Title:
Letter from Mutsuo Hirose to [Afton] Nance, 1945 Jan 17
Creator:
Hirose, Mutsuo, 1928-
Subject:
"Nance, Afton Dill "
Japanese Americans-- Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
Description:
Handwritten letter from Mutsuo Hirose to [Afton] Nance, 1945 Jan 17.
Newell, California January 17, 1945 Dear Mrs. Nance I have missed you for sometime and I just had to write to you
for the swell gift you sent us. I have played many games now with my brother who has been chalenging me game after game ever
since you sent me the swell checker set. I have learned many new moves too. We all enjoyed those delicious dates you sent
us. To tell you the truth I think it was the first time we ate dates since this horrible war started I have been doing many
things since I last wrote to you. I have found a swell friend here. It was about four or five month ago since we first started
to go around with each other, so now I am not so lonesome as I used to be over here. Now that we know each other well, we
could tell each other most any trouble or any thing we have in mind. The topic we most enjoy talking about is back home. I
like to boast about is how good I guess you know where. And he likes to talk about is Oak Park, California, right next to
the State Capital. We have very good moving picture shows here now that we have a thirty-two millimeter non-stop projector
which our high school bought (besides the sixteen millimeter moving projector that goes around the mess halls). They show
it every saturdays at the school gym. Since I came into this camp, I joined the block club. We even have our own “club house”
in which we keep our equipments, ping pong table, magazines and many different kinds of games. We go here to pass our time
whenever we feel kind of low. We have a party about once every two month and we really have a swell time. There has been
talks about going back to California and are having “hearings” going on for quite awhile now and I think we will find out
what will happen to this camp after January twenty. I was in the girls advisor’s office a couple of weeks ago to discuss
my cridits to graduate and Mrs. Carter the lady who was in charge told me what is going to happen to all W.R.A. camps. One
was that this camp will start to close about six month from now, and some other situation concerning this camp. She told me
that we will be able to go back to our homes if we wanted to. I think we are caught in a situation which will be hard for
us to decide. We really want to go back to Palos Verdes or another place almost like it. And to my home where I was raised
and where we learned to love this country And the home we learned to love, not just as my home but more then this. Before
this horrible thing called war started. We thought that there is any place like Palos Verdes in the whole world which we still
believe as the best and thought nothing could separate us from this home. I guess this dream was too good to last forever.
Now that we grew out of this, and do not know whats there for us in the future. I guess we are just peoples who will have
hope for the best. I am telling you all this because I know you understand what I am really trying to tell you. I have
millions of things to say but I guess I will just be a bore and besides theres some nice home work waiting for me. This year
I took Chemistry, English and Plane Geometry. Truly Yours Mutsuo Hirose (P.S) Don’t think that we will ever be able to
forget of all the things you have done for us because this is one thing that we will never will be able to forget as long
as we live.
Publisher:
Japanese American National Museum
Date:
1945 January 17
Type:
text;
Format:
1 item ( 7 p. letter) ; sheet 20 x 13 cm.
Identifier:
JANM_034
2001.175.171
Language:
eng
Relation:
Coverage:
Newell (Calif.)
Rights:
Copyrighted;
All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in this collection must be submitted to the Hirasaki
National Resource Center at the Japanese American National Museum (hnrc@janm.org).
Japanese American National Museum
Letter from Mutsuo Hirose to [Afton] Nance, 1945 Jan 17