County Board of Supervisors.

Bloom, Leonard. “Familial Adjustments of Japanese-Americans to Relocation: First Phase.” American Sociological Review 8, no. 5 (1943): 551-60. www.jstor.org/stable/2085725.

“Familial Adjustments of Japanese-Americans to Relocation: First Phase” was written in 1943 by sociologist Leonard Bloom. This work attempts to analyze how prisoners adjusted to their relocation, and in turn, how their familial structures changed as a result. Bloom’s study largely revolves around the Nisei or “second generation” of Japanese American children born to the Issei, Japanese-born immigrants.

Deutsch, Monroe. “Notes on Meeting with Mr. Pomeroy.” February 24, 1943. BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder W 1.04. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0012z4c10/.

These notes, taken by Dorothy Swaine Thomas, Professor of Rural Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, document a meeting she requested to defend her students in the camps. She was attempting to persuade Mr. Pomeroy into allowing graduate training and to develop a program so they could continue work with the Graduate School. They were unable to reach an agreement and she was forced to search for alternate aids for her students.

Press Release for The Spoilage. c1946. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder W 1.35. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk001307f5j/.

This is a press release written by Dr. Robert Gordon Sproul, President of the University of California, Berkeley, on the comprehensive study conducted by the University on the evacuation, detention, and resettlement of the Japanese in the United States. He details several aspects of the study, including how it was conducted.

Sproul, Robert G. “Talk given by Dr. Robert G. Sproul, President of the University of California, at the California Club in Los Angeles.” June 29, 1944. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder W 1.35. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk001307f5j/.

This is a speech delivered by Dr. Robert G. Sproul, President of the University of California, Berkeley, at the California Club in Los Angeles on June 29, 1944. He is speaking about the Committee on American Principles and Fair Play, a group in which he serves as Honorary Chairman. It explains how this committee came into existence, their successes, and outlines future goals.

Thomas, Dorothy S. Dorothy Swaine Thomas to All Members of the Evacuation and Resettlement Study. c1943. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder W 1.35. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk001307f5j/.

This is a letter from Prof. Dorothy Thomas to all members of the Evacuation and Resettlement Study. She addresses a potential investigation of the Japanese Investigation Centers. First of all, she assures that the group will have the full backing of the University. Second, she asks the members to refer all inquiries about their work to her office if questioned.

Thomas, Dorothy S. Study of the Evacuation and Resettlement of Japanese on the West Coast: Grant Proposals and Outlines, Progress Reports and Budgets. 1942-1945. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder W 1.51. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk001311q34/.

The document is a draft of the research proposal for the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study (JERS). The project was initiated in the spring of 1942 by professor of rural sociology, Dorothy Swaine Thomas of the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Thomas considered the internment of Japanese Americans as “a significant sociological event” and opportunity to document the mass internment. The document is in part a grant proposal that estimates the cost and scope of the project. Professor Thomas would seek to recruit a small group of “students of Japanese ancestry” to chronicle their experiences while imprisoned and employ several Berkeley administrators and research personnel as fieldworkers.

Uchida, Yoshiko. “Certificate of Honorable Dismissal or Leave of Absence,” Evacuation ScrapBook. 1942. BANC MSS 86/97 c, volume 2. Yoshiko Uchida Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/tf3j49n6jd/.

Yoshiko Uchida was a senior at the University of California, Berkeley. This primary source is the certificate of “indefinite leave of absense” from school. The envelope bears UC Berkeley’s stamp. The letter inside had Yoshiko Uchida’s handwritten name and address dated May 7, 1942. Because she couldn’t return to school, she missed her graduation as well, and ultimately received her diploma in the mail. Most students could not complete their coursework and had to leave abruptly.

Archives / Collected Materials

“Berkeley, Calif. First Congregational Church: Material relating to registration and evacuation of Japanese and Japanese Americans.” 1942. BANC MSS 83/36 c: 1. Voices in Confinement: A Digital Archive of Japanese-American Internees, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0016z4n96/.

These files include several papers and letters about the forced evacuation of Berkeley’s Japanese American population from the First Congregational Church which served as an evacuation center near UC Berkeley.

Correspondence: Incoming/Outgoing. 1942-1943. BANC MSS C-A 171. Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles and Fair Play Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/k6th8t4s/.

Letters of correspondence from the Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles and Fair Play which was an California organization convened in 1943 to insure the constitutional rights of American citizens of Japanese ancestry during World War II.

Japanese Americans (including Evacuation & relocation). 1942-1946. Mss2 Series 6. Small California Collections, Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library, Stockton, California. https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf3199n95w/.

This is a collection of letters, clippings, diaries, and other sources gathered in the 19th and 20th centuries, which include the Elizabeth Carden Papers containing letters from relocated students to their teacher, Carden, about their experience.

Kingman, Harry L. “Japanese Americans.” 1921-1975. BANC MSS 76/173 c. Harry L. Kingman Papers, Voices in Confinement: A Digital Archive of Japanese-American Internees, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0016z3j3v/.

This is a series of newsletters, letters, and other clippings written by Harry Kingman, who helped Nisei students from UC Berkeley transfer out of internment camps and into East Coast/Midwest schools. He was the director of the University of California YMCA and Stiles Hall during World War II.

Harry L. Kingman was born in 1892 in Tientsin, China. During his years at Stiles Hall, Kingman helped create a student co-op during the Great Depression. This collection contains Correspondence, manuscripts of writings and speeches, subject files, tear sheets and reprints of writings, and clippings, relating mainly to his long career as executive director of the University of California YMCA (Stiles Hall); work in China with the International Committee of the American YMCA, 1921-1927; loyalty oath controversy at the University of California; aid to Japanese-Americans during World War II; work as West Coast Director, FEPC, 1943-1945; formation with Mrs. Kingman of the Citizens’ Lobby for Freedom and Fair Play, 1957; support of John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign, 1960. Kingman helped Nisei students transfer out of internment camps and into Midwest & East Coast schools.

Norman Y. Mineta papers. 1975-1996. Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, California.

Norman Mineta was interned before he became a UC Berkeley student in the 1950s. These documents and other transcripts outline his philosophy towards the oppression of colored people in and outside of his community. He eventually became mayor of San Jose, making him the first Japanese-descent mayor of a major American city, one of California’s Congressmen, and served in the cabinet of George W. Bush.

Photographs of the Japanese-American evacuation from Berkeley, California. 1942. The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/hb0x0nb4dt/

This is a collection of photographs documenting Japanese Americans waiting with luggage for transportation and boarding buses in the City of Berkeley. The majority are students from UC Berkeley. There are eighteen photographic prints.

Records About Japanese Americans Relocated During World War II. 1942-1946. Record Group 210. Records of the War Relocation Authority. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland. https://aad.archives.gov/aad/fielded-search.jsp?dt=3099&cat=WR26&tf=F&bc=,sl.

Digitized from the original punch card records, or “Evacuee Summary Data Cards, Form 26,” this digital database contains personal and descriptive data of 109,377 Japanese Americans that were interned by the War Relocation Authority during WWII. The information was used to organize, as well as separate individual cases, before assigning them to a specific internment camp. Each record corresponds to an individual and is searchable according to: name, relocation project assembly center, previous address, birthplace of parents, occupation of father, education, foreign address, military service, public assistance, pensions, physical defects, sex, marital status, race of evacuee and spouse, year of birth, age, birthplace, alien registration number or social security number, indication of Japanese language schooling, highest grade complete, language profiency, occupation, and religion. The database was later used by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to support the distribution of Reparations.

Rosalie H. Wax Papers. 1943-1990. BANC MSS 83/115 c. The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf0r29n4nc/.

The Rosalie H. Wax Papers feature her Tule Lake field notes, written for the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study in 1944-1945. This collection consists of a 1981-1982 revision to her Tule Lake field notes.

Tule Lake Relocation Center (Newell, California). 1942-1945. Series 11. War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/collections/24123/.

An extensive gallery of photos from the Tule Lake Japanese Concentration Camp in Northern California.

Yoshiko Uchida Papers. 1903-1994. BANC MSS 86/97 c. The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf0c600134/.

This collection consists of Yoshiko Uchida’s writings, letters, and personal correspondence with her family that documented her experience in Japanese internment camps during the war as well as manuscripts she wrote. Uchida was born on November 24, 1921, in Alameda County. At the age of sixteen, she enrolled at UC Berkeley. She was in her senior year when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, and she and her family were detained in San Bruno and then Topaz Utah for a period of three years. During her time at the internment camp, she taught and spent time writing books, stories, and poetry. This collection contains many letters between her and her family, scrapbooks, diaries, and drawings related to her time in internment.

Art, Crafts, Novels

Chiura Obata Internment Camp Prints. 1941-1943. MANUSCRIPTS MCII, Box 28, Folder 14. California History Room, California State Library, Sacramento.

Chiura Obata was born in 1885 in Sendai, Japan. Trained as an ink painter, he came to California in 1903 and worked as an illustrator and commercial designer. Obata returned to Japan during 1928-1932 and transformed his California paintings into woodblock prints that resembled watercolors. After his return to California he obtained a position as an art instructor at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1942 Obata was interned along with other Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals, and eventually went to the relocation camp at Topaz, Utah, where he produced hundreds of paintings and sketches and organized an art school. After the end of the war in 1945, Obata resumed his teaching at the University of California, retired in 1954, and continued to paint and sketch until his death in 1975. These paintings can be related to the other two primary sources in the newspaper “Tanforan Totalizer,” which briefly describes Chiura Obata’s education life at the internment camp. When focusing on the Japanese artist’s life at camp, this source can be useful.

Hibi, Hisako. Study for a Self-Portrait. c1944. Hisako Hibi Collection, Japanese American National Museum. Los Angeles, California. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/tf3199n64x/.

Hibi, a Japanese woman’s self-portrait created while in camp during WWll.

Hibi, Matsusaburo. The Season’s Greetings. 1943. Voices in Confinement: A Digital Archive of Japanese-American Internees, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk001726g54/.

This original greeting card depicts a figure walking towards an encampment during the winter months. A sign reads “Topaz” with an arrow pointing towards the way the figure is walking. Below the figure the words “The Season’s Greetings” are displayed. The Topaz War Relocation Center was located in Utah with most of its prisoners coming via the Tanforan Assembly Center near San Francisco, California. The 19,800 acres of camp held around 9,000 internees and staff members making it the fifth-largest city in Utah at the time. The camp included a high school, two elementary schools, a rec center, and a library. The fluctuations in temperature were extreme making living conditions treacherous.

Ishigo, Estelle. Pig pens at Heart Mountain Relocation Center. July 1943. Voices in Confinement: A Digital Archive of Japanese-American Internees, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/28722/bk001741b40/.

The painting by Ishigo depicts a colorful landscape of green mountains with a house blowing smoke through its chimney. In the forefront, there are pens dotted with pigs with men attending to them.

Ishigo, Estelle. Sudden Storms. C. 1942-1945. Collection 2010, Box 781, Item 7. Estelle Ishigo Papers, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/hb0x0nb3q0/.

This painting depicts people in Heart Mountain Relocation Center. Subjects are running for cover from a storm.

Ishigo, Estelle. The men had no bathtub so the[y] made one. C. 1942-1945. Collection 2010, Box 78, Folder 5. Estelle Ishigo Papers, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/hb9m3nb8rr/.

This black and white drawing depicts men showering and bathing communally. Below the drawing reads “The men had no bath so they made one.” This drawing shows the lack of privacy that Japanese Americans endured in the camps. This drawing shows how simple daily routines were often embarrassing, dehumanizing, and uncomfortable.

Obata, Chiura. Moonlight Over Topaz, Utah. December 22, 1942. Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Museum Collection, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York. https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/objects/13515/moonlight-over-topaz-utah.

This is a watercolor painting on silk entitled, Moonlight Over Topaz. It was painted by Japanese artist Chiura Obata who was an art professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Obata and his family were relocated to Central Utah Relocation Center (Topaz) in 1942, where he then established an art school for other Japanese artists and continued his work as a painter. The painting was presented to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt at the White House in May 1943, after she inquired about the treatment of interned Japanese Americans. The painting depicts an early morning sunrise with a visible moon cascading light over Topaz. The camp is dwarfed by the pastel sky, a misty mountain range and desert. The peaceful landscape is contrasted by the dark outlines of a guard tower, barracks, and barbed wire fences.

Kasai, Amy E. Amy Kasai pictorial works depicting life in Japanese American internment camps. 1942-1943. The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

This collection is a mix of watercolor paintings, drawings, and sketchbooks especially focused on offices in the camps. Included is a folder called the “Finance Manual ” from the official “War Relocation Authority” with different tabs called “examination report, Financial reports,” etc.

Kasai, Amy E. “Drawing Class.” 1942. Voices in Confinement: A Digital Archive of Japanese-American Internees, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk001729660/.

“Drawing Class” is a simple original drawing by artist Amy Kasai, done in pencil on paper made in the Fresno Assembly Center. It depicts two male inmates kneeling on the ground, creating sketches in a drawing class. The background displays a few simple objects, like a desk and a bench. Overall, the drawing has little contours and no colors and the figures are not identifiable. Amy Kasai was born in Oakland and became a Fresno Residence before internment. After WWII Kasai pursued a career in art and her work has been shown in several galleries and acclaimed throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The focus of her works was on the everyday lives in the camps.

Kasai, Amy E. “Painting of barracks.” Voices in Confinement: A Digital Archive of Japanese-American Internees, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk001729d86/.

This painting shows multiple barracks with barren surroundings. The barracks are located within the Fresno Assembly Center. This detention facility was located at the Fresno County Fairgrounds. The facility was in use for 177 days and was the last of the fifteen detention centers to close. Overall the camp held over 100 barracks and housed a total of 5,344 captives. Nearly all captives were sent to the Jerome, Arkansas camp while others were transported to the Gila River camp in Arizona. The painter Amy Kasai was born on February 19, 1921 in Oakland, California. After the war Kasai received her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Minnesota.

Saito, Siberius Y. Drawings of the Tanforan Assembly Center. c1942. The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Charcoal and paper drawings of Tanforan, especially infrastructure.

Sugimoto, Henry. Bombing of Relatives Homeland. c1945. Henry Sugimoto Collection, Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, California. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/tf6f59n870/.

Painting depicting how prisoners learned of the atomic bomb. The figure on the left is pointing into the sky where there is a cartoon bubble showing the devastating atomic bomb drop on Hiroshima, Japan. You can see that the people inside this camp are crying, and confused about the news they received.

Sugimoto, Henry. Documentary, Junkshop Man Took Away Our Icebox. c1942. Henry Sugimoto Collection, Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, California. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/tf9489p040/.

A Caucasian man carries an icebox away on his back as a Japanese mother and daughter express their frustration as they watch. In the lower left, a woman, dressed in blue with a white apron, raises her fists above her shoulders. A young girl in a white-trimmed red dress stands before the woman wiping her eyes with her right hand and pointing at the man with her left. To the right, a small black dog wearing a red collar barks at the man. In the center foreground, a bearded man bends under the weight of a white icebox he carries in a tan sling on his back as he walks to the street on the right. He is dressed in blue rolled shirtsleeves, dark pants, grey belt and black cap. His lower face is obscured by his hands which grip the sling at his chin. They stand on the front lawn of a tan-trimmed grey house with a lime-green mailbox visible in the background. “NO JAPS WANTED” is painted in white under the front window. The street on the right recedes into the background past a white picketed house with a brown roof at top right. A blue truck is parked at the curb with an icebox, potted bonsai and a green object with a circular pattern in the truck bed. “L.A. Junk Shop” is printed on the tailgate. Stretched and framed.

Sugimoto, Henry. Freedom Day Came. c1945. Henry Sugimoto Collection, Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, California. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/tf7n39n9dp/.

Signed in medium, bottom left corner: Henry Sugimoto. Written on back, top center: “Freedome [sic] Day Came”/ 24″ x 20.” Stretched and framed. A man leans on a table with his chin in his hands looking at a yellow-brown bird sitting in its cage which has its door open. A paper with the title “Exclusion lifted” sits on the table between the man’s arms. A map of the United States with the word, “California,” appears on the background and covers the table.

Sugimoto, Henry. Goodbye My Son. c1942. Henry Sugimoto Collection, Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, California. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/tf7w10061z/.

This image shows a family wishing their son goodbye as he enlists for war. You can feel the sadness and the love for one another through the hand gestures and facial expressions. The son’s gaze is directly looking at the viewer. I believe the purpose of this is for the viewer to be confronted with the emotional moment when a family is torn apart from war. In the background you can see a tent with the letters WRA (War Relocation Authority) written on it. This is a vital part of the painting to show that they are making the greatest sacrifice for American freedom while imprisoned. One thing that I noticed with Sugimoto’s paintings is that they almost always have the mess hall and block number in the image.

Sugimoto, Henry. Self Portrait in Camp. 1943. Henry Sugimoto Collection, Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, California. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/tf2x0n99cw/.

Henry Sugimoto created a self-portrait depicting himself in color.

Sugimoto, Henry. Senninbari (Thousand Stitches). c1942. Henry Sugimoto Collection, Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, California. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/tf5k4004hn/.

Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto. Written on back: “Thousand Stitches” / by Henry Sugimoto; Upper right (In Japanese): Senninbari / 1982 / HS, NY

Stretched and framed. Image of a ghostly outline of a Nisei soldier standing in salute as he looks down at a woman holding up a senninbari with a thousand stitches (scarf of remembrance). She is in a maroon top and black skirt and stands in front of a barbed wire fence with a sign, “Block 2,” in the foreground. The white scarf has a tiger’s face and Japanese characters among the stiches. A rattlesnake is coiled on the other side of the fence, lower left. Dirt and dry grasses extend past the watchtower with soldier to the green trees in the background. A grey object lies in the grass next to the tower. Above trees, white crosses with one American flag appear on a field of blue at center, with red gold sky to either side. (Very similar to the painting entitled “In Camp Jerome”, also by Sugimoto 92.97.9.)

In the years following World War II, Sugimoto revisited the subjects he had depicted during his years in the concentration camps. Often starting from compositions he created during the war, he translated many works onto larger canvases and inserted new details. Issei mothers prepared their sons for war by creating a senninbari, a protective talisman made of cloth. An image is sewn onto the fabric with a thousand stitches done by many women throughout the camp. Sugimoto’s sympathy for both Nisei soldiers and their Issei parents is evident in this work.

Audio-Visual Materials / Filmed Oral Histories

Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project. “Memories of the Day of Mass Removal – Ben Takeshita.” Densho Digital Repository. August 9, 2019. Video, 2:46. https://youtu.be/LTvtZ_ao6Vw.

The speaker, Ben Takeshita, was a resident in San Mateo and was a student during the relocation. His family was sent to Topaz, Utah. In the video, Ben talked about on the day they left his Mom made him and his siblings bring many jackets, she made a ton of sugar brittles, because they did not know about the food and living conditions in the concentration camp and were told that it was cold there. He also talked about on the day they were gathered to take the bus to the destination, and during the trip to the gathering place, his classmates of German and Italian descent did not come out and wish them well because they were afraid of what could happen to them later on.

Japanese American Museum of San Jose. “Returning to School after Leaving Camp – Yoshiko Kanazawa.” Densho Digital Repository. January 3, 2019. Video, 1:41. https://youtu.be/UzxwRUk75ZY.

Yoshiko Kanazawa was a student in Pasadena, California during World War II. She was relocated to Tulare Assembly Center and the Gila River Concentration Camp in Arizona. In this oral history video, Kanazawa talked about how she was treated after she returned to her school in California after the concentration camp. The vice principal and students welcomed her back and took turns inviting her to dinners and lunches. She also talked about the principal who later returned from his Pacific duties who used a lot of racial slurs when talking about his own experience in World War II.

Manzanar National Historic Site. “Defying the Curfew Before Mass Removal – George Maeda.” Densho Digital Repository. February 10, 2020. Video, 3:06.

https://youtu.be/9fO_xvuuj58.

George Maeda was a resident of the San Fernando Valley in California before World War II. During the war Maeda was sent to the Manzanar concentration camp in California. In the video, he talked about how one day after he got back from school, he saw his father, a teacher at a Japanese school, taken away by the FBI, leaving his mom, sister and him in the house. His mother was terrified and couldn’t stop crying. Believing it might be the last chance to see their family, his mother then later took them to visit his aunt in Azusa.

Office of War Information, Bureau of Motion Pictures. “Japanese Relocation.” Selected audio and video recordings from the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Digital Archive, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Video, 10:40. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/k67s7pz0/.

This video was created by the United States Army and the War Relocation Authority as a record of the Japanese relocation process. The narrator, Milton S. Eisenhower, was the director of the War Relocation Authority. In the video, Eisenhower described how the Army was concerned that the West Coast would become a potential warzone. The film provides a lot of valuable footage of the relocation.

Bibliographies (Collected by Others)

Origel, Karen, and Anne Woo-Sam. 2000. The World War II Japanese American Incarceration: an Annotated Bibliography of the Materials Available in the California State Archives. Sacramento, CA: California Research Bureau, California State Library. https://www.library.ca.gov/Content/pdf/crb/reports/AB-00-001.pdf.

This annotated bibliography provides information on the general subject card files of the California State Library related to Japanese Americans during World War II. It includes sources like the alien land law card files, oral histories shelved at the archives, Earl Warren’s Letter books from his time as Attorney General, and the published guides to the Earl Warren and Secretary of State’s Papers. The last section offers a list of legislation and court opinions concerning the status of Japanese Americans in California during WWII.

Camp Documents, Ephemera, and Records

Akitsuki, Byron. Co-ordinating Committee to Raymond R. Best. February 5, 1944. Willard E. Schmidt Papers, California State University Japanese American Digitization Project, San Jose State University Department of Special Collections and Archives. https://calisphere.org/item/9d5b16c2131a6ec0c10c342847b966f6/.

A memo written by the Co-ordinating Committee at Tule Lake to Raymond R. requesting the release of Joe Kiyotake Abe from Army custody. Abe had been in custody since the end of December, 1943, and his wife had been hospitalized resulting in three of his children being left without parental care. This document shed light on the healthcare system within the camps and how children were affected once parents had taken ill.

“CO-OP canteen moving out sale.” November, 1943. Japanese-Americans in World War II Collection, Sanoian Special Collections Library, California State University, Fresno. https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-csujad-7-19/.

A flyer that announced a moving-out sale for the detainees in the concentration camp. It indicates what kind of objects were brought into and circulated in the camp.

College Summer Service in a Relocation Center. July 6, 1944. California State University Japanese American Digitization Project, Delmar T. Oviatt Library, California State University, Northridge. https://calisphere.org/item/256e4f85aace1d54b4866903e7f89c72/.

This flier is a call targeted for white college students to assist in an eight-week summer service leading boys and girls clubs, community activity programs, arts and crafts work, recreation, and church vacation Bible schools at the Gila River and Manzanar internment camps. The flier states it provides “the opportunity to serve significantly in these tragic days” and to “come to know these Americans of Japanese descent.” The flier was posted on July 6, 1944. Additional information about the program cost, supervision, and application process was included.

Dual Citizenship. 1942-1943. BANC MSS C-A 171, Carton 1, Folder 52. Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles and Fair Play, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/k67w6jnz/.

This file collection features articles discussing the ‘Japanese Problem’ and the various forms of citizenship between the United States and Japan and the termination of citizenship process for expatriation. The article was written by Roy Malcom, a professor at USC. This source compares US jus soli and Japanese jus sanguinis citizenship.

This collection includes documents recruiting Japanese Americans into the US Army, letters by Japanese American soldiers to their families, and also discussions on the reemployment of Japanese workers into farms and other homeland front industries.

“Education.” Tanforan Totalizer (San Bruno, CA), Sep. 12 1942. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84025955/1942-09-12/ed-1/.

This newspaper edition was the last issue of Tanforan Totalizer, a newspaper published at internment camp in Tanforan by Japanese American Taro Katayama. The publisher later was the managing editor for the “Topaz Times.” This article explicitly records the education department’s programs at the camp, including the art course by Chiura Obata, who had been a professor at Berkeley.

“Enrollment Open for Art Classes.” Tanforan Totalizer (San Bruno, CA), May 15, 1942. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84025955/1942-05-15/ed-1/.

This is a newspaper advertisement for an art course led by acclaimed artist Chiura Obata, who was a professor at UC Berkeley evacuated to the Tanforan Assembly Center.

Issei Informal Representative Council. Poston II Meeting Minutes. August 5, 1942-August 24, 1942. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder J15.44. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/k69k4j8s/.

This document is a compilation of council meetings at the Poston II Internment Camp in Arizona which occurred between the dates of August 5, 1942 to August 24, 1942. It includes discussions on the issue of Issei/Nisei relations as it pertained to the election of Block Representatives of the Temporary Council, election policies by the camp director (“Mr. Head”), nominations of representatives (with name, age, and block number of each nominee), a sample ballot, speeches, and more.

Kojima, Takasumi. Japanese Americans in Internment Camps 1942-1946: Physical Layout of the WRA Camps. April 5, 1993. BANC MSS 93/105 c, Folder 2. Voices in Confinement: A Digital Archive of Japanese-American Internees, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0016z4t0t/.

This document provides a detailed overview and maps for all of the assembly centers and permanent relocation centers, including statistics on the occupancy of each location. The employment and salary of the Japanese people were recorded, including after the war. Textual overview of the living spaces, hospitals, and education that they received. The document describes the Tule Lake Closure, which was a segregation camp. The author was funded by the Bancroft Library to research the relocation camps in the 1990s and migratory farm labor camps.

Labels from medicine sent from Japan to internees at Crystal City Department of Justice Internment Camp. c1944. California State University Japanese American Digitization Project, California State University, Dominguez Hills, Department of Special Collections and Archives.

https://calisphere.org/item/355b723519259ca096f47e08ca566442/.

A scrapbook entry compiled by Mary Frances Clark depicting three labels from medicine sent to internees at Crystal City Department of Justice Internment Camp directly from Japan.

Maps of camp showing incidents of crime. 1943-1944. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder O2.52. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/k6057p2z/.

The maps identify different crimes committed at Manzanar. Most were crimes of petty theft within the housing areas, but the map also details sex crimes, grand theft, assaults, battery, disturbing the peace, and peeping toms.

McFarling, J. Ralph. Press Release, Family Relocation Counseling Unit. March 6, 1944. California State University Japanese American Digitization Project, California State University, Dominguez Hills, Department of Special Collections and Archives. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/c8057j9j/.

This is a flyer encouraging families to come to counseling units and learn more about resettlement plans. The person who wrote this press is McFarling, J. Ralph, a community analyst for the War Relocation Authority.

Myer, Dillen. Report on Manzanar Strike/Riot. January 8, 1943. Willard E. Schmidt Papers, California State University Japanese American Digitization Project, San Jose State University Department of Special Collections and Archives.

https://calisphere.org/item/1fb26a7b19a7e0c191d8dcfaf3e7afd6/.

This is a report created by the War Relocation Authority after a riot/strike broke out at Manzanar. This document describes that on the evening of December 6, 1943, two different groups of inmates at the Manzanar camp marched to the police station and hospital. The group marching to the police station included 500-800 inmates, while the group marching onto the hospital included 3000-4000 inmates. This report also contains population and demographic information about the camp, and a description of the events as they unfolded.

Nishimoto, Richard S. Food. 1944. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder J6.15 (19/43). Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0013c5v68/.

The author of this document is Richard S. Nishimoto, who was a graduate from Stanford living in the Bay area. This document outlines food and eating conditions at Tule Lake. It references communications between leading figures in the camp, and camp officials. Of concern was a lack of rice, issues in rationing sugar, milk, hunger strikes in the camp, and food theft when food packages delivered to the camp disappeared. The document gives periphery details of an altercation when camp guards broke the leg of a Japanese man referred to as Nogawa.

Organization chart, memos and instructions for staff. 1942-1945. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder H3.16. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/k66m3dtb/.

This document contains organizational charts, memos, forms, and instructions for staff at Topaz. It is a direct look into the management and policies of the camp and procedures that dictated daily life for the detainees. It contains staff meeting minutes from the Poston Internment Camp in Arizona from January 28 to March 19, 1943. The document is organized by subject and date of meeting. It reveals a view of the Poston camp from the perspective of members of the War Relocation Center’s administration including UC Berkeley professor and anthropologist Elizabeth Colson, anthropologist Edward Spicer, anthropologist A.H. Leighton, as well as several internees at the camp. Relatedly, the meeting regarding Health on February 19, 1943 reveals some information about the arrangement between the Poston camp and the University of California regarding the transferring of credit to young teachers in Poston. This document would benefit those with research interests in partnerships between the university and the camps and/or on university teachers on the camps.

Pre-Temporary Council. Poston II Meetings Minutes and Roster. July 28, 1942-August 20, 1942. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder J1.48. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/k6rn3fvh/.

This is a compilation of minutes from the first few Pre-Temporary Council meetings at the Poston II Internment Camp that occurred between July 28, 1942 and August 20, 1942. It documents the creation of government within the camp including the results of the council member election and appointment of committee members, discussions of committee reports and proposed solutions, and each committees’ reports themselves. These are divided by issues such as Medical Sanitation/Public Health, Education, Entertainment, Religion.

Sleath, Jack C. Jack C. Sleath to Willard E. Schmidt. May 5, 1944. Willard E. Schmidt Papers, California State University Japanese American Digitization Project, San Jose State University Department of Special Collections and Archives. https://calisphere.org/item/f860a4e77918bcfbc955ff1b212d500e/.

A memo authored by Jack C. Sleath, M.D., Chief Medical Officer to Willard E. Smith about Ward X. Within the memo, Sleath asks how to handle individuals who display “”drunkenness, mental illness and violations of the law on various offenses;” and the wards’ responsibility to those who are believed to be mentally ill. This document details policy issues and operations of healthcare systems within camps.

“Special Internment Camps for Families.” 1942-1945. BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder J6.27 (23/27). Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0013c617w/.

This form was sent out by the WRA and was required if an individual wanted to transfer into a “special camp” (usually a military camp) in order to join immediate family, like husbands imprisoned in Crystal City, Texas. The importance of having families kept together, especially for the sake of their children is discussed. The records of interviews are released as they mention fear of deportation, conflict in family, and work and pay at the camps. The letters and documents allow us to see the process of the families being reunited at internment camps, their interviews, and application process, a valuable source for research of Japanese internment camps.

Teachers’ Meeting. October 2, 1942. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder J6.27 (08/27). Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0013c602m/.

In the Teachers’ Meeting. The compiler of this document is Tamie Tsuchiyama, who was the only Japanese-American to work full time for the Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement Study. This document shows how teachers, librarians, and professors from different colleges, including UC Berkeley, were actively involved in solving the education crisis in camps.

Community Responses

Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles and Fair Play. Report on Examination of Transactions for period March 5, 1943-December 22, 1943. December 28, 1943. BANC MSS C-A 171, Carton 1, Folder 15. Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles and Fair Play Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/k61g0sp1/.

The Pacific Coast Committee was organized in 1943 to ensure and protect the constitutional rights of the Japanese who had been evacuated from the Pacific Coast in 1942. This long list of donors shows that many Berkeley and Oakland residents were involved. This archival set of records can be used as supporting evidence to claims that East Bay residents were passionate about donating to pro-Japanese causes as many Berkeley students were affected by relocation.

Correspondence

Bird, Remsen D. Remsen D. Bird to Robert G. Sproul. April 25, 1942. Japanese American Relocation Collection, Occidental College Library, Los Angeles, California.

https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/kt4t1nf1mr/.

A letter from Remsen Bird, the president of Occidental college in Pasadena, to Robert G. Sproul, the president of UC Berkeley. Bird expresses his concerns about the need for education for the Japanese in internment camps. They exchange advice and insights about Japanese internment. In the letter, president Bird talks about several actions president Sproul could take and names several people he could talk to.

Bowron, Fletcher. Correspondence. 1942-1943. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder A 15.14. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0014b1694/.

Collection of disturbing anti-Japanese letters sent to Mayor Fletcher Bowron. Brown was the 35th mayor of Los Angeles, and the longest-serving mayor to date. Fletcher Bowron was a member of the Republican Party and a known supporter of Japanese American removal during WWII. In the first letter addressed to Mayor Bowron, the writer complimented Mayor Bowron’s work of “keeping the jap out of this country forever,” and reiterating “a jap is a jap, the only good one is a dead one.” The writer underlined “country forever” and “dead” for emphasis. The second postcard, likely sent by a child, simply wrote “the japs then the jews.”

Donnelly, Hugh P., Herbert W. Slater, Irwin T. Quinn, George J. Hatfield, and Jess R. Dorsey, California State Senate Fact-Finding Committee on Japanese Resettlement to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Henry L. Stimpson, and Clarence F. Lea. December 11, 1943. BANC MSS C-B 510: 1. Robert W. Kenny Papers, Voices in Confinement: A Digital Archive of Japanese-American Internees, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0016z3h17/.

Advising that no Japanese be allowed to live on the Pacific coast as long as the war continued, the California State Senate Fact-Finding Committee on Japanese Resettlement questioned the loyalty of Japanese Americans. The committee claims fear of espionage and “bloodshed,” writing President Roosevelt and painting Japanese people as violent. Written by a “fact-finding” committee, this letter cites few facts on statistics or evidence that Japanese people were a danger to the American military or other civilians.

Fujita, Henry K. Henry K. Fujita to H. A. Strong. August 9, 1942. Gaye LeBaron Collection, California State University Japanese American Digitization Project, California State University, Sonoma. https://calisphere.org/item/06d66ee93fda88b17fe5c5d53baf4d82/.

Personal letter by Henry K. Fujita addressed to his boss Mr. H. A. Strong of the Electrolux Corporation in San Francisco describing unsanitary conditions in the Merced Assembly Center.

Geary, John T. John T. Geary to Robert W. Kenny. July 23, 1945. BANC MSS C-B 510: 4. Robert W. Kenny Papers, Voices in Confinement: A Digital Archive of Japanese-American Internees, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0016z3h4w/.

This correspondence provides insight into the varying opinions of Californians and California government officials regarding Japanese internment and the treatment of Japanese and Japanese Americans in the society of the United States–especially within Orange County.

Glass, Lauren E. Lauren E. Glass to Faculty, University of California, Berkeley. April 2, 1943. Voices in Confinement: A Digital Archive of Japanese-American Internees, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk001726406/.

This is a letter to UC Berkeley concerning the supply of books, athletic equipment, games, or craft materials for students in the relocation center at Gila River.

Japanese American Citizens League. Correspondence. 1944-1967. BANC MSS 78/177 c. Wayne M. Collins Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0016z100z/.

This is a legal file containing documents used by the JACL (Japanese Americans Citizens League) while arguing in the famous Korematsu case. The documents include letters between JACL members as well as newspaper and poster clippings.

Kawahara, Fred. Fred Kawahara to the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council. December 9, 1942. BANC MSS 82/134 c. Voices in Confinement: A Digital Archive of Japanese-American Internees, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/k63f4qcz/.

Letter by Fred Kawahara, a student at UC Berkeley who was relocated to an internment camp in Topaz, Utah, to an unknown recipient, informing him or her of his life after relocation. He expresses that he would like to continue his higher education at the University of Texas after not being able to complete his senior year at UC Berkeley.

Kawaoka, Kazumi, Tadaki Murano, Sasaki Kiyoshi, Kichisuke Nakamura, and Ninoichi Tomita. Residents of Block 30 to Raymond Best. Willard E. Schmidt Papers, California State University Japanese American Digitization Project, San Jose State University Department of Special Collections and Archives. https://calisphere.org/item/4df1a07495c8772f0d5c277da7f550a1/.

This source is a letter from Block 30 of the Tule Lake internment camp asking the director to remove Hiroyosi Tsuda from their army stockade, since he was well-known and respected by members of block 30.

Kenny, Robert W. Correspondence from Robert W. Kenny. 1944-1946. BANC MSS C-B 510: 6. Robert W. Kenny Papers, Voices in Confinement: A Digital Archive of Japanese-American Internees, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0016z3h60/.

This is a collection of correspondence from Robert Walker Kenny, an attorney in Washington, D.C. from 1944 to 1946 about the legal rights of Japanese Americans.

Kenny, Robert W. Robert W. Kenny to R. B. Cozzens. January 19, 1945. BANC MSS C-B 510: 6. Robert W. Kenny Papers, Voices in Confinement: A Digital Archive of Japanese-American Internees, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0016z3h60/.

Letter from Robert W. Kenny to Mr. R. B. Cozzens stating that the California Peace Officers can legally ask Japanese for their ID’s and that they should possess them at all times.

Kikuchi, Charles. Correspondence from Charles Kikuchi. 1942. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Box 311, Folder W 1.82. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk00137160d/.

Collection of letters sent to and from the Japanese internment camp at Tanforan by Charles Kikuchi. Kikushi was a UC Berkeley student at the time of his evacuation.

Kondo, George. George Kondo to California Japanese Alumni Association Committee Members. September 20, 1982. BANC MSS 86/97 c, box 51, folder 2. Yoshiko Uchida Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/k67949qb/.

George Kondo nominated Yoshiko Uchida for the “Alumnus of the Year” at UC Berkeley. In his nomination letter he stated Uchida was a passionate writer who encouraged people to take pride in their heritage. Kondo expressed his sympathy for Uchida’s wartime imprisonment. After the president received a letter of endorsement from the Professor Emeritus of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California about nomination of Ms. Uchida for the “Alumnus of the Year” award, he justified his action by stating that Uchida caused people living in the U.S. to recognize their multicultural and multi-ethnic contributions to the society. Uchida Graduated from the University of California in 1942; she received her diploma in absentia in the confines of a horse stall in Tanforan Assembly center. Uchida was a victim of racism and discrimination at the time of Japanese internment. Later, she became a prolific writer of children’s books; Among the 26 children books she has written, she has received the coveted Silver Award from the Commonwealth Club of California. Also, she received “Samurai of Gold Hill” in 1973 and “A Jar of Dreams” – in 1982. In “Desert Exile”, One of her most famous books, Uchida talks about her internment experience and how the decisions made during that period changed human lives.

McCloy, John J. John J. McCloy to Harry L. Kingman. July 9, 1943. BANC MSS 76/173 c. Harry L. Kingman Papers, Voices in Confinement: A Digital Archive of Japanese-American Internees, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0016z3j6h/.

This is a compilation of four letters between Mr. Kingman, and the Secretary of War about Japanese Americans in the encampments and their role in the war. “Harry L. Kingman was born in 1892 in Tientsin, China, the son of a Congregational missionary. Several years later his family settled in Pomona, California, where he attended public schools, and, in 1914, earned an A.B. degree from Pomona College. In 1916, after playing baseball with the New York Yankees for two seasons, he moved to Berkeley to accept the position of Freshman Secretary for the University of California YMCA, better known as Stiles Hall.”

McCrillis, W.H. W.H. McGrillis to Harry L. Kingman. April 28, 1942. BANC MSS 76/173 c. Voices in Confinement: A Digital Archive of Japanese-American Internees, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0016z3j4d/.

Addressed to Harry Kingman, written by Secretary Harold Ickes’s special assistant McCrillis, Secretary Ickes thanks Kingman for his letter. There is mention of an article Kingman wrote, describing evacuees as “Tumble-Weeds.” Harry Kingman, the recipient of the letter, was born in China but lived in California, went on to play for the New York Yankees, and later became secretary for Stiles Hall at Berkeley. Secretary Harold Ickes implemented FDR’s New Deal as well as headed the PWA (Public Works Administration).

Okuda, Kenji. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano. May 30, 1942. Higano Family Papers, Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, Puyallup, Washington. https://cdm16786.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/pioneerlife/id/13438.

A letter from Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano from Camp Harmony about his feelings on internment on Memorial Day, May 30, 1942. Camp Harmony was a name for the Puyallup Assembly Center, organized in May 1942 on the Western Washington Fairgrounds in Puyallup, Washington. More than 7,000 Japanese Americans from Washington and Alaska were sent there before being transferred to Tule Lake, Minidoka, and Heart Mountain Relocation Centers. Kenji Okuda writes to Norio, who is apparently located in Chicago, about feeling left out with his fellow Americans on Memorial day in Camp Harmony as they do not have any sort of event to honor the soldiers who are currently in battle. He talks about the hypocrisy of the American democracy as he finds himself in a concentration camp. He mentioned that the University of Chicago stopped accepting Japanese students but also goes on to say that other universities in Utah and Colorado still accept Japanese students which gives Kenji perpetual hope that is felt throughout his letter. He shares the conditions of his camp and how the weather has been like. He talks about how contagious disease is handled. He discusses the uncertainty of the other camps that he has the option of moving to because it may have better facilities but he refused to move because he feels that may forfeit his chances of getting accepted to a university which he feels is his only way out of the camp. He talks about his friend Gordie who is awaiting trial for refusing to register for the evacuation. Kenji mentions how few girls are at the camp but does have interest in one from the few. This letter takes us into the mind of the many young camp internees and how they experienced the concentration camps. There is also mention of a friend who refused to register for evacuation and was jailed by the F.B.I.

Pitmam, Esther E. Correspondence to Esther Pitman. 1942-1943. BANC MSS 81/43 c. Voices in Confinement: A Digital Archive of Japanese-American Internees, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0016z4n73/.

Japanese interned schoolgirls writing to former SF teacher, Miss Pitman. Helen complains about the routines of camp, and describes how none of her friends write to her anymore – chalking it up to either her terrible handwriting or to the war. In the second letter, Elsie describes how they sleep on army beds and have stew six times per week. She mentions being “relocated again,” and hoping for better, less temporary facilities to reside in when it happens. Elsie closes her letter by telling Miss Pitman that she looks forward to coming home and “living again as before.”

Sakamoto, Tatsuo, Manabu Sakamotom and Oasamu Sakamoto. Children of Kihichi Sakamoto to Raymond Best. February 14, 1944. MSS.2007.09.01. Willard E. Schmidt Papers, California State University Japanese American Digitization Project, San Jose State University Department of Special Collections and Archives. https://cdm16855.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16855coll4/id/6136/rec/1.

A letter sent from three of Kihichi Sakamoto’s children (Tatsuo, Manabu, and Osamu Sakamo) to the project director Raymond Best. The letter requests the release of Kihichi Sakamoto from the Army stockade so he may be reunited with their mother for the sake of her “health and mind.” The children’s mother suffered a mental health relapse since her imprisonment in Heart Mountain and her husband’s imprisonment.

Sakoda, James M. James M. Sakoda to and from Dorothy S. Thomas. April 27 – June 12, 1942. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder B12.45. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0013c5p8s/.

Small collection of correspondence between Mr. James Sakoda (a student at UC Berkeley) and Dr. Dorothy Thomas of the University of California at Berkeley. Sakoda’s opening letter expressed the University of California Berkeley’s confusion regarding the Wartime Civil Control Administration’s (WCCA) procedures for Japanese Americans who are subject to internment/imprisonment. The letters are heartbreaking but Mr Sakoda is able, it appears, to secure a small stipend from the University for his research. James Sakoda’s letters detail the Japanese evacuation and resettlement for the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study (JERS) as a field worker.

Sproul , Robert G. Correspondence from Robert G. Sproul. 1942-1949. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder W 1.35. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk001307f5j/.

This file contains several letters between Prof. Dorothy Swaine Thomas and President Sproul. Thomas was concerned the government might seize JERS records recorded by the UC students and analyze them out of context. This document also contains a speech by President Sproul which eloquently describes his opposition to anti-Japanese xenophobia, and the internment camps.

Uchida, Yoshiko. Yoshiko Uchida to Jerrold Hirula, correspondence for the Asian American Arts Projects. 1977-1983. BANC MSS 86/97 c, box 1, folder 6. Yoshiko Uchida Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. http://oac2-prd.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6qf8zwp/.

This source is a collection of letters between publisher Dr. Jerrold A. Hirula (Jerry) and writer Yoshiko Uchida as well as manuscript drafts (typed and handwritten) by Uchida. Their correspondence focused on a project called the Asian American Arts Project.

Shibutani, Tamotsu, #106. Akira, Omachi,” in The Japanese American and Resettlement: A Digital Archive, accessed March 8, 2020, https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/jarda/ucb/text/cubanc6714_box279t01_0939.pdf

This is a letter written by Omachi Akira, a student who transferred to UC Berkeley. Akira expresses his ambition of going to medical school in the United States. His plans were derailed by World War II. He discusses how his white friends outside the internment camp stood by him and helped him get his books.

Smith, Frank Herron. “Letter from Frank Herron Smith to C. I. O.” Station KYA, San Francisco, May 5, 1945, http://digitalcollections.archives.csudh.edu/digital/collection/p16855coll4/id/308/rec/12.

The author of this letter, Frank Herron Smith, was once a school teacher in Japan and Korea. He had returned to the US and settled down in Berkeley, California when he wrote this letter. His Asian background urged him to speak out against injustices committed against Japanese American citizens during WWII. Letter discusses working with Sacramento-area churches.

Sprague, Claire. “Jimmie who was sent to a Relocation Camp”, 1942, Stockton, California, USA, Digital Public Library of America http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt7j49n8xn.

A letter from a teacher (Claire Sprague) in Stockton, California about her Japanese American student “Jimmie” who was sent to a relocation center in 1942. Sprague recalls how before the war, 60% of her students were Japanese Americans and was heartbroken to see them and their families sent off to camps in surrounding areas. Sprague shares that she and her fellow teachers promised their students that they would find good homes for their pets. She shares how she remembers Jimmie, going up to her to tell her that nobody would want to help his pet dog because he is old and blind. But Clarie assured him that her dog would be cared for at a nice farm. Sprague continued to write to her students throughout their relocation.

Sproul, Robert G. from 1942-1949.” BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder W 1.35. The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement: A Digital Archive. The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Letters to and from Robert G. Sproul, president of the University of California from 1930 to 1952. Included in the set are letters concerning the effects of internment on the University of California and proposals for the Evacuation and Resettlement Study.

Sproul, Robert. Correspondence on Colleges and Universities. 24 April 1942, California State Government & the Incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, California, California State Archives.

Letter written by President of University California Robert Sproul to President of United States Franklin D. Roosevelt, pleading him to allow college-aged Japanese Americans to continue tertiary studies.

Sproul, Robert Gordon. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study. 1943. MSS-67/14 c, Folder W 1.35. Bancroft Library Archives, Berkeley, California, United States of America.

This is a letter from President Sproul to Dr. Dorothy Swaine Thomas, who was a professor of Rural Sociology, written on February 12, 1943. Prior to this letter, Dr. Thomas had written a letter to the president regarding three of her Japanese American field workers getting University graduate credit for their work.

Sproul, Robert G. President, University of California, to Remsen Bird, April 30, 1942, Occidental College Library, Los Angeles, CA. https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt8w103761/?brand=oac4

Robert G. Sproul’s response to Ramsen Bird’s letter regarding education at internment camps. Sproul supports organizing school services. The letter shows president Robert Sproul’s commitment to helping Japanese college students outside of the University of California. Robert Sproul was the president of the University of California, Berkeley during the Japanese internment while the person receiving the letter, Remsen Bird, was the president of Occidental college in Pasadena.

Thomas, Dorothy S. Robert H. Lowie, and others (2 of 2), Spencer, Robert F., 1942-1943, BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder K8.80:2, Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement records, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, California, USA.

This source consists of correspondence between UC Berkeley Sociology Professor Dorothy Swaine Thomas, who initiated the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study (JERS), and UC Berkeley Anthropology Professor Robert Harry Lowie. The digital file is a collection of letters from August 7 to December 23, 1942 and pertains to staff recruitment, staff compensation, and staff status reports at the various camps. This source would be a rich resource for students doing research on specific actions that some UC Berkeley professors (in this case, Thomas and Lowie) have done in response to the internment of the Japanese.

Thomas, Dorothy Swaine. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study. 1942. MSS-67/14 c, Folder W 1.35. Bancroft Library Archives, Berkeley, California, United States of America.

This folder contains multiple letters from Dr. Dorothy Swaine Thomas, who was a professor of Rural Sociology to Robert Gordon Sproul, who was the President of the University of California, Berkeley.

Letter 1: In this letter, Dr. Thomas is writing to President Sproul regarding three Japanese American researchers helping her from the camps. She argues it would not be fair if “Caucasian” field workers get their graduate credit from UC for exactly the same sort of work as is being done by those Japanese Americans, and she is asking for advice on this matter from President Sproul. It was written on November 14, 1942.

Letter 2: This is a letter from Dr. Dorothy Swaine Thomas, who was a professor of Rural Sociology, to President Robert Gordon Sproul, written on January 25, 1943. Dr. Thomas notifies Sproul that the Congressional Investigation of the Japanese Relocation Centers may get investigated and she and her collaborators might be called to testify. They are also afraid of their records being impounded. She argues the protection of the material is of extreme importance. She was concerned about the records falling into the wrong hands who could manipulate the data against Japanese Americans. She asks for legal counsel. She also attached a proposed draft of a letter to her collaborators, which she has not sent yet.

Letter 3: This is a letter from Dr. Dorothy Swaine Thomas to President Robert Gordon Sproul, written on February 9, 1943. She states that she has met Mr. Conard, the attorney of the Regents regarding the Investigating Committee. She states that Mr. Conard has told her that they do not have legal rights in this matter, and their research materials may have to be available to the Investigating Committee if they wish. She suggests she will likely keep copies of the records in some other location that is not her office. Mr. Conard’s advice was to use all the personal influence to prevent the records being examined. She hopes that this investigation will never occur.

Letter 4: This is a letter from Dr. Dorothy Swaine Thomas, who was a professor of Rural Sociology to Dr. Monroe E. Deutsch, the Vice-President and Provost, written on March 6, 1943. Dr. Thomas writes in this letter regarding the response from Dean Lipman about three Japanese American student researchers at the Japanese Relocation Center getting graduate credit for their work. She summarizes Dean Lipman’s argument, where he raises two questions: 1) whether it is possible for students in the social sciences to study problems of which they are a part, and 2) whether competent guidance can be given to students carrying on research in the field. Dr. Thomas argues back in this letter and shows her disturbance at the implications of Dean Lipman’s letter, for both the students and the study itself are now under attack. This shows a conversation of two conflicting views towards Japanese American students and the complications regarding this matter.

Letter 5: This is a letter from Dr. Dorothy Swaine Thomas, who was a professor of Rural Sociology to President Robert Gordon Sproul, written on November 4, 1944. Dr. Thomas had found out that the Columbia Foundation grant will not continue to support the Evacuation and Resettlement Study beyond the present fiscal year. The reasons for this are: 1) Mrs. Elkus’ belief that the Study would be completed and presumably published within three years from its inception, and 2) a shift in the policy of the Foundation against long-term grants for research to short-term grants, not exceeding one year. However, she believes that there is an underlying dissatisfaction with this University, not this Study in particular, but rather with University projects in general, and with the technical as contrasted with the ameliorative aspects of social research. This shows Dr. Thomas’ effort to protect the Japanese resettlement research.

Letter 6: This is a letter from Dr. Dorothy Swaine Thomas, who was a professor of rural sociology, to President Robert Gordon Sproul, written on August 23, 1945. Dr. Thomas states that she is ready to publish the results of the Evacuation and Resettlement Study.

Tsumugari, Fusa. Correspondence from Fusa Tsumagari to Clara Breed, May 22, 1942, 93.75.31Y, Clara Breed Collection, Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, California

This is a letter from a high school student inside an Assembly Center dissuading their former librarian and mentor from San Diego from visiting due to worsening conditions inside of the camp.

Uchida, Dwight T. Correspondence from Dwight T. and Iku U. Uchida. 1941-1942. BANC MSS 86/97 c, Box 63, Folder 1. Yoshiko Uchida Papers, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/tf367n99st/.

Yoshiko Uchida was born in Alameda, California in 1921. Dwight Uchida immigrated to the United States from Japan in 1903 and worked for the San Francisco offices of Mitsui and Company. This folder consists of correspondence between Yoshiko Uchida’s parents, along with a small amount of personal and family papers, as well as her experiences as a Japanese American growing up in Berkeley, Calif., and internment camps during the war years.

Uchida, Dwight T., Letters of Support for, 1941-1942, Box 63, Folder 3, Yoshiko Uchida Papers, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf096n97z5/?brand=oac4

This is a collection of testimonies vouching for the good character of the Uchida family in Berkeley, written by white attorneys, diplomats, professors, and church officials. These testimonies/letters were sent to immigration officers and the attorney general to demand justice for the Uchidas as they were being held in a prisoner of war camp in Missoula, Montana.

Uchida, Yoshiko. Letters to Mr. and Mrs. Dwight T. Uchida, 1949-52. BANC MSS 86/97 c, box 61, folder 3. Yoshiko Uchida Papers. UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library, Berkeley, CA, US. https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6h1373s/?brand=oac4

Letters written by Yoshiko Uchida during 1949-1952 to her parents in Oakland, California detail the post-interment life of the now famous author. The letters start off with excerpts that show the beginnings of her serialization in the New Yorker. Following that are the letters that Uchida writes to her sister and parents while travelling to Japan and staying at the Matsuoko’s who were friends of hers. Uchida uses this time in her life as a way to familiarize herself with japanese culture. These letters shine a light on the life of Uchida after her incarceration in 1941 and her graduation from Smith College where she completed her education after her senior year at University of California, Berkeley was interrupted by the incarceration.

Uchida, Yoshiko. Uchida, Yoshiko, miscellany. 1942-44. BANC MSS 86/97 c, box 63, folder 6. Yoshiko Uchida papers. UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library, Berkeley, California, United States of America.

This is a collection of letters and writings by Yoshiko detailing how everyone felt when arriving in Utah. Her family was promised a stove, double walls, and a closet, but there were none there. The food was awful, and the environment was devastating. Everything was so dusty, and sandy. They were in the middle of nowhere in Utah. The people back at the school were missing Yoshiko, and wrote her letters.

Wilbur, Ray Lyman. President, Stanford University, and Others, to John L. DeWitt, Lieutenant General, March 24, 1942.” Online Archive of California, March 24, 1942. https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt2s2033wx/?order=2&brand=oac4.

In this letter the President of Stanford tried to warn General John L. DeWitt against the internment of Japanese and American citizens and gave several reasons as to why internment was a bad decision. This letter shows John L. DeWitt’s ideas were opposed by leading Californian intellectuals.

Government Documents, Reports, and Legislation

Bigelow, John. Tule Lake Incident. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder R 11.01. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/k6qz29p1/.

A report about an uprising of prisoners in the Tule Lake Detention Center demanding to know where their labor surplus was being moved. The US government put the blame on pro Japanese sentiment for causing a riot.

U.S. Congress. House. Civil Liberties Act of 1988, HR 442. 100th Cong., 2nd sess. Introduced in House January 25, 1988. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/6014904.

The 1988 Civil Liberties Act by the United States government that gave reparations to the Japanese Americans for internment based on racial prejudice instead of during WW2. The act gave $20,000 to any living American citizen who had been confined in the camps.

Collection of maps on the pre-evacuation locations of Japanese Americans in California / prepared under the direction of Earl Warren, State Attorney General, G4361.E1 1942 .C3, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/k6z89jtn/

Maps prepared under the direction of California State Attorney General Earl Warren, including property holdings in various California cities and counties belonging to persons of Japanese ancestry.

DeWitt, Western Defense Command, and Fourth Army Wartime Civil Control Administration. “State of California, [Instructions to All Persons of Japanese Ancestry Living in the Following Area:] Alameda County, City of Oakland.” Calisphere. California State University, Dominguez Hills, Archives and Special Collections, April 30, 1942. https://calisphere.org/item/a1597e8ee0522c191f37ac79fa508414/.

The document includes the steps the Japanese American residents of Alameda County took before the camps. John L. DeWitt was a general in the United States army and was famous for his vocal support of the internment of Japanese citizens of the United States.

DeWitt, John L. 1943. Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast, 1942: Final Report.

https://archive.org/details/japaneseevacuati00dewi/mode/2up.

General John DeWitt’s final report on the evacuation of persons of Japanese ancestry from areas on the West Coast.

Evacuation from the West Coast, clippings. BANC MSS C-A 171. Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles and Fair Play Records, UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library, Berkeley, California, United States of America.

This collection of clippings from 1942 to 1945 shows how the media portrayed life in the encampments for Japanese Americans. The creator of this collection is the Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles and Fair Play. The Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles and Fair Play was organized in January of 1943 with the express purpose of ensuring the constitutional rights of persons of Japanese ancestry who had been evacuated from the Pacific Coast and relocated to the interior of the country by presidential proclamation in 1942.

History of the Temporary Community Council Poston, Arizona, November 1942, Exhibit II, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, California, USA.

“History of the Temporary Community Council Poston” was written by Dr. T. G. Ishimaru, the former chairman of the Temporary Community Council, at the request of Theodore H. Haas, camp administrator and project attorney at the Poston Internment camp in Arizona. In particular, he addresses Issei’s protest against the War Relocation Agency’s exclusion of non-citizens in council elections.

Hoover, J. Edgar. Reported Bombing and Shelling of the West Coast, February 7, 1944. Memo. Densho Digital Repository, Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians Collection. http://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-67-19/.

A memo from director of the F.B.I, J. Edgar Hoover that states there was no evidence of any Japanese spies from U.S. reporting back to Japan. With the Federal Bureau Investigators refuting J. Dewitt’s final report.

Instruction sheet, Western Defense Command & Fourth Army, July, 24th, 1942, Tule Lake Relocation Camp, Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/japanese-american-internment-during-world-war-ii/sources/1277

An instruction sheet for internee repatriation to Japan, July 1942. This document goes into detail on howUS government officials should process the request for repatriation.

Japanese Americans — Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945 Form letters (1 of 2). Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles and Fair Play, Creator, UC Berkeley Bancroft Library. http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k690297t/?brand=oac4

The Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles and Fair Play Records are a collection of letters and reports from 1940 to 1951 that respond to the injustice of Japanese Internment. The Pacific Coast Committee was organized in 1943 with the intent of protecting the rights and personhood of Japanese Americans from the evacuation and internment. The collection is insightful as to which universities and organizations locally, (example, nearby Mills College) fought for Japanese American’s freedom and just treatment.

Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, BANC MSS 67/14 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/jais/

U.S. War Relocation Authority documents, including publications, staff papers, reports, correspondence, memoranda, press releases, and a few photographs. Also includes material collected and/or generated by the Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement Study, University of California, Berkeley, including evacuee diaries and letters, and staff correspondence, reports, and studies.

“The “Loyalty Questionnaire,” 1943.,” Densho Encyclopedia

https://encyclopedia.densho.org/sources/en-denshopd-p72-00004-3/ (accessed Mar 1 2020).

The Loyalty Questionnaire was prepared in 1943 to assess the loyalty of all adults in the concentration camps to the United States. The final two questions on the form which suggested a renunciation of loyalty to Japan created confusion and indignation to American-born citizens.

Manzanar From Inside Out, 5 May 1943, WRA_02-05_01, War Relocation Authority Collection, Special Collections & Archives, Oviatt Library, California State University, Northridge, California, United States.

A transcript of an address given to the Commonwealth Club of California, San Francisco, July 1942 by Roy Nash, the Director of the Manzanar War Relocation Project. The purpose of this address was to “interpret the actuality of a War Relocation Center housing 10,000 evacuees” from California.

Map of the locations of confinement sites, Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study (JERS), The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, CA, https://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/jais/map_allsites.html

The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study (JERS) was a research project initiated in 1942 at the University of California, Berkeley. It aimed to document and examine the mass internment of Japanese Americans by embedding Nisei social science students recruited from the Berkeley campus into selected internment sites. This map is part of the digital archive. It clearly shows the location of five camps in the west coast. And although the vast majority of the Japanese population resided in California, it turned out that only two of the internment camps were in California: Tule Lake in Modoc County (Northern California) and Manzanar in Inyo County (Southern California). There were two in Arizona, one in Utah, and another one in Idaho.

Map showing prohibited territories, “State of California, Richmond and Berkeley area prohibited or restricted zones,” 1943, CSU Japanese American Digitization Project, California State University, Dominguez Hills, Archives and Special Collections.

A map that outlines the exclusion and prohibited zones in the East Bay where Japanese and Japanese Americans could no longer reside. Cities mentioned in the document were as far north as Martinez and cities along the waterfront including Richmond and Berkeley.

Materials relating to the Farm Security Administration, Region IX, San Francisco, Calif., BANC MSS C-R 1, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf096n9889/

Ralph W. Hollenberg collected a variety of materials during his tenure as Acting Director, Region IX, U.S. Farm Security Administration, from 1939-1941. This collection contains administrative records, program files, and farm labor research materials relating to FSA activities in Region IX. The bulk of the collection is dedicated to a variety of agricultural, housing, and social programs created and administered by the FSA which also includes Farm labor research files focus on farmer organizations and agricultural development in Calif., and includes a few files containing reports, statements, talks, and press releases, with other printed material and clippings from 1942-1945, concerning the evacuation of Japanese Americans from the west coast during World War II.

National Student Relocation Council (War Relocation Authority, compiler), “From Camp to College,” July 1944, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k61c242t/?brand=oac4.

This federal government file is focused on the evacuation and relocation of students. In the section “From Camp to College,” financial topics, including financial aid, finding a part-time job, and vacation budgeting is explored.

“Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, San Leandro, Piedmont, Emeryville, Albany.” Map, G4361.E1 1942 .C3 no. 3 (March 1, 1941): OAChttp://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6m90fxk/?docId=k6m90fxk&brand=oac4&layout=printable-details.

The specific map of interest is the 1941 map of real estate owned by people with Japanese names in Alameda county. The data was collected from records of Assessor and Tax Collector offices in Alameda county. Notice multiple properties in a very close proximity to the UC Berkeley campus. Actual owners may or may not be associated with the school. https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6m90fxk/?layout=metadata&brand=oac4

Opler, Morris. Written analysis of Manzanar Repatriate Group for the federal government. 24 August 1943. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder O3.10. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.

Morris Opler of the welfare department sat in on interviews on repartirates. In his analysis he concludes many prisoners did not want to return to Japan as they had lived in America for decades and started families or careers. They feared their “economic stake” would be lost. Most individuals interviewed also mentioned immediate family members of theirs that had been left behind in Japan that they’d like to return to. Morris Opler was an American anthropologist and advocate for Japanese-American civil rights.

Renunciation Act, Public Law 78-405, 58 Stat. 677 (1944), https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/78th-congress/session-2/c78s2ch368.pdf

The Renunciation Act of 1944 (also known by its unofficial title: The Denaturalization Act) was passed by Congress in 1944 and subsequently signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on July 1, 1944. The Renunciation Act of 1944 was an amendment to the Nationality Act of 1940. The purpose of the act was to permit the “renunciation [of U.S.] nationality” by citizens. Prior to this amendment, United States citizens (whether born on U.S. soil or naturalized) could not lose their citizenship status while on U.S. territory, unless convicted of treason. The law allowed U.S. citizens to renounce their citizenship “whenever the United States shall be in a state of war” through the Attorney General. The act was intended to persuade Japanese American internment camp prisoners to renounce their American citizenship and thus be deported back to Japan.

Report by Tamotsu Shibotani, November 10, 1942. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement: A Digital Archive. The Bancroft Library, Berkeley, CA.

This is a general overview of Tule Lake and surrounding areas. Shibotani, a Japanese American sociologist from UC Berkeley working with JERS, describes weather patterns, hazards, what an average day was like, and explores how the Japanese American evacuees are adjusting to life there.

Roosevelt, Franklin D. “Executive Order 9066, Authorizing the Secretary of War to Prescribe Military Areas.” February 19, 1942. National Archives and Records Administration.

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/124450932.

This text of Executive Order 9066 which authorized the mass removal of Americans with Japanese ancestry from the West Coast.

Schmidt, W.E. “Report on incarcerees stealing plasterboard.” Willard E. Schmidt Papers, (1943). Courtesy of San Jose State University Library Special Collections and Archives

Official report by the chief of internal security of Tule Lake Camp of “incarcerees” stealing plasterboard to make closets in their barracks.

Segregation of Persons of Japanese Ancestry in Relocation Centers. Washington, D.C.: War Relocation Authority, 1943. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Box 95, Folder H 8.00. Bancroft Library, Berkeley, CA, USA. https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/jarda/ucb/text/cubanc6714_b095h08_0000.pdf#page=1.

The “Segregation of Persons of Japanese Ancestry in Relocation Centers” is a 65-page document that chronicles the segregation policies for the Tule Lake camp which held 8000 evacuees.

“U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, ‘Japanese in California Agriculture.’” Online Archive of California, March 16, 1942. https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6125tdm/?brand=oac4.

The document is a study of how Japanese internment affected agriculture in California. The first author, Lloyd H. Fisher is a social science analyst, while the second author, Ralph L. Nielsen is a Junior agriculture economist. Fisher was a professor of political science at UC Berkeley and he submitted his study to the House of Representatives on March 16, 1942 to show how detrimental to the agricultural industry Japanese internment would prove to be.

United States, Office of Facts and Figures. “Exploratory Study of West Coast Reactions to Japanese; Preliminary Results”, (Washington: Office of Facts and Figures, Bureau of Intelligence, Division of Intensive Surveys, 1942), https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100834145

The “Exploratory Study of West Coast Reactions to Japanese” was a quantitative report produced by the United States Office of Facts and Figures under the Bureau of Intelligence. Produced in January 1942, roughly one month after the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941), the purpose of the report was to sample the public’s opinion on Japanese Americans and the degree to which the general public trusted them. The report is divided into three parts: Appendix A consists of two forms outlining questions to be asked to the “interviewees” regarding Japanese and Japanese Americans. Appendix B consists of several detailed interviews with Japanese Americans concerning both the recent events of Pearl Harbor and their views of potential backlash. Appendix C also consists of several detailed interviews but from “west coast officials and other public spokesmen.” The survey found that respondents were roughly divided as to whether Japanese Americans were “virtually all loyal” (36%) versus “virtually all disloyal” (38%).

The United States Navy. Our Enemy — The Japanese. The United States Government. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7DsFEwh2k4.

A training film prepared by the US government for the US Navy. The film promoted war against the Japanese Empire.

Interviews and Oral History

Amemiya, Grace, Takako Endo, Chizu Iiyama, Frank Inami, Joanne Taeko Iritani, Margaret

Kusaba, Lillian Matsumoto, et al. Japanese American Women / Alumnae of the University of California Berkeley Oral History Project, 2007.

https://search-ebscohost-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat04202a&AN=ucb.b23152644&site=eds-live.

This oral history project provides eleven interviews with Japanese-American students who studied at the University of California Berkeley from the 1930s to 1951. Interviews were conducted by board members of the Japanese American Women Alumnae of the University of California, Berkeley.

Baldwin, Nancy Ikeda, Hiromi Dye, Ronald M. Hirano, Norman Hirose, Mike Honda,

Frank Inami, Junko Kimura, et al. Japanese American Confinement Sites World War II American HomeFront Oral History Project, 2012.

https://search-ebscohost-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat04202a&AN=ucb.b23148243&site=eds-live.

Cozzens, Robert, Kingman, Ruth, and Myer, Dillon. 1974. Japanese-American Relocation Reviewed: Volume II, The Internment. Interview by Rosemary Levenson, Amelia Fry, and Miriam Feingold Stein. Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.

This is a collection of three interviews conducted by Rosemary Levenson, Amelia Fry, and Miriam Feingold Stein in 1974. The interviewees included Rober Cozzens, Assistant National Director of the War Relocation Authority; Dillon Myer, Director of the War Relocation Authority; and Ruth Kingman, Executive Secretary of the Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles and Fair Play.

Janet Daijogo, “A Life’s Journey: From Child of the Incarceration to Master Teacher, Translating the Truths of Aikido for the Kindergarten Classroom” conducted by Sarah Selvidge in 2011, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2014.

Cal alumni Janet Daijogo describes incarceration and her childhood trauma during WWII.

Dye, Hiromi. Hiromi Dye interview transcript. Japanese American Confinement Sites World War II American Home Front Oral History Project, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2015. Transcript. https://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/jacs/dye_hiromi.html

Interview transcript with Hiromi Dye who was a UC Berkeley sophomore at the time of Pearl Harbor. Her father was a leader in the Japanese American community.

Hiromi Dye details growing up on a 61-acre orchard in Winters, California to being detained in a Japanese internment camp in Poston Arizona. Hiromi Dye was born in 1922, and her father owned a fruit orchard in SolanoCounty. In high school, Hiromi Dye won a speech competition on the meaning of citizenship. She later attended UC Berkeley living in a Buddhist Dormitory on 2121 Channing. In her sophomore year at UC Berkeley, she had to return home because her father was detained soon after Pearl Harbor, and she had no contact with him throughout the war. Hiromi was able to leave the detainment center to study Biology in Massachusetts, which marked the end of her internment.

Interview transcript with Mike Honda, Conducted by Sam Redman in 2012, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2015, https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/roho/ucb/text/honda_mike_2015.pdf

Interview transcript with former Congressman Mike Honda (-2017) who was born six months before Pearl Harbor. In the interview Honda talks about his family’s incarceration and his personal involvement in the Redress Movement leading to the creation of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians in 1980.

Inami, Frank. Japanese American Women/Alumnae of the University of California Berkeley Oral History Project by Mary Nakata Tomita, 2010, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States. https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/roho/ucb/text/inami_frank_2015.pdf

Inami’s interview reflects on his intellectual journey and racial discrimination at UC Berkeley and his parents who were born in Hiroshima, Japan.

Interviews, conversations and observations, 1943, BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder J10:15, Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement records, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, California, USA.

This source consists of personal interviews and conversations between UC Berkeley professor and Poston “community analyst” Elizabeth Colson, and evacuees at the Poston Internment Camp in Arizona. It spans the dates of May 5 to July 6, 1943. Most of Colson’s conversations and observations at Poston relate to schooling (from nursery to high school classes) at the camp.

Japanese American Women / Alumnae of the University of California Berkeley Oral History. The Bancroft Library. University of California Berkeley. https://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/jacs/transcripts.html

Interviews of Japanese American women who were students at UC Berkeley from the 1930’s to 1951. It includes their experience throughout World War II and the evacuation.

Kikuchi, Charles, “#10. Shimamota, Chutaro,” in The Japanese American and Resettlement: A Digital Archive, September 3, 1943, accessed March 8, 2020, https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/jarda/ucb/text/cubanc6714_box279t01_0939.pdf

This is an interview conducted by UC Berkeley student Charles Kikuchi with Cutaro Shimamoto. They discuss discrimination against Asian Americans in San Francisco before World War II. He expresses controversial opinions–including his belief Japan was justified during World War II.

Junko Kimura Interview. Dunham, David, and Candice Fukumoto. Bancroft Library. University of California Libraries, 2015. https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/roho/ucb/text/kimura_junko_2015.pdf.

The interviewers, David Dunham and Candice Fukumoto, interview Richmond, Ca. Resident Junko Kimura. Ms. Kimura, was a local resident of Richmond, CA with connections to UC Berkeley.

Typescript of the Ben Kodama Interviews, MSS 83/115 c, box 7, folder 14, Wax (Rosalie H.) Papers, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA.

This document is a transcription of a phone interview between Ben Kodama, a Tule Lake prisoner, and Rosalie H. Wax, a former UC Berkeley professor who compiled interviews and primary sources from Japanese-American internees in the early 1980’s. Ben Kodama was a former US Army soldier, who was born in Hawai’i but educated in Japan. He had lived in the US for 6 years before being interned with his wife, and had served for 1 year in the army before being honorably discharged.

Margaret Koide Kusaba, Japanese American Women/Alumnae of the University of California Berkeley Oral History Project by Mary Nakata Tomita, 2010, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States.

Kusaba entered UC Berkeley in 1929 and earned a Master’s in 1935. She was incarcerated in Manzanar Internment Center. Then she and her brother returned to their damaged home in Berkeley after the War.

Li, Amy. “Ruth Hayashi.” Filmed November 2, 2015 in Berkeley, CA. Berkeley Historical Society. Video, 17:51.

Ruth Hayashi shares in an interview, conducted by Amy Li, a student at Berkeley High School, about her childhood and living in Berkeley during the World War II and Japanese Internment. Born in Berkeley, she did not have many Japanese friends while growing up because she lived in North Berkeley while most Japanese lived in the Southside.

“Yoshio Matsumoto Interview.” Hoshide, Dana, and Tom Ikeda. In Densho Digital Repository, June 16, 2009, accessed March 8, 2020, https://ddr.densho.org/interviews/ddr-densho-1014-1-8/

This is an interview with Yohio Matsumoto, a junior at UC Berkeley during the time of Japanese internment. He discussed the aftermath of Japanese internment on campus, and how Japanese students were treated in the wake of the world war.

Mihara, Sam. Sam Mihara interview transcript. Japanese American Confinement Sites World War II American Home Front Oral History Project, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2015. Transcript. https://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/jacs/dye_hiromi.html

This interview transcript conveys Sam Mihara’s experience during World War II. Sam Mihara was born on February 1, 1933 and grew up in Japantown, San Francisco. He was nine years old and in elementary school during the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor. He was later transferred to Heart Mountain in Wyoming. After his release, he studied Engineering at UC Berkeley and later obtained a Master’s degree in Engineering and Business from UCLA.

Mineta, Norman. “Norman Mineta Interview” interview by Tom Ikeda, Japanese American National Museum Collection, July 04, 2008. http://ddr.densho.org/interviews/ddr-janm-13-3-1/

Norman Mineta graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 1953 and also served in the military as well as in Congress and as Secretary of Transportation. Prior to that, during World War Two, Mineta and his family were removed from California and sent to the Heart Mountain internment camp in Wyoming. He served in the George W. Bush Administration.

Nagao Tomita, John. “World War II American HomeFront Oral History Project.” Interview by David Dunham and Candice Fukumoto. Regional Oral History Office, Bancroft Library, 2013. Transcript. https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/roho/ucb/text/tomita_john_2015.pdf

Interview with John Nagao Tomita who was studying as an engineer at UC Berkeley before being sent to Tule Lake camp.

Okuno, Art. “Art Okuno Interview” interview by Kirk Peterson, Manzanar National Historic Site Collection, September 01, 2009. http://ddr.densho.org/interviews/ddr-manz-1-80-7/

Art Okuno was attending the University of California Berkeley in 1941 when the United States entered World War II. He was imprisoned in the Pomona Assembly Center and then later transferred to Heart Mountain.

“Oral History Of George Omi”. 2020. Calisphere. https://calisphere.org/item/0d3b11f3b20446ba46fc092e10f47e50/.

Oral History of George Omi who studied the College of Environment Design at University of California of Berkeley as a landscape architecture major. Pausing his educational endeavors to serve in the Korean war, he returned to the University to finish his degree under the GI Bill.

Regional Oral History Office. “Norman Hirose Interview”. Interview by Sam Redman. Video, 0:00. https://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/jacs/hirose_norman.html

This interview documents the experiences of a UC Berkeley alum Norman Hirose before and after internment.

Interview with Joe Tominaga, 2012. UC Berkeley Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley

Interview with John Nagao Tomita who was studying as an engineer at UC Berkeley before being sent to Tule Lake camp.

Wax, Rosalie H. Interview with Hara, Kalvin K. Apr. 1982. UC Berkeley Bancroft Library. https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6gf0v11/?brand=oac4

Rosalie Wax conducted several interviews with former Tule Lake Center inmates. She was working for the University of California Evacuation and Resettlement Project to document the experiences of inmates. This specific interview features Thomas Kikuchi (April 11 1982) recounting the evacuation, Christmas in the camps as well as the shame and pain felt for being an inmate even years after.

Journals, Diaries, and Personal Ephemera

Journal of James K. Fisk, 4 September 1940, BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder A17.06 (1/6), Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement records, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States.

James K. Fisk, who was a American Legionnaire and Chairmen of the Joint Immigration Committee, wrote a journal entry describing his opinion on the relocation of Japanese Americans during WWII.

Diary of Doris Hayashi, Sept. 17- 1942, BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder B12.00 (4/5), Tanforan Assembly Center (San Bruno, Calif.). Bancroft Library. University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California.

Personal typewritten diary of Doris Hayashi, a UC Berkeley student who was relocated to Tanforan Assembly Center (San Bruno, Calif.).

Hiroshi, Sugasawara. Life History. Autobiographical Letter. BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder T1.9931, The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement: A Digital Archive, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

An autobiographical account of the camps from a UCLA student.

Diary of Charles Kikuchi. BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder W 1.80:08. Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley.

Personal typewritten diary of the experiences of Japanese American and UC Berkeley graduate student Charles Kikuchi.

Chiura Obata Papers, circa 1891-2000, 1942-1945. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

A collection of documents and art produced by Chiura Obata, an artist who taught at UC Berkeley, but was imprisoned in Topaz, Utah during World War II. He talks about teaching art classes in the camp with the help of friends in the Bay Area who sent supplies and support.

Journal, James Minoru Sakoda. BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder R 20.81:23. Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley.

James Minoru Sakoda was a UC Berkeley student and he depicts the chaos of the actual evacuation – instructions were not clear and school officials did not have sufficient details to help him understand what to expect. He was ultimately removed to Tule Lake and Minidoka.

Typescript of a Collection of Interviews conducted by Tamotsu Shibutani , June 22nd, 1943-March 27, 1944. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement: A Digital Archive. The Bancroft Library, Berkeley, CA. BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder R 21.00:3.

Tamotsu Shibutani, a Japanese-American sociologist from UC Berkeley, conducted interviews with War Relocation Authority workers “Mr. Black,” “Mr. Shirrell,” Walter Godfrey, “Doi,” George Yasukochi, Riley Osuga, Lil Shigeno, and Deki Seto.

Describes in detail the experience of evacuating with the “Berkeley group.”

“My Diary of Important Events”, Yoshiko Uchida Papers, 1943, BANC MSS 86/97 c, box 57, folder 7, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Yoshika Uchida was a famous Japanese American author who was a student at UC Berkeley during Pearl Harbor. This archive includes her journals between 1932-1939, before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Most of her journals are written with a happy tone about UC Berkeley and Japanese American students.

Yoshiko Uchida, Graduation Envelope from parents to Yoshiko Uchida. Brk00000580_7a.tif. Yoshiko Uchida Papers Collection, The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, California, United States. http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf3j49n6jd/?order=25&brand=calisphere (Accessed on March 2, 2020).

A graduation envelope from her parents congratulating Uchida on her graduation. Although the card is not hand-made, her parents write “To Yo” and “With all our love- Dad & Mom” inside it. This primary source shows the significance of graduation in a Japanese American college student’s life.

Magazine Articles

California Monthly articles “Evacuation: The First Five Months” by Yoshiko Uchida, 1966, BANC MSS 86/97 c, Box 45, Folder 2, UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library, Berkeley, CA, U.S.

Yoshiko Uchida describes when her family was investigated by the FBI. Uchida was evacuated while she was a UC Berkeley student. The article vividly describes the process she had to go through while being evacuated.

“Japanese Cultural Heritage can enrich American, Advises Issei Naturalized Citizen Who Teaches Japanese at U.C. Berkeley,” Pacific Citizen, Vol. 42, No. 13, March 30, 1956

This article provides the post-war perspective of a first-generation Japanese American immigrant at UC Berkeley and their attempts to become a recognized and naturalized citizen of the United States. The author of this article is Mrs. Sugi H. Togasaki of Berkeley, a stepmother of George K., Sim Togasaki.

Oyama, Mary. Magazine articles by evacuees. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study, Compiler, BANC MSS 67/14 c, Box 317, Folder W 2.47. The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement: A Digital Archive, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States

https://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/jais/timeline_event_feb42_03_lgimage.html

This magazine article entitled “My Only Crime is my Face” by Mary Oyama documents Mary Oyama’s experience as an American citizen imprisoned during World War II. This article was published on August 14, 1943, by Liberty Magazine. In the article, Oyama describes her brothers in the Army who only spoke English and being a devout Christian treated as a foreigner. She also describes the process of being removed from her home area to being loaded onto buses and being prisoners in Army custody, and the lasting psychological effects these experiences had.

“They Actually Said It.” The Daily Californian, Aug 19, 1943.

http://digitalcollections.archives.csudh.edu/digital/collection/p16855coll4/id/8414/rec/21.

This was a newspaper clip published at UC Berkeley. The section contained speeches made at the American Legion convention held in San Francisco Civic Auditorium advocating to keep Japanese Americans in the camps and not allowing them to return to college campuses.

Taylor, Paul S. “Our Stakes in the Japanese Exodus.” Survey Graphic: Magazine of Social Interpretation. September 1942. BANC MSS 67/14 c, Folder W 2.471. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk00139405d/.

“Our Stakes in the Japanese Exodus,” written by UC Berkeley Professor Paul Schuster Taylor, is an article from “Survey Graphic,” a magazine of social interpretation. Paul Schuster was an agricultural economist; he earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and later became professor of economics. In the article, he condemns the mass confinement of Japanese Americans in California, two thirds of whom were American born. He claimed that Japanese Americans were denied the constitutional rights of citizens; he perceived Japanese Americans as law-abiding citizens who paid their taxes and had not been found guilty of any misdemeanor or crime. He argued that the evacuation would keep the students of Japanese ancestry from accomplishing their academic goals.

Newspaper Articles

“63 Japanese-Americans Guilty of Draft Violations.” Wyoming State Tribune. June 26, 1944. Accessed March 03, 2020.

https://ddr.densho.org/media/ddr-densho-122/ddr-densho-122-367-mezzanine-28d7ebc016.pdf

Describes how the forced relocation of Japanese American citizens led some to believe they were void of their citizenship and did not respond to their draft notices. A judge sentenced them to confinement for draft violation.

Fares, Melissa. “75 years later, Japanese Americans recall pain of internment camps.” Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-japanese-anniversary/75-years-later-japanese-americans-recall-pain-of-internment-camps-idUSKBN15W2E2

Describes the mass detainment of Japanese Americans. Described the barracks and what they looked like.

Geisel, Theodor Seuss. 1942. Waiting for the Signal From Home… New York. Accessed March 1, 2020. http://cdn8.openculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/waiting-for-signals.png.

Propaganda cartoon in a New York newspaper by Seuss Geisel, also known as Dr. Seuss. This cartoon depicts Americans of Japanese ancestry in California, Oregon, and Washington preparing to sabotage the United States. The line “Waiting for a signal from home” across the Pacific suggested their loyalty was with Imperial Japan.

Newspaper Articles – Daily Cal

Typescript of a newspaper clipping by The Daily Californian, 1941, Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement records, UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library Archives, United States of America. https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/28722/bk0013b2q8d/?brand=oac4

This is a news clip from the Daily Cal published on December 11, 1941. It includes a statement produced by the Japanese Students’ Club regarding their feelings toward the war between the United States and Japan. They clearly declare their loyalty lies with the United States and express their gratitude toward both America and UC Berkeley.

Typescript of a newspaper clipping by The Daily Californian, 1942, Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement records, UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library Archives, United States of America. https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/28722/bk0013b2q8d/?brand=oac4

This is a news clip from the Daily Cal published on February 10, 1942, featuring a statement written by someone using the alias “Loyal American ‘42.” The author expresses obvious biases against students of Japanese descent and argues against the measures being taken by the University of California, Berkeley to aid these students.

Typescript of a newspaper clipping by The Daily Californian, 1942, Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement records, UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library Archives, United States of America. https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/28722/bk0013b2q8d/?brand=oac4

This source is a news clip from the Daily Cal published on February 11, 1942. It contains several responses to “Loyal American ‘42.” They write in the defense of their Japanese American classmates.

This is a statement by Monroe E. Deutsch–Vice-President and Provost of the University of California, Berkeley–published in the Daily Cal on December 11, 1941. Deutsch outlines the University’s expectations for its students. This included academic responsibilities, maintaining the examination schedule, but also expectations for student conduct. He explicitly states that all individuals of Japanese descent are to be treated as American citizens and should not be confused with alien enemies. Deutsch encourages students to serve the government in any way possible but to also recognize that it is the government’s duty to deal with cases of treason or espionage, not theirs in any vigilante form.

Yoshiko Uchida, “ Letters to the Ice Box: Home Wanted” The Daily Cal, April 1942. Yoshiko Uchida Papers Collection, The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, California, United States. http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf3j49n6jd/?order=6&brand=calisphere (Accessed on March 2, 2020).

Yoshiko Uchida’s ad to rehome her family’s dog.

Memoirs

Gruenewald, Mary Matsuda. Looking like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese-American Internment Camps. United States: NewSage Press, 2005

Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki, and James D. Houston. Farewell to Manzanar: a True Story of Japanese American Experience during and after the World War II Internment. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973.

Inada, Lawson Fusao. Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience. Heyday, 2000.

Okubo, Miné. Citizen 13660. New York: Columbia University Press, 1946.

Takei, George, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker. They Called Us Enemy. Marietta, GA: Top Shelf Productions, 2019.

Miscellaneous

Inventory of Property, 1942, Box 63, Folder 10, Yoshiko Uchida Papers, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6sf326p/?brand=oac4

This is an inventory that the Uchida family took of the items in their Berkeley home before they were relocated to a camp. They specify if they gifted something, sold it, or stored it.

Report on Manzanar Riot with addenda and clippings, 6 December 1943, Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study, BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder O10.12, Bancroft Library.

http://vm133.lib.berkeley.edu:8080/xtf3/search?rmode=jarda;searchplacename=Manzanar%20War%20Relocation%20Center;docsPerPage=1;startDoc=12;fullview=yes;browseDocsPerPage=10

A report about riots that took place in the Manzanar camp on December 5, 1942. It details information about who was attacked and social tensions in the camp.

Photographs

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams’ Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar. Photographs. Library of Congress, Washington, DC. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/manz/.

In 1943, Ansel Adams (1902-1984), documented the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California during World War II.

Photographs: Clem Albers (see more Albers photos in the WRA section)

Albers, Clem. Tule Lake, California War Relocation Authority Center, Newell CA. 1942, Finding Aid to War Relocation Authority Photographs, Online Archive of California, https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark.

An extensive gallery of photos from the Tule Lake Japanese Concentration Camp in Northern California.

Albers, Clem. “Japanese American inside barracks,” March 31, 1942. Photograph. ddr-densho-37-485, National Archives and Records Administration Collection, National Archives and Records Administration. https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-485/.

Image displays the rudimentary, military like living conditions for Japanese Americans temporarily interned at the Salinas Assembly Center. The living hall is set up like a military barrack with little personal space and with exposure to the environment.

Albers, Clem. “Japanese Americans eating in a mess hall,” April 6 1942. Photograph. ddr-densho-37-482, National Archives and Records Administration Collection, National Archives and Records Administration. http://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-482/.

This is a photograph of a cafeteria-style meal for Japanese American children imprisoned at the Santa Anita Assembly Center.

Select Photographs from the “Japanese-American evacuation from Berkeley, California” Collection, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

Finding Aid to the Photographs of the Japanese-American evacuation from Berkeley, Calif. [graphic], 1942. Photographs. BANC PIC 1983.097–PIC, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/hb0x0nb4dt/entire_text/.

This collection of photographs documents the evacuation of Japanese Americans from Berkeley, CA to relocation or internment camps.

“[Baby in Bus Window],” 1942. Photograph. BANC PIC 1983.097:17–PIC, Photographs of the Japanese-American evacuation from Berkeley, Calif., The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk000428s77/.

Photograph taken in 1942 in Berkeley, California of a baby leaning out of a bus window; the bus is taking Japanese Americans to internment camps in 1942.

“[Buses],” 1942. Photograph. BANC PIC 1983.097:6–PIC, Photographs of the Japanese-American evacuation from Berkeley, Calif., The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk000428r65/.

This photograph taken in 1942 in Berkeley, California depicts a line of buses waiting to take Japanese Americans to the internment camps.

[Bus Pickup]. 1942. Photograph. BANC PIC 1983.097:12–PIC, Photographs of the Japanese-American evacuation from Berkeley, Calif., The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk000428s2g/.

This picture shows how Japanese Americans were loaded into the busses for transportation to internment in Utah. It is very powerful to see how the people were guarded and lined up to get in the bus. The author of this photo is unknown. Note that the bus’s destination is marked as “SPECIAL,” The bus door is open and the Japanese American residents are forced to board, as evidenced by a soldier standing at the bus’s entry door with an ammunition belt and a rifle at the ready.

“Luggage lined up at the curb.” 1942. Photograph. BANC PIC 1983.097:2–PIC, Photographs of the Japanese-American evacuation from Berkeley, Calif., Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk000428r2z/.

This photograph, taken in 1942 in Berkeley, California, shows luggage lined up at the side of the road. It is assumed that the luggage belongs to Japanese Americans being relocated to concentration camps.

“[Civil Control Station].” 1942. Photograph. BANC PIC 1983.097:1–PIC, Photographs of the Japanese-American Evacuation from Berkeley, Calif., Photographs of the Japanese-American Evacuation from Berkeley, Calif., The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk000428r1d/.

This photograph, taken in 1942 in Berkeley, California, shows a Civil Control Station, where an armed man in military uniform stands guard. This office is where Japanese Americans were processed in response to the Civilian Exclusion Order.

“Couple posing with luggage.” 1942. Photograph. BANC PIC 1983.097:10–PIC, Photographs of the Japanese-American evacuation from Berkeley, Calif., The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/28722/bk000428s0c/?layout=metadata&brand=oac4.

This photograph’s author is unknown. This is a photographic document of a Berkeley couple posing for a picture on the day they are to depart Berkeley to be taken to a World War II internment camp. They are standing in front of dozens of suitcases and large bundles of personal effects, theirs and those belonging to other Japanese Americans also being relocated to internment camps. There is what appears to be a church in the background, and a Bekins moving van being loaded with the belongings of those being relocated.

“Woman with baby.” 1942. Photograph. BANC PIC 1983.097:15–PIC, Photographs of the Japanese-American evacuation from Berkeley, Calif. The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk000428s54/.

This photograph taken in 1942 in Berkeley, California depicts a Japanese-American woman with a baby in the year that Japanese internment camps were established during World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt through his Executive Order 9066.

“[Man with Baby].” 1942. Photograph. BANC PIC 1983.097:14–PIC, Photographs of the Japanese-American evacuation from Berkeley, Calif., The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/28722/bk000428s4k/?layout=metadata&brand=oac4.

This image was likely taken on the University of California, Berkeley, in 1942. It pictures a well-dressed white man holding a Japanese child in front of a building with brick wall and big white windows. Both the man and the baby look happy and smiling. The baby appears to be the same one shown in “Woman with baby.” The relationship between the woman and the man is unknown.

“[Moving Vans and Luggage],” 1942. Photograph. BANC PIC 1983.097:3–PIC, Photographs of the Japanese-American evacuation from Berkeley, Calif., The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk000428r3h/.

This source is a photograph taken in 1942 in Berkeley, California. It shows moving vans being loaded with the belongings of Japanese American citizens being relocated to internment camps.

Photographs from the “Japanese American Archival Collection,” The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

“Nisei soldiers at Jerome Relocation Center.” 1943. Photograph. JC17:342, Japanese American Archival Collection, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/kt438nc4xc/.

Photo taken outside Jerome Relocation Center barracks is of Nisei soldiers visiting from Camp Shelby. These soldiers were from Hawaii. The USO girls organized visits of more than 3,000 Nisei soldiers training at Camp Shelby. A Nisei is a person born in the US or Canada whose parents were immigrants from Japan

“Three Generations of the Uchida Family at Manzanar War Relocation Center.” 1944. Photograph. Japanese American Archival Collection, Sacramento Library, California State University, Sacramento. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/kt6870200j/.

Masaichi Uchida sold his farm for $4000 when he was forced to leave Florin, CA in May 1942. The picture shows Mr. Uchida and three generations of his family at the Manzanar War Relocation Center.

Photographs from the “Activities and entertainment at Heart Mountain Relocation Center” Collection, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

Photos in this collection were taken at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Powell, Wyoming.

“Alice and Mike [Woman and child],” 1942. Photograph. BANC PIC 1988.084:09–A, Activities and entertainment at Heart Mountain Relocation Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk000428k4g/.

This is a photo taken at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming in 1942. It depicts a woman holding a child of around three years old looking calmly towards the sky; the photo was taken when it was -12 degrees outside. The photographer is unknown.

[couples dancing],” 1942. Photograph. BANC PIC 1988.084:02–A, Activities and entertainment at Heart Mountain Relocation Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk000428j7m/.

This picture shows couples dancing, which gives us a peak at leisure time at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center. The dancers appear to have dressed up for this occasion.

“[Man Doing Calligraphy],” 1942. Photograph. BANC PIC 1988.084::10—A, Activities and Entertainment at Heart Mountain Relocation Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk000428k51/.

The photograph entails a Japanese American man doing calligraphy while drinking tea. On the left of him is a painting and a Japanese elder with a phrase written in calligraphy. Behind him is a divider that has the painting of two Japanese women in traditional Japanese dresses, kimonos, underneath cherry blossom trees. This shows how internees worked to preserve their culture. The building itself seems to be industrial.

Photographs from the “War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement” Collection, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

“War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement”. 1942-1945, BANC PIC 1967.014–PIC. The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/collections/24123/.

Photographs document the evacuation of Japanese Americans to various Relocation Camps across the United States, their lives within the camps, and post-war resettlement activities. It is important to note that the photograph collection, as the official documentation of the War Relocation Authority (WRA), reflects the point of view that the WRA wanted to present to the citizens of the United States during World War II. The photographs, presumably created for public exhibition, and the captions accompanying them written by WRA staff, present often present an idealistic view of the relocation centers, which clashes greatly with the harsh realities detailed by many survivors and historians in the decades following the internment.

Albers, Clem. “Aliens at Sharp Camp following the evacuation order for persons of Japanese ancestry. This camp was set up as detention station where suspects were held before given hearings. They remained here only a short while, being sent to an internment camp or a relocation center following the hearings.” March 30, 1943. Photograph. WRA no. C-73, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft9n39p35m/.

Photograph shows a long line of “aliens” walking out from the campsite following the order of an officer; most are not carrying much baggage. From the background of the photo, we can see that the campsites were remote and separated from the city, seemingly surrounded by mountains, and rural areas. Written on the bottom of the picture is “impounded,” which reinforces the action of evacuation captured in the photo.

Albers, Clem. “An evacuee resting on his cot after moving his belongings into this bare barracks room. Army cot and mattress are the only things furnished by the government. All personal belongings were brought by the evacuees.” April 2, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. B-112, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft487005dp/.

Photograph of a prisoner lying on a cot in his barracks room, with his personal belongings crowding around him. This photo, in which laundry is tied around bed to dry with no other room for personal items, shows the limited space in barracks for interned Japanese Americans.

Albers, Clem. “Bird’s-eye view of War Relocation Authority center.” April 23, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. A-259, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft338nb19w/?brand=oac4.

Aerial view of the Tule Lake relocation center before Japanese American prisoners had arrived.

Albers, Clem. “Evacuee mothers, with their babies, getting acquainted at the Santa Anita Assembly center where evacuees from this area are awaiting transfer to a War Relocation Authority center to spend the duration.” April 6, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. C-11, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft6489p091/.

Two Evacuee mothers with their babies meet at the Santa Anita Assembly center while waiting for the transfer to the War Relocation Authority center. In the background, you can see a sheet and some clothes that look to be drying on a clothesline on a wall.

Albers, Clem. “Parker [Poston], Ariz.–View of Partially Developed Site of War Relocation Authority Center for Evacuees of Japanese Ancestry on the Colorado River Indian Reservation.” April 9, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. A-11, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft0s2002b7/.

View of partially developed site of Poston Relocation Center in Parker, Arizona, on the Colorado River Indian Reservation. It depicts a rusty road that can be used only by one car in the middle of a desert-like environment. The camp is in the middle of a desert. The remote location would serve as a barrier between the outside world and the Japanese Americans held prisoner at the Poston Relocation Center.

Albers, Clem. “Reading bulletins in Japanese language in Little Tokyo when residents of Japanese ancestry were instructed to evacuate. They will be assigned to War Relocation Authority centers for the duration.” April 11, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. B-46, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft8w100934/.

A photograph that depicts Japanese-Americans in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles reading bulletins that instructed those of Japanese ancestry to evacuate.

Bankson, Russell A. “James Wakasa Funeral Scene. (The Man Shot by Military Sentry.)” April 19, 1943. Photograph. WRA no. C-917, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/exhibitions/66/items/ark:/13030/ft667nb35c/.

Photo shows the funeral of James Wakasa, on April 4, 1943, at the Topaz War Relocation Center in central Utah. The military watch at the relocation camp shot and killed James. There is an enormous crowd there in solidarity and in mourning.

Brumbach. “May Mukai (left) and Florence Uyeda, Japanese-American girls who formerly lived at the Central Utah Relocation Center, in front of the home where they expect to live as soon as it is remodeled . . .” June 1943. Photograph. WRA no. B-553, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft0g5002kw/.

Full title: “May Mukai (left) and Florence Uyeda, Japanese-American girls who formerly lived at the Central Utah Relocation Center, in front of the home where they expect to live as soon as it is remodeled. Both girls work for a company which makes baskets and board and room are included as a part of their wages. May formerly lived at Berkeley, California, where she was a student at the University of California. At the relocation center she served as a timekeeper. Florence’s home was in Oakland, California, and in the relocation center she was a nurse’s aide at the hospital, and plans to enter nurse training. Both girls moved to Cleveland in May. Photographer: Brumbach, Cleveland, Ohio.”

Clark, Fred. “Unloading Baggage Belonging to Evacuees of Japanese Ancestry. Caucasian Construction Employees Assist Evacuees in Getting Their Belongings from the Bus at the Relocation Center.” May 10, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. A-109, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft6q2nb2z2/?order=1.

War Relocation Authority label identifies this photo as, “Unloading baggage belonging to evacuees of Japanese ancestry. Caucasian construction employees assist evacuees in getting their belongings from the bus at the relocation center.” The photo was taken at the Colorado River Relocation Center in Poston. The picture shows rows of barracks in the background within a barren desert.

Clark, Fred. “Site No. 1. Larry Orida at the Hospital Being Constructed at This War Relocation Authority Center for Evacuees of Japanese Ancestry.” May 12, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. A-107, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft467nb1rk/.

War Relocation Authority label identifies this photo as, “Larry Orida at the hospital being constructed at this War Relocation Authority center for evacuees of Japanese ancestry.” The photo was taken at the Colorado River Relocation Center in Poston, Arizona. Larry Orida is wearing very Americanized clothing of white hat, Hawaiian shirt, rolled up dungarees, and work boots.

Clark, Fred. “Poston, Ariz.–(Site No. 3)–Barracks under construction at this War Relocation Authority center where evacuees of Japanese ancestry are spending the duration.” May 19, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. A-385, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft109n993x/

The photo shows barracks under construction at the Poston War Relocation Authority center. The photo shows how the barracks were constructed in a hurry and with thin walls.

Clark, Fred. “Poston, Ariz.–(Site No. 1)–Evacuees of Japanese ancestry are given a preliminary medical examination upon arrival at War Relocation Authority Centers where they will spend the duration.” May 21, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. A-380, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft229003br/.

This is a photo of a young boy getting a medical examination upon his arrival at the Poston, Arizona camp. The room is crowded and offers no privacy. The examination tools are very rudimentary, and there is no evidence of sanitation between examinations.

Clark, Fred. “This Youngster Is Preparing to Fill a Mattress-Cover with Straw after Arriving at the Relocation Center for Evacuees of Japanese Ancestry on the Colorado River Indian Reservation.” 1942. Photograph. WRA no. C-33, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft8g5007rc/.

A Japanese boy is filling his mattress cover with straw. This indicates that the government is unable or unwilling to provide adequate supplies, so evacuees had to take it into their own hands to protect themselves from the elements.

Coffey, Pat. “A miscellaneous assortment of items on display at the Arts and Crafts Festival held at Terry Hall at the Granada Center. Note the hanging basket with flower arrangement on the wall (right) and the Japanese musical instruments and wood carvings (left).” March 6, 1943. Photograph. WRA no. E-766, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft3g5004cp/?&brand=oac4.

The black and white photograph depicts a mural of items for an Arts and Crafts Festival at Terry Hall in the Granada Detention Center in Amache, Colorado. Among the items on display are hanging baskets with flowers, traditional Japanese instruments and several woodcarvings and rock collections. Such Arts and Crafts Festivals were a chance for inmates to create emotional connections over art. The exhibits were a physical improvement of their destitute environments, but also spaces where they held conversations about the inhuman treatment and discussed ways to improve the mental conditions in camps. UC Berkeley Professor Chiura Obata, was one of several art professors who instructed art classes and organized these Arts and Crafts Festivals. UC Berkeley students collaborated by sending supplies and support for these art studios. The need for art as a medium for conversation and the bottom up strategies demonstrated by inmates to improve their living situations make this a relevant source in the discussion of community between Japanese inmates (and UC Berkeley), as well as their efforts to resist the system.

“Fumi Onodera, 20, proudly points at the names of her 3 brothers, Ko, Kaun, 24; and Satoru, 22, on the Honor Roll of Japanese Americans serving in the U. S. Army from the Minidoka Relocation Center, Hunt, Idaho.” October 14, 1943. Photograph. WRA no. B-983, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft9779p1ps/.

In this picture, a Japanese American detainee is showing her pride of her family members serving in the U.S. army during WWII. On the corner of the honor roll list, there is a line “Americanism is a matter of the mind and the heart. Americanism is not and never was a matter of race and ancestry.” This is ironical, as the U. S. government had detained Japanese Americans solely for their having been of Japanese ancestry.

“Internal security officers inspect baggage of evacuees who are being segregated to Tule Lake Center.” September 24, 1943. Photograph WRA no. G-118, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft7489p0z5/.

In this black and white photograph, officers are shown inspecting multiple bags and personal belongings of internment camp captives. The picture was taken at the Gila River War Relocation Center in Rivers, Arizona, one of ten internment camps during this time. The peak population at the Gila River War Relocation Center was 13,348, which made it the fourth-largest city in the state. This picture alludes to the fact that some things were and weren’t allowed within the camps and further minimizes any sense of privacy.

“Internal security officers inspect baggage of evacuees who are being segregated to Tule Lake Center.” September 29, 1943. Photograph WRA no. G-127, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft2000041g/

Three security officers at the Gila River War Relocation Center in Rivers, Arizona, are inspecting baggage of incoming internees. All three officers appear to be Japanese American.

Iwai, Henry. “Miss Mary Ishi, graduate in liberal arts from University of California at Berkeley in 1942; lived in Sacramento before evacuation,” January 28, 1944. Photograph. WRA no. G-352, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft1f59n6s4/.

The photographer of this piece, Henry Iwai, worked with Marsh Studios in Cincinnati during the 1940’s. Originally working in Long Beach, CA, he was sent to the Jerome Arkansas Relocation Center for some time before he was released and moved to Ohio. He focused on documenting the experiences of Japanese Americans after their reintegration into American society after the Internment experience. This photograph demonstrates an example of the reintegration of a young Japanese American girl into the workforce. Overshadowing her, a large white man, who we assume is her superior, stands over Miss Ishii, who is dwarfed in comparison. Full title of this photo is, “Full title:Miss Mary Ishii, graduate in liberal arts from University of California at Berkeley in 1942; lived in Sacramento before evacuation to Tule Lake. Mary is private secretary to Mr. Ray Dunn, Executive Secretary of the Club. She lives at the Y.M.C.A. and likes Cincinnati very much. I have encountered no bitterness at all–in fact, I seem to be just taken for granted and accepted without question and with very little curiosity.”

Hikaru Iwasaki

Hikaru Iwasaki was a Japanese American who was born in the U.S., and was sent to Heart Mountain Internment camp as a teen where he also photographed the experience of relocation-camp internees.

Iwasaki, Hikaru. “In evacuation the Kiyoshi (Jimmy) Hirasaki family was first to leave the Western Defense Command from the Gilroy Section. After …,” July 15, 1945. Photograph. WRA no. -78, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft209nb0cg/.

Full title: “Full title:In evacuation the Kiyoshi (Jimmy) Hirasaki family was first to leave the Western Defense Command from the Gilroy Section. After the lifting of the ban the family was again first–first to return to Gilroy. Jimmy farms 550 acres of vegetable land at Route 1, Box 156-F, Gilroy. Shown here are Jimmy standing with Fumiko, Midori and Mineko, seated left to right. During evacuation the Hirasakis contributed to the war effort by growing food at Grand Junction, Colorado. Now the entire family is back in California except Manabi, the 22 year old son who is overseas in the army. At the beautiful Hirasaki home are Mr. and Mrs. Hirasaki, Mineko, Fumiko, Aiko, Hisashi, Shinobu, and Midori. Michiko is a freshman at the University of California, Berkeley.”

Iwasaki, Hikaru. “Not all the center residents will return to their former homes. Many have found permanent relocation in the sandy soil,” October 1945. Photograph. WRA no. K-410, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft4w1005c3/.

The photo showed the tombstones of those evacuees who died during the evacuation. Full title: “Full title:Not all the center residents will return to their former homes. Many have found permanent relocation in the sandy soil on which the tar paper barracks were hurriedly erected. A total of nearly 15,000 evacuees were inducted into the Granada Project, Amache, Colorado, since August 27, 1942, when the first group arrived from the Merced Assembly Center to prepare the camp for those to follow. The Relocation Center, as its name implies, was a temporary residence for those of Japanese ancestry who were transferred from their homes along the West Coast under an emergency measure of 1942. Many of the evacuees during the past three years were able to resettle and find new homes in the middle west and eastern states. From September 1, 1945 to the closing date October 15, 3,105 persons have gone back to their former homes or have relocated elsewhere. The last to leave the center, a group of 126, left on two special coaches for Sacramento and nearby towns. At the peak of its population, Amache had 7,567 residents. 412 births were recorded and 107 deaths during the three years of its existence.”

Dorothea Lange

Renowned photographer Dorothea Lange is recognized largely for her photographic documentation of the Great Depression, but she also produced a considerable amount of work documenting the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. Lange traveled to neighborhoods throughout northern California and the Bay Area during the spring and summer of 1942 and 1943, and captured images of Japanese American families as they prepared to leave their homes for an indefinite period of time. The War Relocation Authority also gave Lange access to assembly centers, and most notably the Manzanar Relocation Camp. Her photographs were bluntly critical of the internment camps, and due to their exposing nature, the army impounded many of her photos. Married to a UC Berkeley professor, and a resident of Berkeley herself, Lange’s surviving photos were put into the UC Berkeley archives where they were protected and stored for documentation.

Lange, Dorothea. “Residents of Japanese ancestry are closing out their businesses in preparation for the coming evacuation. They will be moved into War Relocation Authority Centers to spend the duration.” March 19, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. C-518, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft5g5006kc/?brand=oac4.

Image of a nursery in Berkeley, California that was owned by a Japanese American being closed down before the owners’ relocation to an internment camp. The photograph features the storefront with a “Closing Out Sale” sign. The back of the photo has as an official “War Relocation Authority – San Francisco Office” form adhered to it that states that Lange took the picture in Berkeley, California on 3/19/42. She added the note, “Residents of Japanese ancestry are closing out their businesses in preparation for the coming evacuation. They will be moved into War Relocation Authority Centers to spend the duration.”

Lange, Dorothea. “In response to the Army’s Exclusion Order No. 20, residents of Japanese ancestry appear at Civil Control Station at 2031 Bush Street, for registration. The evacuees will be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration.” April 1942. Photograph. WRA no. A-517, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft5m3nb303/?order=1&brand=oac4.

This picture taken on April 25, 1942, includes male and female American residents of Japanese ancestry standing in line at the Civil Control Station at 2031 Bush Street, in response to the Army’s Exclusion Order No. 20, which ordered that people of Japanese ancestry were to be registered for relocation to internment camps.

Lange, Dorothea. “Florin, Calif.–Businesses Are Being Sold by Owners of Japanese Ancestry. Evacuation of All Residents of Japanese Descent from This Area Is Due in Two Days.” May 11, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. C-575, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/exhibitions/65/items/ark:/13030/ft367nb22d/.

Lange took this picture of children in front of a Japanese American owned business. The back of the photo has as an official “War Relocation Authority – San Francisco Office” form adhered to it that states that Lange took the picture in Florin, California on 5/11/42. She added the note, “Businesses are being sold by owners of Japanese ancestry. Evacuation of all residents of Japanese descent from this area is due in two days.”

Lange, Dorothea. “Following evacuation orders, this store, at 13th and Franklin Streets, was closed. The owner, a University of California graduate of Japanese descent, placed the I AM AN AMERICAN sign on the store front on December 8, the day after Pearl Harbor. Evacuees of Japanese ancestry will be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration.” March 13 1942. Photograph. WRA no. A-35, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft367nb1xv/.

Lange took this photo of a grocery store at 13th and Franklin Streets, Oakland, California. The grocery store was sold forcibly after the incarceration of its owner in a Japanese American internment camp. The back of the photo has as an official “War Relocation Authority” form adhered to it that states that Lange took the picture in California on 3/14/42. She added the note, “Following evacuation orders, this store, at 13th and Franklin Streets, was closed. The owner, a University of California graduate of Japanese descent, placed the ‘I AM AN AMERICAN’ sign on the store front on December 8, the day after Pearl Harbor. Evacuees of Japanese ancestry will be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration.”

Lange, Dorothea. “Yugoslavian farmer is taking over berry farm formerly operated by residents of Japanese ancestry, who are being sent to assembly points and later to be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration.” April 4, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. A-528, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft3r29n86w/.

Photo of a white man standing arrogantly with crossed arms in front of a beautiful and well-maintained farmhouse. The back of the photo has as an official “War Relocation Authority” form adhered to it that states that Lange took the picture in Centerville, CA on 4/18/42. She added the note, “Yugoslavian farmer is taking over berry farm formerly operated by residents of Japanese ancestry, who are being sent to assembly points and later to be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration.”

Lange, Dorothea. “Stepping into the bus for the Assembly Center.” April 6th, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. A-95, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft7q2nb4p6/.

This photograph shows a bus about to depart to an Assembly Center, the preliminary step to putting people into the internment camps. In the image, a well-dressed, elderly Japanese-American man, whose registration papers and identification tag are being verified. Behind him, other, younger men are following him onto the bus. The face of the man, downturned but determined, conveys a sense of both the sadness and the fortitude of the man in confronting this seemingly unstoppable force of state-sponsored discrimination. The image is significant in its deviation from the other WRA photographs that showed images of wholesome domesticity; this photo exposes the sense of quiet despair felt by Japanese-Americans at the time.

Lange, Dorothea. “With baggage stacked, residents of Japanese ancestry await bus at Wartime Civil Control Administration station, 2020 Van Ness Avenue. . .,” April 6, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. -92, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft1779n6st/.

Photo of Japanese Americans waiting for relocation to internment camps. Lange noted, “With baggage stacked, residents of Japanese ancestry await bus at Wartime Civil Control Administration station, 2020 Van Ness Avenue, as part of first group of 664 to be evacuated from San Francisco on April 6, 1942. Evacuees will be housed in War Relocation Authority Centers for the duration.”

Lange, Dorothea. “Exclusion Order posted at First and Front Streets directing removal of persons of Japanese ancestry from the first San Francisco section to be affected by evacuation. Evacuees will be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration.” April 11, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. -39, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft796nb45t/.

This image shows a flier of exclusion orders for all people of Japanese Ancestry. American photojournalist Dorothea Lange took this picture on April 11, 1942, in San Francisco. The flier posted on April 1, 1942 states that all Japanese persons must be evacuated from the area by Tuesday, April 7, 1942. The poster gives further instructions stating the Civil Control Station will assist the Japanese population by providing further instructions on the evacuation, assisting in housing and personal property management, and transporting a limited amount of clothing to new residences.

Lange, Dorothea. “Wedding of George and Michiko Uchida two days before evacuation to Tanforan Assembly Center. These young people do not speak Japanese.” April 27, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. C-342, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft038n999c/.

Wedding photo of George and Michiko Uchida taken two days before they were sent to the Tanforan Assembly Center. The back of the photo has as an official “War Relocation Authority – San Francisco Office” form adhered to it that states that Lange took the picture in Berkeley, CA on 4/27/42. She added the note, “Berkeley, Calif. (2903 Harper Street)–Wedding of George and Michiko Uchida two days before evacuation to Tanforan Assembly Center. These young people do not speak Japanese.”

Lange, Dorothea. “These young evacuees of Japanese ancestry are waiting their turn for baggage inspection upon arrival at this Assembly Center.” May 2, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. C-310, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft5c6006wc/.

Image of two young Japanese American children surrounded by people and large suitcases as they wait for their luggage to be inspected at the Turlock Center.

Lange, Dorothea. “This girl, who worked as a strawberry picker on an Alameda County farm, awaits evacuation bus.” May 9, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. C-222, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft758007gz/?order=2&brand=oac4.

Photo of a Japanese American woman who is waiting for the bus to an internment camp. The back of the photo has as an official “War Relocation Authority – San Francisco Office” form adhered to it that states that Lange took the picture at Centerville, CA on 5/9/42. She added the note, “This girl, who worked as a strawberry picker on an Alameda County farm, awaits evacuation bus. Evacuees of Japanese ancestry will be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration.”

Lange, Dorothea. “This American Soldier of Japanese Ancestry Is Shown at the Railroad Station of a Small Town in an Agricultural Community.” May 10, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. C-544, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft1z09n742/.

Photo of a young WWII Japanese American soldier. Lange has a typed note on the back of the photo stating, “This American soldier of Japanese ancestry is shown at the railroad station of a small town in an agricultural community. He and nine other service men of Japanese ancestry received furloughs to enable them to come home to assist their families get ready for evacuation from their homes on the West Coast. He is an older son, which, in the traditional Japanese family structure, means that much responsibility for their welfare depends on him. He is the only American citizen in the family.”

Lange, Dorothea. “Woodland, Calif.–Scene on Farm Being Evacuated by People of Japanese Ancestry. The Mother Is Helping Load a Truck Which Has Been Brought by a Friend Who Is Assisting the Family with the Packing Because of the Father’s Internment in South Dakota.” May 20, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. C-448, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft0q2n99cb/.

This photo shows a Japanese American woman loading household belongings onto a truck before being sent to an internment camp. Many times family members were sent to different camps. The back of the photo has as an official “War Relocation Authority – San Francisco Office” form adhered to it that states that Lange took the picture in Woodland, CA on 5/20/42. She added the note, “Scene on farm being evacuated by people of Japanese ancestry. The mother is helping load a truck which has been brought by a friend who is assisting the family with the packing because of the father’s internment in South Dakota.”

Lange, Dorothea. “A view of the Manzanar Relocation Center showing streets and blocks.” July 1 1942. WRA no. C-879, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft338nb16b/.

This photo, taken on July 1, 1942, by Dorothea Lange, shows the street layout of the Manzanar Relocation Center in California. There is desert vegetation, telephone poles and tractors in the foreground of the mostly empty dirt streets.

Lange, Dorothea. “Near view of horse-stall, left from the days when what is now Tanforan Assembly Center was the famous Tanforan Race Track. Most of these stalls have been converted into family living quarters for evacuated Japanese.” June 16, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. C-631, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft338nb1n2/.

The title above is Lange’s description pasted on the back of the photo for the War Relocation Authority in Denver, Colorado. Photo shows from what existing material was used to create housing barracks in which Japanese Americans interred at the Tanforan Assembly Center were to live.

Lange, Dorothea. “Another view of the barracks, living quarters for families evacuated from San Francisco on April 29. Note the flower garden and numerous evidences of care of their surroundings. These barracks were formerly horse stalls.” June 16 1942. Photograph. WRA no. C-636, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft6580073z/.

Taken on April 29, 1942, the photo shows Japanese Americans standing in front of the quarters for families evacuated from San Francisco. The barracks, at the Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno, California, were formerly horse stalls. Note the flower garden and numerous evidences of the care given to their surroundings.

Lange, Dorothea. “A Typical Interior Scene in One of the Barrack Apartments at This Center. Note the Cloth Partition Which Lends a Small Amount of Privacy.” June 30, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. C-848, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft100002cc/.

Japanese Americans huddle around a heater in one of the barrack “apartments” at the Manzanar Relocation Center in California. There are cloth partitions instead of walls between the “apartments,” which lent a minimal amount of privacy.

Lange, Dorothea. “Supper Time! Meal Times Are the Big Events of the Day within an Assembly Center. This Is a Line-up Of.” June 16, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. C-632, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/exhibitions/66/items/ark:/13030/ft5r29n9hn/.

Japanese evacuees are lining up for food. They are carrying bags to protect their dishes and utensils from the dust. The line is extremely long, suggesting a very long wait time and an inadequate number of dining areas.

Lange, Dorothea. “Tanforan Assembly Center, San Bruno, Calif.–Medical Clinic at This Assembly Center. Evacuee Nurses of Japanese Ancestry Are Busy Tidying up after 80 Persons Have Been Taken Care of. At This Date There Are 8,000 Persons of Japanese Descent Housed Here.” June 16, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. C-634, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft909nb5h4/

The photo shows two Japanese-American nurses cleaning up a room that looks like a makeshift hospital at an internment camp. The walls and roof seem to be plywood. The back of the photo has as an official “War Relocation Authority – San Francisco Office” form adhered to it that states that Lange took the picture at Tanforan on 6/16/42. She added the note, “Medical clinic at this assembly center. Evacuee nurses of Japanese ancestry are busy tidying up after 80 persons have been taken care of. At this date there are 8,000 persons of Japanese descent housed here.”

Lange, Dorothea. “Evacuee orphans from an institution in San Francisco who are now established for the duration in the Children’s Village at this War Relocation Authority Center for evacuees of Japanese ancestry. Mrs. Harry Matsumoto, a University of California graduate, and her husband are superintendents of the Children’s Village where 65 evacuee orphans from three institutions are now housed.” July 1, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. -905, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft6489n9v6/?brand=oac4.

Japanese American orphans from an institution in San Francisco who were sent to the Children’s Village at this War Relocation Authority Center. Mrs. Harry Matsumoto, a University of California graduate, and her husband were the superintendents of the Children’s Village where 65 orphans from three institutions were housed.

Lange, Dorothea. “The women’s ward in the temporary barracks hospital, photographer Dorothea Lange, Jul. 3, 1942, Manzanar concentration camp, California.” July 3, 1942. Photograph. Densho Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.densho.org/sources/en-denshopd-i151-00419-1/.

Photograph of the Women’s ward in the temporary barracks hospital in Manzanar Relocation Center, Manzanar, California. The caption on the photo: “Manzanar Relocation Center, Manzanar, California. Women’s ward in the temporary barracks hospital at this War Relocation Authority Center for evacuees of Japanese ancestry. The new hospital with accommodations for 250 beds is almost ready for occupancy.”

Tom Parker – UCB WRA Collection

UC Berkeley was able to collect a large amount of photographic documents from the War Relocation Authority Photographic Section and keep them in the Bancroft Archives. As a result, the extensive work of many photographers is preserved and documented by the University that otherwise could have been destroyed or lost. One of these photographers is Thomas (Tom) Parker, the director of WRAPS who helped get the project running at its establishment in 1943. During his time as the program director, Parker produced a large quantity of still images documenting the Internment and created films for the War Relocation Authority about the Internment. The documentaries created were, “designed to shape public understandings of Japanese American incarceration… (but) failed to present a balanced view of their subject.” (Allen). Due to the WRA’s building and notorious mistreatment of Japanese internees, view the narratives and way that certain photographic evidence is shot and presented with a healthy level of skepticism. However, the pieces of propaganda regarding the Internment period can give us an opportunity to look under the surface into the tumultuous times Japanese Americans endured in the early 1940s.

Parker, Tom. “Daily supply of milk being delivered by young evacuee workers at the mess kitchen door.” October 20, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. E-140, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft2h4nb0g9/.

This photograph shows a young Japanese American in the Central Utah Relocation Center, delivering large canisters of milk to the mess kitchen.

Parker, Tom. “Former California University students of Japanese ancestry who are completing their studies at Nebraska University.” November 10, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. E-198, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft896nb4xh/?order=1&brand=oac4

This photograph, taken in Lincoln, Nebraska, is of male Japanese American students from the University of California, Berkeley who were completing their studies at Nebraska University. Pictured are Sukio Oji, sophomore in Civil Engineering, from California and Gila River Project; Joe Nishimura, sophomore in Mechanical Engineering from California & Manzanar Center; George John Furutani, senior in Mechanical Engineering from Manzanar, California.

Parker, Tom. “Kotaro Murai performing an experiment in the chemical laboratory at the University of Nebraska. Kotaro is working his way thorough school by working in the Y.M.C.A. cafeteria. He was formerly a student at the University of California, Berkeley, California.” November 11 1942. Photograph. WRA no. E-213, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft3s2004qt/.

This is a photo of former UC Berkeley student, Kotaro Murai, performing a chemical experiment in a University of Nebraska laboratory.

Parker, Tom. “Three Small Boys Compete in a Stiff Marble Game on a Sunday Afternoon in Block [Cut off].” November 15, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. E-315, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft3199n78v/.

Photograph of three Japanese American children playing marbles in the dirt in an internment camp in McGehee, Arkansas.

Parker, Tom. “A View Showing the Housing Department at this relocation center. (L to R) Virginia Shilby, Secretary. John H. Tucker, Housing.” November 17, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. E-258, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft7c60071j/.

This photo of the housing department at the Jerome Relocation Center in Denson, Arkansas, shows how Japanese Americans worked in the relocation centers in which they were held captive.

Parker, Tom. “A typical interior of a barracks home.” November 18th 1942. Photograph. WRA no. E-291, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft8q2nb5bt/.

The photograph is of the interior of one of the barracks homes that Japanese-Americans lived in during their stay at the Jerome Relocation Center in Denson, Arkansas. The photograph shows one large room partially sub-divided by a curtain into a dining room and a bedroom. This immediately reveals the lack of privacy that internees enjoyed, as anyone who was in the room would know what everyone else in the room was saying or doing. There is a woman near the table in the picture, standing next to a mantel that has books and a photograph on it. She appears to be taking care of a potted plant on the kitchen table. The room, though sparse, has wooden chairs, a bed with a floral coverlet on it, and several carpets on the floor. It can be assumed that the internees were allowed access to some amenities, either their own property from home, or that provided by the state.

Parker, Tom. “A mother and daughter who are living at this relocation center. The husband and father is in an internment camp.” November 20, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. E-277, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft5x0nb302/.

This is photograph shows a Japanese mother and her young daughter at an Arkansas relocation camp; the husband and father was in a different internment camp. This photo demonstrates the separation of families. The photo was taken in the Jerome Relocation Center in Denson, Arkansas, which was open from October 6, 1942 until June 30, 1944; it was the last internment camp to open and the first to close down.

Parker, Tom. “Ninth grade classroom at Rohwer incarceration camp.” November 24, 1942. Photograph. HMLSC_TOMO_021, CSU Japanese American History Digitization Project, Sanoian Special Collections Library, California State University, Fresno. https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-csujad-14-21/.

Photograph of a classroom in the Rohwer incarceration camp on November 24, 1942, depicting education and everyday activities for young students during internment. It is unknown whether posed and deliberate, or natural and an accurate image of school life.

Parker, Tom. “An adult art class under the direction of Tokio Ueyama, working in pencil sketch charcoals and oils. Adult art classes are extremely popular at the Amache Center.” December 10, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. -424, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft0x0n9920/?&brand=oac4.

This black and white photograph depicts a life drawing class of several Japanese artists drawing a female model. According to the source, art classes were very prominent in the Amache Relocation center in Grenada, Colorado. The class is under the instruction of artist Tokio Ueyama, who lead several classes and contributed to the Arts and Crafts movement within the camp.

Parker, Tom. “With makeshift equipment and arrangements, the cooperative beauty salon does a rushing business.” December 11th, 1942. Photograph. WRA no. E-445, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/ft667nb319/.

The image is of a beauty salon at the Granada Relocation Center in Amache, Colorado. The picture shows two Japanese-American women, one in the salon chair looking at the mirror, the other cutting her hair with a determined expression on her face. Parker described the image as, “With makeshift equipment and arrangements, the cooperative beauty salon does a rushing business.”

Drawings and Paintings

Estelle Ishigo

Ishigo, Estelle. “Are we Americans, again?” 1942-1945. Sketch. uclamss_2010_b78_f5_8, Ichigo (Estelle) papers, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/hb1k4007v1/.

The image displayed is a photograph of a drawing, done in pencil. Creator of the drawing is named Estelle Ishigo, a white woman who chose to stay with her Japanese-American husband in the internment camps. She went on to write several books that greatly publicized the experience of the internment camps in the general public. The drawing is of a bearded, unkempt, Japanese man standing in front of the top of a barbed wire fence. On the other side of the fence, figures are seen walking into a city with tall skyscrapers, while other figures are seen sitting beneath a tree in rest. At the bottom of the image are the phrases “We are Americans. Again?” and “Are we Americans again?” The content is meant to evoke sympathy for the man shown in the drawing, who is being isolated from and denied the experiences and lives of the figures in the distance. The indistinct silhouettes are meant to show how divorced the internees were from daily American quotidian life, while the city and trees evoke both the economic opportunities and life experiences being deprived. The phrase at the bottom, “Are we Americans again?”, conveys the idea that the “Americanness” of the internees, most of whom are US citizens, has been suspended, and creates the mournful supplication for society to let the Japanese-American community return to normalcy, to being American again.

Ichigo, Estelle. “Main Street, Japanese Assembly Center, Pomona.” 1942-1945. Drawing. Uclamss_2010_b78_f5_29, Ichigo (Estelle) papers, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/hb367nb5c4/

It is a picture of Main Street, Japanese Assembly Center, Pomona, Calif showing houses, trees and people lined up on the streets.

Sugimoto, Henry. “Goodbye My Son,” 1942. Painting. 92.97.46, Sugimoto (Henry) Collection, Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/tf7w10061z/.

This Henry Sugimoto painting depicts a Japanese American family where the son is leaving an internment camp to become a part of the army; his parents are hugging him and bidding him farewell. A second family in the background is also preparing to tell a son goodbye.

Sugimoto, Henry. “Self Portrait in Camp.” 1943. Painting. Sugimoto (Henry) Collection, Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/tf2x0n99cw/

This is Henry Sugimoto’s self portrait of the artist surrounded by his paintings.

Sugimoto, Henry. “Send Off Husband at Jerome Camp.” 1943. Painting. Sugimoto (Henry) Collection, Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/tf1m3n9851/.

This Henry Sugimoto painting depicts a Japanese American leaving his wife and children behind in the Jerome Camp. The man is dressed in a uniform of a U.S. soldier, which shows that he is going to fight for America while his family is held captive by the U.S. government. One of his daughters is waving an American flag.

Sugimoto, Henry. “When Can We Go Home?” 1943. Painting. Japanese American National Museum. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/tf2x0n99bc/.

This painting by Henry Sugimoto shows his daughter, Madeleine, pointing off canvas as his wife bends over to embrace her. The painting is in response to a question posed by Madeleine to her parents when they were first confined to Fresno Assembly Center, “When can we go home?” Imagery in the painting shows the Sugimoto family’s life before WWII (i.e., the Golden Gate Bridge) and after their internment (a rattlesnake and an axe resting against a log). A transparent lightning bolt divides the image from bottom left corner to center right edge up toward the upper left corner is representative of their two lives.

“Taniguchi visiting his wife and daughter at the Minidoka Relocation Center before returning to his unit in the Pacific.” March 1943. Photograph. WRA no. G-836, War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft1d5n99m9/?order=1.

This photograph, taken in March 1943 at the Minidoka Relocation center in Hunt, Idaho, is part of a collection of photos taken by the War Relocation Authority during the 1940s to document U.S. Japanese American internment camps. The photograph shows a man in his late 20s, dressed in a U.S. military uniform, standing next to a young woman of the same age holding a baby. The image notes describe the image as being of a Japanese-American soldier named Taniguchi visiting his wife and daughter at the internment camp in Hunt, Idaho. The significance of this image to the subject of immigration reveals an array of ironies affecting the United States at this time. Taniguchi is fighting in the Pacific, on the ground in Southeast Asia, volunteering his life for the country he lives in. However, the country he left has displaced his family for fear of espionage, despite allowing him to serve with honor at the front lines. The irony in the situation reveals the ambiguous situation that many immigrants to the United States found themselves in, as they were considered suspect politically, yet welcome in the areas where workers was needed, such as the army and industrial factories.

Propaganda

Geisel, Theodore Seuss. “Waiting for the signal from home…,” PM Magazine, February 13, 1942, Dr. Seuss Political Cartoons. Special Collection & Archives, UC San Diego Library, https://library.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dswenttowar/#ark:bb5222708w.

This is a propaganda cartoon by Theodor Seuss Geisel, also known as Dr. Seuss, the famous author of children’s books. The cartoon depicts Americans of Japanese ancestry in California, Oregon, and Washington preparing to conduct sabotage against the United States. At first glance, one can think that Dr. Seuss was an ally to the Japanese Americans. Initially, one sees a very long trail of smiling Japanese Americans forming a line to pick up items from a hut. However, when the viewer realizes that they are picking up boxes labeled, “TNT,” the viewer can begin to question their first impression. A sign above the hut reads, “HONORABLE FIFTH COLUMN.” A “fifth column” is when a group of people within a country live there with the intent to help an enemy country during a time of war. At this point, one can understand that Dr. Seuss is not an ally to the Japanese Americans as one first thought. Based only on this piece of work, one can conclude Dr. Seuss’s position on the topic of Japanese Americans during World War II was in favor of keeping them in the camps. The title of the illustration is more comprehensible once you consider these details.

Geisel, Theodor Suess. “Wake heroes sank 7 ships; Sevastopol siege cracked; Jap planes, tanks attack British on line 200 miles from Singapore,” PM Magazine, January 9, 1942, Dr. Seuss Political Cartoons, Special Collection & Archives, UC San Diego Library, https://library.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dswenttowar/#ark:bb5325098p.

Better known as the children’s book author, Dr. Seuss, Theodor Suess Geisel produced a large collection of anti-Nazi illustrations. In this article, Geisel used more text than illustration. “Wake heroes sank 7 ships,” states the progress of Japanese Imperial Navy, and mentions the gallantry and heroism of President Roosevelt. Additionally, Seuss mentions how a Nazi regime has taken Sevastopol.

Office for Emergency Management, War Production Board. “All the ear-marks of a sneaky Jap! Don’t discuss your job!”, January 1, 1942, Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/japanese-american-internment-during-world-war-ii/sources/1269.

The US War Production Board created this poster captioned, “All the ear-marks of a sneaky Jap! Don’t discuss your job!” (1942-1943). This black and white poster shows two blue-collared, white men holding lunch boxes, looking ready to work. There is a bubble dialogue on the left that reads, “Over in my section, we’re…!!” On the right side, a second bubble dialogue says, “Hey, Sh!” Underneath these two men is printed, “DON’T DISCUSS YOUR JOB!” Behind them, there is a large ship with a B at the front of it, and there are military buildings on the right-hand side; above them is a cloud of smoke. Further up, sunburst style stripes and a silhouette of a human head with discs over its ears covers the remaining poster. Although this poster is grayscale, it is evident that this was the rising sun flag, also known as, Kyokujitsuki, the war flag of Imperial Japan. On the very top, it reads in capitalized letters, “ALL THE EAR-MARKS OF A SNEAKY JAP!” This ubiquitous poster depicts the tension between White Americans and Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese troops.

Secondary Sources

Dusselier, Jane. Artifacts of Loss: Crafting Survival in Japanese American Concentration Camps. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2008. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/6034/.

Ewers, Justin. “Journey Into a Dark Past.” U.S. News & World Report 144, no. 14 (May 2008): 32–35, https://libproxy.berkeley.edu/login?qurl=https%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dbth%26AN%3d31996960%26site%3deds-live.

This article discusses efforts by Japanese Americans to preserve the camps located in the Western U.S. during World War II. It summarizes the history of the camps. It also describes efforts by the National Park Service to preserve the archeological integrity of established historic sites among the remains of these camps.

Kessler, Lauren. Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese American Family. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2008.

Stubborn Twig is an American story of immigrants. In 1903, the narrator, Masuo Yasui, emigrated from Japan to Hood River, Oregon, where he opened a store, raised a family, and became a successful orchardist. Masua’s American-born children became doctors, lawyers, teachers, and farmers. The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor changed Masua’s and his family’s lives forever. The Yasuis were among the more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry along the U.S. West Coast forced from their homes and imprisoned in a Japanese-American internment camp. Masuo was arrested as a spy and imprisoned for the rest of the war. His family was shamed and broken. He and his wife never returned to his home in Hood River. Yet the Yasui family endured, and succeeding generations found their American dream. To celebrate Oregon’s 150th birthday, the Oregon Library Association chose Stubborn Twig as the book all Oregonians to read.

Lange, Dorothea, Linda Gordon, and Gary Y. Okihiro. Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008.

This book is a collection of 119 Dorothea Lange photographs of the U.S. Japanese-American camps. Censored by the U.S. Army, these images were previously unpublished. Lange’s photos remind us of the stark reality of the internment camps. Historians Linda Gordon and Gary Okihiro illuminate the saga of Japanese American internment from life before Executive Order 9066 to the abrupt roundups and the marginal existence in the bleak, sand-swept camps.

Minear, Richard H., Theodore Seuss Geisel, and Art Spiegelman. Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel, 2nd printing ed. New York: The New Press, 2013.

Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel is a criticism of Theodor Seuss Geisel’s racist, anti-Japanese and anti-German WWII cartoon artwork. Geisel’s propaganda made Japanese internment an easier task; it was a well-known component of American propaganda efforts to objectify and create animosity toward America’s WWII Japanese and German war enemies. The artwork was also used against Japanese-Americans and German-Americans to control attitudes about them among other Americans. Geisel is known best as “Dr. Seuss.” This book is relevant to understanding media objectification of Japanese-Americans in WWII. The Theodor Seuss Geisel Library is a prominently featured component of the U. C. library system.

Reeves, Richard. Infamy: the Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II. New York: Picador, 2016.

Reeves’ Infamy provides an authoritative account of how during World War II the American government illegally imprisoned more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans and Japanese aliens in internment camps. Infamy describes internees who joined the U.S. military to fight for the country that had imprisoned them, and tells of fights for internees’ civil rights, which reached the Supreme Court. Richard Reeves is the author of presidential bestsellers, and is a senior lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at University of Southern California.