Descriptive Summary
Administration Information
History
Scope and Content
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: CSU Japanese American Digitization Project Collection
Dates: 1915-1994
Collection Number: Consult repository.]
Collector:
California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Extent:
608 digital items
Repository: California State University, Dominguez Hills
Archives and Special Collections
Archives & Special Collection
University Library, Room 5039
1000 E. Victoria Street
Carson, California 90747
Phone: (310) 243-3013
URL: http://www.csudh.edu/archives/csudh/index.html
Abstract:
The central focus of the California State University Japanese American Digitization Project is the digitization and access
to primary materials related to the history and progress of Japanese Americans in their communities. An enormous range of
subjects and archival materials central to Japanese-American life before, during, and after World War II are in this digital
collection including: letters, photographs, oral histories, camp publications, papers of camp administrators and counselors,
poetry, art works, leases, certificates and other documents to prove citizenship, and school yearbooks.
Language: Collection material is in English
Administration Information
Access
There are no access restrictions on this collection.
Publication Rights
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Archives
and Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical
materials and not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Preferred Citation
[Title of item], California State University Japanese American Digitization Project Collection,, Courtesy of the Department
of Archives and Special Collections. University Library. California State University, Dominguez Hills
Acquisition Information
The materials were donated to the Archives and Special Collection departments of the various
California State University campuses.
Processing Information
Donated collections were processed by the respective CSU campus repositories. The digital collection was processed during
2014-2015 by Sue Tyson and Summer Espinoza at CSU Dominguez Hills.
History
The story of the Japanese Americans in the Modern era their migration to this
country, the Alien Land laws under which they lived, and their incarceration
during World War II is a complex local and state topic as well as a national
subject of great historical impact. The history of the Japanese in the United States began with Commodore Perry's gunboat
diplomacy policy in 1868. The first small numbers of Japanese came to the West Coast in 1869. Larger groups did not begin
arriving on the West Coast until after the Exclusion Act of 1882, which completely stopped the immigration of Chinese laborers.
The Japanese workers were brought in as replacements to work on the railroads and mines. With the California Alien Land Laws
of 1913 and 1924, all Asian immigrants were ineligible for citizenship and could not legally own or lease land
In the two months that followed the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japanese forces, a wave of hysteria
and fear merged with the tradition of anti-Asian xenophobia. By late February 1942 a Japanese submarine made a futile attempt
to bomb oil fields in Santa Barbara. Within a day or so artillery outposts throughout Los Angeles County shot blindly at non-existent
Japanese aircraft. The shrapnel landed on homes throughout Los Angeles and Long Beach. The ensuing hysteria opened the door
for an attack on the rights of Japanese Americans not only by local, state and national politicians, but also military brass
and commercial interests. In February, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, the net result of which was
that over 120,000 first generation Japanese Americans (Issei) and second generation Japanese Americans (Nisei) were to be
excluded from coastal regions, and sent first to assembly centers and then to inland camps.
During the middle of March 1942, the War Relocation Authority was established
as a civilian agency responsible for relocation. In April 1942 the Wartime Civilian Control Agency (WCCA) was established
by the military to coordinate the mass removal to temporary local and regional assembly centers. Business owners lost their
businesses. Tenant farmers lost their leases. College and other students were uprooted from their studies. Family life was
irrevocably harmed. Japanese American citizens were told to get on buses with what they could carry and were dropped off at
racetracks, fairgrounds or other bleak locales, which served as their homes for several months. Later these citizens were
transported to unfinished camps where the communal mess halls, latrines and barracks allowed for little or no privacy. Most
of them were scattered in higher elevation desert areas in Arizona, Utah, California and Colorado. The camps were run by the
War Relocation Authority.
Various other camps were created by the Department of Justice (DOJ). These camps were for enemy aliens and citizens of Latin
American countries, especially Peru. The camp at Crystal City, Texas was among these DOJ camps. Alleged troublemakers at
WRA camps were threatened with exile to the DOJ
camps or other less known isolation centers such as one in Moab, Utah. During the years in the camps Issei and Nisei alike
were threatened with deportation if behavior was not circumspect or certain vague survey questions were not answered in the
right way.
When the U.S. allowed Japanese Americans to serve in the military, many young men in the camps joined the 442nd Regimental
Combat Team of the United States Army, both to get out of camps and express patriotism. The 442nd was among the most decorated
units of its size in the history of the United States Army. In early 1945 the camps began to close and by the end of the year
all the camps were closed except Tule Lake which closed in 1946. While formerly imprisoned Japanese Americans worked to rebuild
their lives in the late 1940s and 1950s, many citizens in the 1960s became increasingly convinced that incarceration had been
a violation of basic human rights. By the 1980s Japanese American citizens sought redress for the incarceration period. In
1988 formerly incarcerated survivors were paid $20,000.
Scope and Content
The collection contains letters, photographs, oral histories, camp publications, papers of camp administrators and counselors,
poetry, art works, leases, certificates and other documents to prove citizenship, and school yearbooks. The initial project
digitized papers, photographs, and media, such as audio and video.
The material was accumulated by the various California State University Archives
and Special Collections from a number of donors. The majority of the material is focused on the evacuation and incarceration
of Japanese Americans during World War II. However, there are also pre-war materials related to early immigration and land
laws as well as post-war items through redress when incarcerated survivors were paid $20,000.
Arrangement
Collection arranged according to numbering and naming schemes of contributing repositories
Indexing Terms
Subjects
World War, 1939-1945--Evacuation of civilians--United States.
Concentration camps--United States.
Japanese Americans--Civil rights.
Japanese Americans--Reparations.
Japanese Americans--Pacific States--History--20th century.
Land tenure--Law and legislation.