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Finding Aid for the Fuju Sasaki papers, 1944-1986 (bulk 1944-1954)
1440
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Title: Fuju Sasaki papers
Date (bulk): 1944-1986 (bulk 1944-1954)
Collection number: 1440
Creator:
Sasaki, Fuju, b. 1899.
Extent:
1 box (0.5 linear feet)
Abstract: The Fuju Sasaki Papers contain materials related to the Japanese and Japanese American migration to Seabrook Farms in New
Jersey at the end of World War Two and their post-war daily life at Seabrook Farms. These materials were collected by Fuju
Sasaki, who was known as the "Mayor" of Seabrook for his work and advocacy for the Japanese Seabrook community. The collection
also contains materials relating to public recognition of his work as well as audiocassettes of interviews with Sasaki.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of 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 the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library,
Department of Special Collections. 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 Mrs. Fuju Sasaki, 1986.
Processed by Tiffany-Kay Sangwand in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Kelley Wolfe
Bachli, Winter 2008.
[Identification of item], Fuju Sasaki papers (Collection 1440). Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, UCLA.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
4233731
Fuju Sasaki was known as the "Mayor" and spokesman of the Japanese community at Seabrook Farms from 1944 through 1964. In
1899, he was born in Japan and at the age of fourteen, he went to Hawaii to live with his father for five years. Sasaki later
moved to Parkville, Missouri where he completed his Bachelor of Science in Math and Physics at Park College. After graduating,
Sasaki did a variety of odd jobs while taking night courses in drafting at Carnegie. He later moved to Florin, California
where he worked in a tofu shop.
As a result of the U.S. internment of Japanese during World War II, Sasaki was relocated to Jerome War Relocation Center in
Arkansas in 1942. In 1944, an employment manager from the New Jersey based Seabrook Farms, the largest farm and frozen vegetable
plant at the time, came to Jerome in order to recruit workers. Through an invitation by Seabrook Farms owner Charles Seabrook,
Fuju Sasaki, along with fellow members of the Jerome Relocation Commission Harold Ouchida and Ellen Nakamura, visited Seabrook
Farms to investigate it as a potential site for relocation.
Sasaki returned to Arkansas as the Jerome War Relocation Center was closing and moved his family to the Gila River Relocation
Center in Phoenix, Arizona before returning to Seabrook to work. Nine months later, his family joined him in Seabrook. Sasaki
and his wife Kikue had six children, all of which have graduated from college.
On June 29, 1953, Sasaki became a U.S. citizen in the first mass naturalization ceremony for Japanese. He was one of the first
to petition for naturalization in 1947. On March 28, 1964, the Seabrook chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League held
a testimonial dinner in honor of Sasaki and his wife and their service to the Seabrook community. In 1964, the couple returned
to California and settled in Torrance.
The Fuju Sasaki Papers contain materials related to the 2,500 Japanese and Japanese Americans who relocated from the internment
camps to Seabrook Farms in New Jersey from 1944 to 1947. The Japanese American weekly reports, which detail the numbers of
Japanese employee arrivals, terminations, rates of employment and housing, comprise the bulk of the materials in the collection.
These are addressed to the "Mayor" Fuju Sasaki and are mostly prepared by Ellen Nakamura, who acted as the liaison between
Seabrook Farms and the Deerfield Packing Corporation in Bridgeton, New Jersey. These reports date from August 1944 to June
1947.
The Events folder and Seabrook Community House folder also contain information related to Japanese post-war daily life at
Seabrook from 1947 through 1954. The materials in these folders include planning information for Seabrook community events
and the Seabrook Community House newsletter, The Villager. Approximately half of the event planning materials is written in
Japanese. The Villager is translated from English into Japanese, German, and other eastern European languages reflecting the
diverse population of Seabrook, which included African Americans from the South, Scot-Irish from Appalachia, Germans, Italians,
Estonians, Latvians, Ukrainians, Jamaicans, and Puerto Ricans.
The collection also contains two audio cassette tapes of two interviews conducted with Fuju Sasaki by Mitziko Sawada in 1985
and 1986 as well as clippings related to Seabrook and materials related to the organizations Japanese American Citizens League
and Japan Society who honored Fuju Sasaki for his role at Seabrook. The clippings range in date from 1947 through 1971. They
are all culled from east coast publications such as the New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, and Bridgeton Evening (New
Jersey).
Other materials in the collection include an event program from the first Seabrook reunion held in Los Angeles in 1983, Seabrook
Farms pamphlets, and miscellaneous documents.
The collection was organized by the general chronology of events from Japanese migration to Seabrook Farms beginning at the
end of World War Two (Folders 1-4) to post-war life at Seabrook Farms (Folders 5-11), and post-Seabrook Farms life of Fuju
Sasaki (Folder 12).
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Sasaki, Fuji, 1894- --Archives.
Civic leaders--New Jersey--Seabrook--Archival resources.
Japanese Americans--New Jersey--Seabrook--Archival resources.
Japanese Americans--Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945.