Accession Inventory of the Iwao Shimizu papers

Title: Iwao Shimizu papers

Date (inclusive): 1944-approximately 1979

Collection Number: 2021C49

Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives

Language of Material: In English

Physical Description: 3 oversize boxes (2.96 Linear Feet)

Physical Description: 75 digital files (0.28 Gigabytes)

Abstract: Iwao Shimizu (1915–1976) was a journalist who founded the Totalizer at the Tanforan Assembly Center. The Iwao Shimizu papers include memorabilia from the Hokubei Mainichi press, typesets, clippings, and digital media.

Creator: Shimizu, Iwao, 1915-1976

Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives

Boxes 1-2 may not be used without permission of the archivist. The remainder of the collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2022.

[Identification of item], Iwao Shimizu papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Iwao Shimizu (1915–1976) was born in Castro Valley, CA, and moved to Kanagawa prefecture, Japan, in 1917/18. He was schooled in Japan and graduated from the Tokyo College of Physics (Tōkyō Butsuri Gakkō). After graduation, he returned to the US as a Tokyo Nichinichi journalist in 1932. Later he became the secretary of the Japanese Association in San Francisco and worked at San Francisco-based Japanese American newspaper the Shin Sekai Asashi ca. 1937. He founded the Totalizer at the Tanforan Assembly Center. He became the first Japanese editor of the Topaz Times at the Japanese American concentration camp, where he elected to be part of the prisoner exchange program to be repatriated to Japan. The trip to Japan was delayed due to his first son, Hiroshi, was born in 1943. The family was sent to Ellis Island in August 1943 to be boarded on the Gripshlom as an alternate. Since the trip to Japan did not materialize, the family was sent to Tule Lake, where Iwao served as a representative of the Daihyoshakai, representing the Japanese and Japanese American residents at Tule Lake. He also later served as an instructor at Ward III School. Iwao and his wife Fusako renounced US citizenship in 1945. After the DOJ hearing, the family would have been deported to Japan. However, civil rights lawyer Wayne M. Collins filed a lawsuit on behalf of the renunciants. The family was further relocated from Tule Lake to Crystal City in March 1946, where Iwao served as a representative of the Japanese and stayed behind at the camp until 1947. After 1947, he wrote for the Japanese American labor paper Progressive and later became the president and chief editor of Hokubei Mainichi.

The collection includes Iwao Shimizu's journals written during World War II, chronicling his internment at the Tule Lake Relocation Center. It also contains memorabilia from the Hokubei Mainichi press (where he was an editor), typesets, clippings, and digital media. Additionally, there are transcriptions of Japanese Military Headquarters Announcements broadcast through shortwave radio from Tokyo.