Bibliography of Materials Regarding Japanese American Internment

ARTHUR G. BARNETT PAPERS

Accession No. 1598-4, 1598-8

As a Seattle attorney, Barnett supported Japanese Americans during the WWII evacuation. He was chairman of Seattle Council of Churches, the Christian Education's Japanese American Emergency Committee, and the Gordon Hirabayashi Defense Committee, among other activities. Barnett also represented Hirabayashi during the court appeals in 1981.

Barnett's papers include reports, correspondence, and speeches from the Japanese American incarceration period during WWII, as well as documents and testimony from the redress period in the early 1980s. Taped interviews of Barnett discussing the Hirabayashi case are also available, including one done with Hirabayashi in 1974.

ELLA C. EVANSON SCRAPBOOK

Accession No. 2402

Evanson's scrapbook contains letters, essays, and photographs of Japanese and non-Japanese school children collected in 1941-42 while Evanson was a teacher at George Washington Junior High School in Seattle.

ANNE REEPLOEG FISHER PAPERS

Accession No. 1818-1, 1818-3

Anne Fisher was a civil libertarian and author of the book Exile Of A Race, published in 1965. Her papers primarily consist of her research files and drafts for her book, a history of the forcible removal and imprisonment by the Army of the 115,000 citizens and alien Japanese who were living on the West Coast in the spring of 1942. Included among the research files are chapter drafts, transcriptions of her interviews with Japanese Americans, clippings, ephemera and camp newspapers. Also included in the papers are Fisher's notes taken at the 1942 trial of Gordon Hirabayashi, a Japanese American curfew violator. Most of the other material in the Fisher papers, including correspondence, drawings, writings and ephemera, also relates to the war relocation and to postwar efforts at reparations for Japanese Americans.

The Anne Fisher papers measure 3.21 cubic feet. They were donated to the Libraries by Anne Fisher in 1971 and by Arthur Barnett in 1994.

LAURA A. FOLTZ LETTERS

Accession No. 2625

Foltz's papers consist of letters from a Japanese American family, the A. Korins, who were incarcerated at Tule Lake in 1942. Most are from the daughter, Lily Korin, a pupil of Mrs. Foltz at the Horace Mann School in Tacoma, Washington. There are also letters from family members who returned to Japan after the war (1947-54) and from Yuriko Harada/Lily Korin in Hartford, Connecticut (1953-58). The accession measures 0.21 cubic feet, and contains approximately 50 items.

HARRY FUJITA PAPERS

Accession No. 4534

This accession contains materials relating to an exhibit at the Skagit County Historical Museum entitled "Executive Order 9066: 50 Years Before and 50 Years After" (the exhibit was on loan from the Wing Luke Asian Museum in Seattle). Harry Fujita helped organize the exhibit and gave a talk at the Skagit County Historical Museum for it about his family's experiences before and during World War II. Harry Fujita worked in the U.S. Army's Military Intelligence Service Language School during World War II, and as such was not moved to any of the Japanese internment camps. However, his father, brother, and three sisters were all incarcerated, which was very hard on the entire family. Included in this accession are the videotape and transcript of his talk at the Museum, several brochures and clippings regarding the exhibit, and a copy of the exhibit booklet, which provides historical information about the Japanese in America. The accession measures 0.21 cubic feet.

YASUKO FUKANO PAPERS

Accession No. 1768

p>Yasuko Fukano was head of the library at the Portland Japanese Assembly Center. Her papers include a report of Yasuko Tsuboi (Fukano) as head of the library at the Portland Japanese Assembly Center. Also included are the Minidoka Adult Education Bulletin and copies of newspapers from various incarceration centers. The accession contains approximately 20 items.

WILLIAM HASEGAWA PAPERS

Accession No. 2063

William Hasegawa was incarcerated at Camp Minidoka in Hunt, Idaho during World War II. His papers consist of incoming letters, clippings, memorabilia, and photographs from this period of his life (1942-44). The accession was donated to the Libraries on November 16, 1972 by Mr. Hasegawa via Dolores Goto. It measures 2.5 cubic feet and contains approximately 100 items.

GORDON K. HIRABAYASHI ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS

Accession no. 3159-6

BIOGRAPHY

Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi was born in 1918 in the Sand Point area of Seattle. Around 1920, his family moved to a farm in Thomas, Washington, between Kent and Auburn, where Hirabayashi spent his childhood.

He graduated from Auburn High School in 1935 and began study at the University of Washington in 1937. While there, Hirabayashi was very active in the student YMCA, serving in several offices, including vice-president. In his college years he became a Quaker and joined the University Meeting of the Society of Friends.

In the spring of 1942, Hirabayashi defied the curfew imposed on Japanese Americans in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor and later refused to report for relocation, on the grounds that the curfew and exclusion order were based solely on race and therefore were unconstitutional. After the last Japanese were forcibly removed from Seattle, Hirabayashi turned himself in to the FBI and was tried and convicted in the Federal District Court of Seattle. The case ultimately went to the Supreme Court. The Court ruled, in Hirabayashi v. U.S., that the curfew was constitutional.¹ After the ruling, Hirabayashi served his sentence in a federal road camp in Arizona. He was later tried and convicted for draft resistance, for which he served nine months in the federal penitentiary on McNeil Island. Upon release, he returned to the University of Washington, completing a B.A. (1946), M.A. (1949), and Ph.D.(1952) in sociology, with a minor in anthropology. Hirabayashi then taught at American University in Beirut, American University in Cairo, and at the University of Alberta, British Columbia.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

This accession contains transcripts of five interviews with Hirabayashi conducted by Roger Daniels, professor of history at the University of Cincinnati, in 1981. In the first interview, Hirabayashi discusses his parents, their religious beliefs and experiences as immigrants from Japan, the farm on which he lived as a child, and his schooling and early adulthood. The second interview is a continuation of the first. Here he discusses his parents and his later schooling, particularly his activities at the University of Washington. Included is the period immediately after Pearl Harbor when Hirabayashi resolved to resist the curfew and exclusion order.

In the third interview, Hirabayashi describes his involvement with the University Meeting of the Society of Friends, the basis for his decision to resist the curfew and forced relocation, and his parents' reaction to his decision. He then discusses his arrest and conviction and his release to Spokane pending appeal. The fourth interview continues this discussion, covering the appeal to the Supreme Court, Hirabayashi's imprisonment in Arizona, his work with the American Friends Service Committee to assist Japanese families in relocating out of incarceration camps, his second trial and conviction for draft resistance, and his imprisonment at McNeil Island.

The fifth interview focuses primarily on Hirabayashi's academic career and concludes with his reflections on his civil disobedience and its significance for the 1980s.

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

These interviews were donated to the Libraries by Roger Daniels in January and February 1981. Daniels used them for his book, Asian America: Chinese and Japanese in the United States Since 1950 (University of Washington Press, 1988). The interviews were transcribed in 1992 with funding from the Motoda Foundation.

Tapes of the interviews were originally accessioned separately (Accession Nos. 3159, 3159-2, 3159-3, 3150-4). They have been merged with the transcripts to create Accession No. 3159-6.

1. Hirabayashi had been given concurrent sentences for violating the curfew and the exclusion order. Because the sentences were concurrent, the Supreme Court only needed to rule on one count and chose to rule on the curfew. The Court later upheld the exclusion order in Korematsu v. U.S.

KAICHIRO HIRAI PAPERS

Accession No. 1634

Hirai's papers contain correspondence (mainly drafts of outgoing letters), a diary from the year 1958, and miscellaneous writings regarding his immigration to the United States in 1904 (from Wakayama Ken), life in Los Angeles, and his World War II incarceration at Tule Lake in California. Materials are in Japanese and on microfilm.

GEORGE ISERI ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW

Accession No. 2467

George Iseri was a Japanese American businessman who was incarcerated to the Tule Lake, California internment center during World War II. Born in Thomas, Washington on April 23, 1920, Mr. Iseri graduated from Auburn High School in 1937 and went to business college for two years. Afterwards, he worked at his brother's (Thomas Iseri) wholesale distribution store, married, and moved to Kent, Washington.

The accession consists of a tape recorded interview with Mr. Iseri conducted by Dolores Goto in 1971. In it he describes the Japanese American incarceration experience and the Tule Lake camp in detail. At Tule Lake, Mr. Iseri served as a Junior Marketing Specialist, a position he accepted with the provision that he and his family be allowed to leave the camp. Through the help of his brother Tom, who was a partner in the Western Producers Exchange, he secured a contract for them to go to Weiser, Idaho. There, they sharecropped for two years, until 1945. After the war, Mr. Iseri was involved in several business ventures in Oregon and Washington including trucking, radio appliances, and insurance.

The accession was donated to the Libraries on April 3, 1971 by Mr. Iseri. It consists of two cassette tapes that are each approximately one hour in length.

THOMAS T. ISERI PAPERS

Accession Nos. 1589, 1589-2

Thomas T. Iseri was a Japanese American businessman who was born in Sumner, Washington in 1907. The eldest of twelve children, Mr. Iseri held a variety of jobs throughout his early adulthood, including dairy farmer, restaurant worker, houseboy, grocery store delivery boy, and, finally, grocery store owner. In 1935, he became a partner in the Western Producers Exchange and operated the business until the Japanese American incarceration in 1942. Soon after the war he settled in Weiser, Idaho and went to work packing celery for a man whom he later joined as a partner in an Ontario, Oregon packing house.

These accessions consist of written materials such as correspondence and business records dating from 1940-1945 and 1957 [Accession No. 1589] and a tape recorded interview conducted by Delores Goto on April 4, 1971 [Accession No. 1589-2]. Much of the correspondence concerns Mr. Iseri's claim against the U.S. government after the war, but it also includes information on the incarceration and his truck farming and packing house businesses. The accession measures approximately 2.5 cubic feet, and the tape is one hour in length. The materials were donated to the Libraries on April 4 and April 16, 1971 by Mr. Iseri via Delores Goto.

CHIHIRO KIKUCHI CORRESPONDENCE

Accession No. 3711

Before the start of the War in the Pacific, Chihiro Kikuchi was a graduate student in the Department of Physics at the University of Washington. This accession consists of photocopies of letters he wrote during World War II (in 1944) to arrange for his thesis defense in Seattle. Although he entered Haverford College, he eventually received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington.

The original materials in this accession are housed in the Bentley Library at the University of Michigan, where Mr. Kikuchi was a professor of nuclear engineering. Copies of the inventory of Michigan's large Kikuchi collection may be found in the Manuscripts & University Archives Accession No. 3711-2.

GERALDINE LAWRENCE SCRAPBOOK

Accession No. 1875

Geraldine Lawrence was a telephone operator at the Santa Anita Assembly Center in California. Her scrapbook contains many items pertaining to the forced removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast in 1942. Among those are clippings, organizational charts, photographs, maps, memoranda, official documents, and assorted memorabilia.

HAROLD F. LOGUE PAPERS

Accession Nos. 1599, 1599-2

Harold F. Logue was a businessman in Ontario, Oregon. Included in his papers are minutes of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce from the year 1942. The papers also contain a tape-recorded interview about the increased Japanese American population in Ontario as a result of the incarceration camp at Hunt, Idaho and the relationship between Japanese Americans and Caucasians in the community. Interviewed by Delores Goto, April 3, 1971.

RICHARD HIDEO NAITO SCRAPBOOK

Accession No. 4011

Richard Hideo Naito was a soldier in the 442nd Infantry regiment during World War II. This accession consists of photocopied selections from a scrapbook of Mr. Naito that dates from 1942 to 1970 (but focuses most strongly on the years 1942 to 1945). The original scrapbook was loaned to the Libraries for photocopying in April 1989, and the accession was created at that time. It measures approximately 0.5 cubic feet.

ROBERT W. O'BRIEN ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW

Accession No. 2420

Robert W. O'Brien was a civil rights activist and University of Washington Sociology Department faculty member. This accession consists of one (1) tape recorded interview (approximately 1 hour in length) with Mr. O'Brien conducted by Howard Droker on April 24, 1975. In the interview, Mr. O'Brien discusses the Japanese relocation, his work with the National Administration for Japanese College Students and the Civic Unity Committee, and Seattle race relations. The accession was donated to the Libraries by Mr. O'Brien in 1975.

EDDIE SATO SKETCHBOOK AND DRAWINGS

Sato is an artist who grew up in Seattle. While an inmate at the Puyallup Assembly Center, he sketched scenes of daily life. A sketchbook came to the Libraries via Frank Miyamoto in 1975, and eight pen and ink drawings were donated by the artist in 1996.

CALVIN SCHMID PAPERS

Accession No. 2591-76-26

Calvin Schmid was a professor in the University of Washington Sociology Department. This accession contains questionnaires, newsletters, and posters from a survey Schmid conducted for his department on attitudes toward Japanese American citizens. The posters contain the text of various orders issued to Japanese Americans by the U.S. Army during World War II, including evacuation instructions and orders and civilian exclusion orders.

FLOYD SCHMOE PAPERS

Accession No. 496-4

Floyd Schmoe was born in Kansas in 1895 and came to the University of Washington to study forestry in 1916. He graduated from Syracuse University in 1921 and returned to the University of Washington for graduate study. He was a park naturalist at Mt. Rainier for ten years and taught at the University from 1920 to 1940. Through his affiliation with the American Friends Service Committee, Schmoe worked to place the 550 Japanese Americans from the University of Washington in Quaker colleges at the time of the incarceration. Schmoe worked closely on this project with Robert O'Brien, a University of Washington faculty member. He regularly visited the camps and worked to get jobs and sponsors so that the Japanese could leave the camps. Mr. Schmoe explained that the Quakers were more radical in their activities than the more middle-of-the-road Council of Churches. After the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Schmoe organized a relief committee and went to Japan. In 1949, he formed a private relief organization called "Houses for Hiroshima" which sent volunteers over every summer to build houses for the bombing victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He later served in Korea from 1954 to 1956 and in Port Said, Egypt in 1956. He then retired and resumed his career as a naturalist by writing books on natural history.

This accession contains a ninety-minute tape-recorded interview with Mr. Schmoe, conducted by Dolores Goto, concerning Schmoe's work with the American Friends Service Committee. It was donated in 1971. A second accession, donated in 1992 (No. 496-8), includes a small amount of information about the Japanese incarceration in Box 1 (Japanese Relocation Subject Series, Folders 40--50).

SEIHOKU NIPPO

Accession No. 1897

Seihoku Nippo was a Seattle Japanese daily newspaper, established in 1948. It was owned by Martin K. Miyata, Gentaro Ohye, and Noboru Date.

Mr. Miyata spent several years at the Santa Fe Internment Camp in New Mexico, for being perceived as an alien enemy during World War II. In 1941, he was arrested in Seattle, where he ran a Japanese weekly newspaper named Taishu, because during the few years before World War II some pro-Japanese articles had appeared in the paper.

This accession contains correspondence that Miyata wrote during his detention, as well as general correspondence, financial records, news releases, and drafts of articles and advertisements for the newspaper, from 1944 to 1953.

The accession measures 4.5 linear feet.

TAMOTSU SHIBUTANI PAPERS

Accession No. 2881

Tamotsu Shibutani was a professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

This accession contains a manuscript of his book The Derelicts of Company K, which was based on his impressions as a member of that unit during World War II. The title page of the manuscript bears the note: "This is the 1970 version of the manuscript. A revised and shortened version was published by the University of California Press in 1978."

The accession measures 0.42 cubic feet.

FRANK L. WALTERS PAPERS

Accession No. 1465

Walters' papers consist of court decisions and legal documents, annotated letters, and a tape-recorded, transcribed interview regarding his defense of Gordon Hirabayashi in the case United States v. Hirabayashi (1942-43, 1969). The accession contains one cassette tape and approximately 25 other items.

TAUL WATANABE PAPERS

Taul Watanabe, who at age 16 helped to organize the Japanese Cannery Workers' Union, was founding president of the Los Angeles Harbor Commission. This accession consists of a tape-recorded interview with Mr. Watanabe conducted by Richard C. Berner in 1967. In it he discusses the Japanese American community in Los Angeles and his experiences during the group's forced removal from the West Coast in 1942.

The accession was donated to the Libraries on April 24, 1969 by Mr. Watanabe and contains one (1) tape.

ELIZABETH BAYLEY WILLIS PAPERS

Accession No. 2583-6

Elizabeth Bayley Willis was a graduate of the University of Washington, an art consultant, a museum professional, a patron of the arts, and a collector. She taught art, Latin, and English for four years at Garfield High School in Seattle. She served as Curator of the University's Henry Art Gallery (1946-48) and the San Francisco Museum of Art (1948-50), and worked as an advisor for the Technical Assistance Board of the United Nations.

This accession contains files relating to Willis' work in developing the textile industries in India, Morocco, and elsewhere, some personal notes, and five folders of materials relating to former students who were evacuated to Camp Harmony. There are three folders of letters from students, a folder of clippings, and a folder containing a Camp Harmony newsletter. The students' letters relate their feelings about being incarcerated, their reactions to the camp itself, and their hopes for the future.

Access to the materials is restricted to serious researchers. The accession measures 0.42 cubic feet.

KEITARO YAMADE PAPERS

Accession No. 3877

Keitaro Yamade was a foreman in a sawmill in Alaska. In January 1942 he was arrested in Ketchikan and taken to the Camp Harmony Assembly Center in Puyallup, Washington (and subsequently to the Minidoka incarceration camp in Hunt, Idaho).

The accession consists of a diary of two of the years Yamade spent at Camp Minidoka (1942-43). It was donated to the Libraries by Emi Mukai on July 21, 1987. It measures 2.5 cubic feet and is in Japanese.

YUZURU YAMAKA PAPERS

Accession No. 1489

Yuzuru Yamaka was a clergyman who worked as pastor at Blaine Methodist Church in Seattle, and at Japanese Methodist Church in Los Angeles.

This accession contains correspondence, financial records, conference reports, clippings, and other papers regarding his work as a pastor at both churches, as well as materials related to his incarceration at Camp Minidoka in Hunt, Idaho during World War II. Among the materials are correspondence, clippings regarding the war, and a copy of the Minidoka Irrigator in Japanese. The papers are in both Japanese and English, and measure 0.5 linear feet.

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