Finding Aid to the Toshio Yatsushiro Papers MS.212

Holly Rose Larson

Library and Archives at the Autry

2012 August 9

210 South Victory Blvd.

Burbank, CA 91502

rroom@theautry.org

URL: https://theautry.org/research-collections/library-and-archives

Contributing Institution: Library and Archives at the Autry

Title: Toshio Yatsushiro Papers

Creator: Yatsushiro, Lily

Creator: Yatsushiro, Toshio

Creator: Graburn, Nelson H. H.

Identifier/Call Number: MS.212

Physical Description: 2 Linear Feet (3 boxes)

Date (inclusive): 1957-1962

Abstract: Dr. Toshio Yatsushiro (born 1917) is an anthropologist born in the United States to Japanese parents. Yatsushiro started advising and doing research for the federal government when he and his family were incarcerated in the Poston War Relocation Authority Camp during World War II. After the war, Yatsushiro taught at universities in the U.S. and Canada. While teaching at McGill University in Canada, the Canadian government hired Yatsushiro to do field studies on the Inuit settlement in Frobisher Bay, now Iqaluit, in Nunavut territory from 1958-1959. This collection, which spans from 1957-1962, includes Yatsushiro's research notes during the Inuit study and his manuscript for an unpublished book based on his findings.

Language of Material: English .

Container: 1-3

Biographical Note

Toshio Yatsushiro was born on May 5, 1917, in the United States and was raised by his Japanese-born parents in Hawaii. After finishing high school, he received a scholarship to the University of Redlands and began studying sociology in 1939. When World War II began during his senior year of college, Yatsushiro and his family from the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles were all sent to the Colorado River War Relocation Authority camp, also known as Poston, in Arizona. Poston was located on the Colorado River Indian Reservation and was therefore operated by the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA), now the Bureau of Indian Affairs, until 1943.

Dr. Alexander Leighton, head of the Bureau of Sociological Research at Poston, recruited Yatsushiro to assist in advising the OIA in managing their inmates. Leighton continued to recruit Yatsushiro to assist in advisory and research positions for the United States federal government until 1946, including research for Leighton's 1945 publication The Governing of Men, advisory council to senior Pentagon officials regarding Japanese military and culture, and work on the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey.

Yatsushiro completed another research project for the United States government after the war, contributing to Robert Cullum's 1947 book People in Motion. Between 1947 and 1962, Yatsushiro held various research and teaching positions for such institutions as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University, University of Kansas, and McGill University in Canada.

While teaching at McGill, the Canadian government commissioned Yatsushiro to do field studies on Inuit Eskimo residents of Frobisher Bay, now known as Iqaluit, in the Northwest Territory Nunavut to see how they were dealing with Canadian settlements between 1958 and 1959. Yatsushiro attended an international conference in 1959 and presented a preliminary report on his findings, which was critical of the government's handling of the Inuit people of Baffin Island. The Canadian government terminated the contract, and Yatsushiro's manuscript was never published.

Yatshushiro completed his dissertation, Political and socio-cultural issues at Poston and Manzanar Relocation Centers; a themal analysis, at Cornell in 1953, and continued to publish articles and books until 1987. Yatsushiro retired from working as a professor at the University of Hawaii in 1980 and continued to live in Hawaii until his death in 2015.

Resource: Densho Encyclopedia contributors, "Toshio Yatsushiro," Densho Encyclopedia http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Toshio%20Yatsushiro/ (accessed 2022 January 9).

Acquisition

Donation from Rex Arrowsmith, 1978 February 17.

Preferred Citation

Toshio Yatsushiro Manuscript and Papers, 1957-1962, Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles; MS.212; [folder number] [folder title][date].

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright has not been assigned to the Autry Museum of the American West. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Research Services and Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Autry Museum of the American West as the custodian of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Conditions Governing Access

Appointments to view materials are required. To make an appointment please visit https://theautry.org/research-collections/library-and-archives and fill out the Researcher Application Form.

Arrangement

Materials are arranged by material type, then chronologically. Manuscript chapters start with Chapter 2 and go up to Chapter 11.

Processing History

Initial processing and inventory by Braun Library Staff and Anna Liza Posas. Finding aid completed by Holly Rose Larson, NHPRC Processing Archivist, August 9, 2012, made possible through grant funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commissions (NHPRC).

Processing of collection and publication of finding aid made possible by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

Scope and Contents

This collection of papers includes the manuscript for a book titled The Changing Eskimo and research material relating to Inuit ethnology, archaeology, and anthropology from 1957-1962.

Yatsushiro's research materials included in this collection are from his work in Frobisher Bay from 1958-1959. Papers include field notes, field expenses, questionnaires, and transcripts of interviews. This collection also includes both business and personal correspondence, some of which includes correspondence to Yatsushiro's wife Lily while she stayed with him in Frobisher Bay. Other papers in this collection include a bibliography on "Copper Eskimos," notes on linguistics and orthography, government licenses, newsletters, newspaper clippings, examples of research proposals, and one of Yatsushiro's student's papers.

There is no evidence of The Changing Eskimo being published as a monograph, though there are notes that certain of the chapters were given as papers before some Anthropological meetings.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Transcripts

Frobisher Bay (Nunavut : Bay)

Questionnaires

Iqaluit (Nunavut)

Bibliography

Inuit -- Ethnology

Newsletters

Field notes

Inuit -- Social life and customs

Clippings

Japanese Americans

Correspondence

Orthography and spelling

Changing Eskimo

Copper Inuit

Licenses

Inuit language -- Orthography and spelling

Linguistics

Arctic peoples

Box 1 1957-1962

Frobisher Bay census, population statistics.
Frobisher Bay census, notes on families .
Frobisher Bay census results. Also includes information and notes on families.
The Changing Eskimo, economy (folder A)Additional "Minneapolis" note on folder.
The Changing Eskimo, economy (folder B)
The Changing Eskimo chapter 3, climate
The Changing Eskimo chapter 4, demography Note on folder, "Vide #2 above".
The Changing Eskimo chapter 4, material culture
"Material culture change versus conservatism" survey. Content is in relation to Chapter 4.
The Changing Eskimo chapter 7, attitudes toward wage employment draft and tables
The Changing Eskimo chapter 7, data survey in Eskimo language
The Changing Eskimo chapter 7, data survey translated
The Changing Eskimo chapter 7, code sheets of survey results
The Changing Eskimo chapter 7, job survey
The Changing Eskimo chapter 7, case studies
The Changing Eskimo chapter 8, income and expenditures
The Changing Eskimo chapter 8, purchase charts of selected Eskimos
The Changing Eskimo chapter 8, expenditure statistics
The Changing Eskimo chapter 8, miscellaneous
The Changing Eskimo Tables for chapters 8, 4, and 6
The Changing Eskimo Kinship blank charts for chapter 10
The Changing Eskimo chapter 10 Eskimo family structure (folder A)
The Changing Eskimo chapter 10, Eskimo family structure (folder B)
Miscellaneous notes and "An Introduction to Frobisher Bay"
The Changing Eskimo chapter 10, Eskimo family structure (folder C)
The Changing Eskimo chapter 10, kinship genealogy charts (folder A)

Box 2 1957-1962

The Changing Eskimo chapter 10, kinship data (folder B)
The Changing Eskimo chapter 10, kinship data (folder C)
The Changing Eskimo chapter 11, political organization
Copper Eskimos articles. Extracts are from Human Relations Area Files (HRAF).
Correspondence A
Correspondence B
Ditto masters of forms
Eskimo language vocabulary notes
Eskimo songs and tales – notes
Field expenses
Field notes, typed
Frobisher development committee
NHH Graburn's thesis proposal
Graburn's MA thesis manuscript

Box 3 1957-1962

Anthropological papers of Chas C. Hughes
Preliminary outline, interim report
Transcripts of interviews
Answers to questionnaires A
Answers to questionnaires B
Government licenses for Canadian work
Regarding linguistics and orthography
Meteorological data
Miscellany
News clippings
Photography information
Rasmussen's V Thule expedition Includes 2 typed copies
Criminal data
Notes
Research proposals, biography
Research proposal examples
Frobisher Bay school records
Case study. Includes two typed copies