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Finding Aid for the Richard Mosk and Shinzo Yoshida correspondence, 1952-2011
1926
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Title: Richard Mosk and Shinzo Yoshida correspondence
Date (inclusive): 1952-2011
Collection number: 1926
Creator:
Mosk, Richard
Extent:
3 boxes (1.5 linear ft.)
Abstract: This collection contains the correspondence between Richard Mosk and Shinzo Yoshida from middle school to adulthood, writing
about their cultures, languages, religions, school, careers, travels, wives, and children. Spanning over fifty years and written
in both English as well as Japanese, these letters represent the lives of both men as they found careers, got married, and
had children. Correspondence continues following Shinzo's death between Richard and Shinzo's daughters, Aki and Yuki. Both
men spoke different languages and came from very different backgrounds. Richard attended Standford for his undergraduate degree
and Harvard for his law degree while Shinzo graduated highschool and found a job as an administrator in a paper company. Over
the course of 50 years they remained friends, sending each other photographs, small gifts, holiday cards, and stamps until
Shinzo's death.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Language of the Material:
Materials are in English and Japanese.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections
for paging information.
Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library
Special Collections for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the
creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright
owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of Richard Mosk, 2012.
Processed by Lauren Zuchowski with assistance from Kelley Bachli and Lilace Hatayama, March 2012.
[Identification of item], Richard Mosk and Shinzo Yoshida correspondence (Collection 1926). UCLA Library Special Collections,
Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
7047229
Shinzo Yoshida Shinzo Yoshida was born in 1938 in North Kyushu city. He attended Koguri National Elementary school from 1945-1951,
Koujou junior high school in Yamaguchi from 1951-1954, attended Yamaguchi high school for one year until his family moved
to Tokyo and he finished his degree at Shakuji high school. After graduation he worked as an administrative clerk at Honshu
Paper Company, which merged with Ooki Paper Company. He worked for the company for 42 years. Yoshida met his wife at the office
and they married in 1965. In 1977 his first daughter, Aki, was born. In 1980 Yoshida moved his family to Sakura City in Chiba
and in 1981 his second daughter, Yuki, was born. Yoshido passed away in July 2003. Yoshido's brother, Hishoshi, died in 2005.
His surviving brothers are Taiji, Keigo, and his only sister Mokoto.
Richard Mosk Richard Mosk was born in 1939 in Los Angeles. He grew up on Warner Avenue and played on the UCLA campus. He attended
Emerson Junior High, where he became involved in the pen pal program. Mosk eventually went to Harvard Law School. After law
school he moved to Washington and worked as a member of the staff for the Warren Commission. He married and moved to San Francisco,
where he clerked for a California Supreme Court justice. Then he moved to Los Angeles to work for a large law firm. Mosk took
a leave of absense from the law firm to work for the Los Angeles Federal Public Defender, trying criminal cases. In 1981 he
was named by the president as a judge on the U.S. Claims Tribunal in the Hague (established as part of the Hostage Crisis
settlement to resolve claims by Americans against Iran, Iranians against the U.S., and the governments against each other).
Mosk and his wife moved to Holland for this job. Upon returning he resumed his private practice and engaged extensively in
international arbitration. He served on the Chrisopher Commission that investigated the Los Angeles Police Department after
the Rodney King beating. Mosk also served as chairman of the Motion Picture Association of American Rating Administration,
which provides guidance for parents in connection with their children's movie watching. He was reappointed as a judge in the
Iran-U.S. claims tribunal but he commuted to Holland instead of moving there. He has lectured in the United States and abroad
on international arbitration and teaches undergraduate level classes at the University of Southern California. Mosk is a justice
for the California Court of Appeal. He was two children and four grandchildren.
In 1957 Mosk got a job on a cruise ship that landed on Yokohama, where he met Shinzo for the first time. In 1971 Mosk and
his went went to Japan and met the entire Yoshida family. Mosk is still in contact with both of Yoshida's daughters.
Documents include letters, photographs, various stamps, greeting cards, newspaper clippings, envelope remnants, prints, and
Japanese toys that chronicle the pen pal relationship between Richard Mosk and Shinzo Yoshida beginning in middle school and
continuing through adulthood until Yoshida's death in 2003. Correspondence continues until 2011 between Mosk and Yoshida's
family. There is some correspondence between Mosk's wife, Sandy, and Shinzo as well as letters to Mosk from various Japanese
students between 1952-1958.
The correspondence is arranged chronologically between all creators.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Mosk, Richard --Archives.
Yoshida, Shinzo --Archives.