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Finding aid for the Mollie Wilson Murphy Papers
2000.378.1
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Title: Mollie Wilson Murphy papers
Dates: 1942-1945
Collection number: 2000.378.1
Creator:
Mollie Wilson Murphy, 1923-
Collection Size:
0.5 linear feet
Repository:
Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Los Angeles, California 90012
Abstract: Mollie Wilson Murphy was an African-American woman who lived in Boyle Heights during World War II. She had many Japanese-American
friends who were forced into Concentration camps during the war. This collection comprises of the correspondences between
Mollie and her friends in camp. The Mollie Wilson Papers include correspondence, school photographs, and miscellaneous photos
in Boyle Heights of Mollie and friends before the war, during and after camp. There are also mimeographs, and newspaper
clippings.
Physical location: Japanese American National Museum
369 East First Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
By appointment only.
Contact the Hirasaki National Resource Center
by e-mail (hnrc@janm.org) or telephone (213.830.5680)
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).
[Identification of item], Mollie Wilson Murphy papers. 2000.378.1 , Japanese American National Museum. Los Angeles, CA.
This finding aid was created as part of a project funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
The project started in 2007. Project Director was Cris Paschild. Project Archivists were Yoko Shimojo and Marlon Romero.
Biography / Administrative History
Mollie Murphy grew up on Boulder Street between Evergreen and Sloat in Boyle Heights. Her brother Atoy graduated from Roosevelt
in the late 1930s and Mollie graduated in summer 1943. The two of them had many close Japanese American friends and it seems
that their street was very heterogeneous. Mollie wrote in a correspondence, "As a child, I vividly remember that on my street
alone there were ten different ethnic families residing harmoniously together. My mother learned to cook from Jewish people,
because she had not been taught by her own mother. It often amazed me how my mother could communicate with Mrs. Kokoris or
Mrs. Akahoshi, because neither of them could speak English and my mother couldn't speak Greek nor Japanese! It goes to show,
that when it comes to mutual problems, you don't always need words to express your thoughts."
Throughout the war, Mollie corresponded with a number of her Japanese American girlfriends.
Their correspondences extend the duration of the World War II exclusion, from the assembly centers (Santa Anita and Pomona)
to the camps (Amache, Heart Mountain, Manzanar, Gila River, and Poston) to relocation. Her letters provide the opportunity
to explore the incarceration experience from a non-Japanese perspective and reveals how Nisei teenagers represented their
experiences to their non-Japanese American peers. Mollie's relationship with a number of these individuals continued well
past World War II and into the present. Most recently, Mollie Wilson Murphy along with Mary (Murakami) Nishi and Sandie (Saito)
Okada, participated in a collaborative interview for the Japanese American National Museum's Boyle Heights Oral History Project
in 2002.
Scope and Content of Collection
The order of the collection follows a strict rule of provenance. The collection is arranged at the folder-level where each
folder has a high level of description. There are several letters, photographs, postcards, and newsletters from camp during
1942-1945. For additional resources, refer to the Japanese American National Museum's Boyle Heights Oral History Project
located in the museum's Hirasaki National Resource Center.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Murphy, Mollie Wilson
African Americans
Japanese Americans
Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
World War, 1939-1945
Concentration camps
Colorado
Wyoming
Arizona
Assembly centers
California
20th century
Concentration Camp life
Concentration Camps, Amache
Concentration Camps, Poston
Concentration Camps, Heart Mountain
Concentration camps, Gila River
Concentration Camps, Manzanar
Assembly Centers, Pomona
Assembly Centers, Santa Anita