Guide to the Flaherty Collection: Japanese Internment Records
SJSU Library Special Collections & Archives
San Jose State University Library
Special Collections & Archives
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library
One Washington Square
San Jose, CA 95192-0028
Phone: (408) 808-2061
Fax: (408) 808-2063
Email: specialcollections@sjsu.edu
URL: http://library.sjsu.edu/sjsu-special-collections/sjsu-special-collections-and-archives
© 2006
San Jose State University. All rights reserved.
Guide to the Flaherty Collection: Japanese Internment Records
MSS-2006-05-02
SJSU Special Collections & Archives
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library
San José State University
One Washington Square
San José, CA 95192-0028
Phone: (408) 808-2062
Fax: (408) 808-2063
Email: special.collections@sjsu.edu
URL: http://library.sjsu.edu/sjsu-special-collections/sjsu-special-collections-and-archives
- Processed by:
- Russell Rader
- Date Completed:
- 2006
- Encoded by:
- Russell Rader
© 2005 Trustees of the California State University. All rights reserved.
Collection Summary
Title: Flaherty Collection: Japanese Internment Records
Date (bulk): 1921-1966, bulk 1942
Accession number: MSS-2006-02
Creator:
Fullerton, Colonel Hugh T.
United States. Army. Western Defense Command and Fourth Army.
United States. Wartime Civil Control Administration
United States. War Relocation Authority
Collector:
Flaherty, John Melvin
San José State College
Collection Size:
1-3inch flat-box, 4 cartons, 2 oversized boxes
(11 linear feet)
Repository:
San José State University Library, Special Collections & Archives
San José, California 95192-0028
Abstract: The War Relocation Authority (WRA), together with the Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA), the Civil Affairs Division
(CAD) and the Office of the Commanding General (OFG) of the Western Defense Command (WDC) operated together to segregate and
house some 110,000 men women and children from 1942 to 1945. The collection contains documents and photographs relating to
the establishment and administrative workings of the (WDC), the (WRA) and the (WCCA) for the year 1942.
Physical location:
Vault 1, Range 20B
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to the San José State University Library Special Collections & Archives. All requests for
permission to publish or quote manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Special Collections. Permission
for publication is given on behalf of the Special Collections & Archives as the owner 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.
Copyright restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files from or derived
from these collections is restricted to research and educational purposes.
Preferred Citation
Flaherty Collection: Japanese Internment Records, San José State University Library, Special Collections & Archives.
Acquisition Information
The bulk of this artificial collection was donated to the SJSU Special Collections by John Melvin Flaherty, Jr. The remainder
of the collection was compiled by SJSC library staff.
Processing Information
Processing and guide prepared by Russell Rader, reviewed by Danelle Moon. Guide encoded by Russell Rader, 2006
Custodial History
It appears that the bulk of Flaherty Collection was initially part of a larger group of documents collected and maintained
by Colonel Hugh T. Fullerton of the Western Defence Command. Colonel Fullerton gave the documents to John Melvin Flaherty,
Jr. with instructions to distribute the collection of material to the libraries of San José State College and Stanford University.
Biography / Administrative History
On February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 providing broad powers for the War Department to create
exclusion zones and to initiate an evacuation program for the Western Defense Command (WDC). Under the leadership of General
John Dewitt of the WDC, the Civil Affairs Division (CAD) and the Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA) were created
in order to provide for the transition of voluntary evacuees, enemy aliens and United States citizens alike, from exclusion
areas to other parts of the country. The failure of the voluntary evacuation plan led President Roosevelt to issue Executive
Order 9102, which established the civilian run War Relocation Authority (WRA). The WRA was mandated to institute enforced
evacuations. Due to the recalcitrance of states on the interior of the country to accept the Japanese evacuees or to provide
for their safety, the WRA also constructed internment centers in order to house the evacuees. Between 1942-1945 the WRA,
the
WCCA, the CAD and the Office of the Commanding General of the Western Defense Command segregated and housed approximately
110,000 Japanese-American men, women and children.
Though the initial exclusion plan put forth by General Dewitt included both German and Italian citizens, the Japanese Americans
bore the brunt of Executive Order 9066.
Bibliography and references cited
Baker, Lillian.
American and Japanese Relocation in World War II : Fact, Fiction, and Fallacy. (Medford, OR: Webb Research Group, 1990)
City of San José Commission on the Internment of Local Japanese Americans.
With Liberty and Justice for All: The Story of San José's Japanese Community. (San José, Calif. Distributed by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, 1985).
Flaherty, John Melvin, Jr.
The Decision to Evacuate and Intern the Japanese Residing on the Pacific Coast of the United States during World War II. (Unpublished masters thesis, California State University, San José, 1973)
Nishimoto, Richard S.
Inside an American Concentration Camp : Japanese American Resistance at Poston, Arizona. Lane Ryo Hirabayashi (Ed.). (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1995)
Smith, P.
Democracy on Trial: the Japanese American Evacuation and Relocation in World War II. (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1995)
United States War Department.
Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast, 1942 : Final Report/ United States Department of War. (New York, NY: Arno Press, 1978)
Weglyn, Michi.
Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America's Concentration Camps. (New York: Morrow, 1976)
Related Material
Scope and Content of Collection
This artificial collection consists of documents and photographs relating to the establishment and administrative workings
of the Western Defense Command (WDC), the War Relocation Authority (WRA) and the Wartime Civilian Control Administration (WCCA)
for the year 1942. It includes administrative policies, orders, manuals, correspondence, statistics, posters, photographs
and newspaper clippings. The bulk of this collection documents the activities of 1942 but materials in series IV cover other
time periods.
Arrangement
This collection is broken down into 5 series;
Series I: War Relocation Authority;
Series II: Wartime Civilian Control Administration;
Series III: Western Defense Command;
Series IV: Printed Matter and
Series V: Japanese Internment Photograph Album
Within each series, folders have been given titles that often use abbriviations in place of full organizational names.
Abbreviation List
- ATD
- Alaska Travel Division
- CAD
- Civil Affairs Division
- EOD
- Evacuation Operations Division
- OCG
- Office of the Commanding General
- SSB
- Special Services Branch
- WCCA
- Wartime Civilian Control Administration
- WDC
- Western Defense Command
- WRA
- War Relocation Authority
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index similar items in the Library Of Congress
Subjects and Indexing Terms
United States. Army. Western Defense Command.
United States. Wartime Civil Control Administration
United States. War Relocation Authority
World War, 1939-1945 -- California
Japanese Americans -- Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
World War, 1939-1945 -- Evacuation of civilians
Collection Contents
Box 1
Series I
War Relocation Authority
1942
Physical Description:
7 folders
Scope and Content Note
This series is arranged alphabetically and is deliniated by division name, document type and date.
This series documents the formation of the War Relocation Authority (WRA) and the internal workings of the agency including
administrative memos and reports concerning the operation of the internment camps for the year 1942. In addition, bibliographies
and reports compiled by the WRA examining the cultural background of Japanese Americans as well as an interview between the
Director of the Colorado River Relocation Project and its Supply and Transportation Officer following a camp protest are included.
Folder 1-4
Administrative instructions
1942
Folder 1
Administrative manual
1942
Folder 2
Administrative notices
1942
Folder 4
Memoranda/Miscellaneous
1942
Folder 5
Legal authorizations
1942
Folder 6
Press briefings releases and statements
1942
Folder 7
Miscellaneous studies and center collected information
1942
Box 2
Series II
Wartime Civilian Control Administration
1942
Physical Description:
18 folders
Scope and Content Note
This series is arranged alphabetically and is deliniated by division name, document type and date. Folders 16 and 17 are
organized by their "transfer order number". This series is comprised of bulletins, circulars, memoranda, administrative notices,
general, evacuation and transfer orders as well as public proclamations and exclusion orders issued by the Wartime Civilian
Control Administration (WCCA) in 1942.
Folder 8
ATD/administrative instructions/memoranda/miscellaneous
1942
Folder 9
EOD/reports and statistics/operations progress chart
1942
Folder 10-13
Instructions and regulations
1942
Folder 10
Miscellaneous/ March-June
1942
Folder 11
Miscellaneous/ July-October
1942
Folder 14
Legal authorizations
1942
Folder 18
Personnel/ Administrative instructions/Memoranda/Miscellaneous
1942
Folder 19
Reports and statistics/Japanese surname master list
1942
Folder 20-22
SSB/reports and statistics
1942
Folder 20
Daily recapitulation report.June 15 - August 2
1942
Folder 21
Daily recapitulation report. August 3 - September 27
1942
Folder 22
Daily recapitulation report. September 28 - November 3
1942
Folder 23-25
Statistical Division/ Reports and statistics
1942
Folder 23
Bulletins and reports
1942
Folder 24
Exclusion orders and camp locations
1942
Folder 25
Index of cities and towns in military areas
1942
Box 3
Series III
Western Defense Command
1942
Physical Description:
13 folders and 2 oversized boxes
Scope and Content Note
This series is arranged alphabetically and is deliniated by division name, document type and date.
This series is comprised of bulletins, circulars, memoranda, administrative notices, instructions and regulations (for camps
and centers), reports and statistics, public notices, legal authorizations, press releases, evacuation proposals, exclusion
orders and evacuation instructions, proclamations and blank camp forms. In addition, boxes 4 and 5 contain oversized materials
which include exclusion orders, evacuation instructions, exclusion area maps and a population graph.
The documents in folders 29 and 30 were put together by the WCCA Statistical Division for Lieutenant Colonel Ira K. Evans.
Folder 26
Administrative instructions/Memoranda/Exclusions and evacuations/ March -April
1942
Folder 27
Administrative instructions/Memoranda/Exclusions and evacuations/ May - September
1942
Folder 28
Administrative instructions/Memoranda/Miscellaneous
1942
Folder 29
Proclamations, forms, statistical bulletins, press releases
1942
Folder 30
Exclusion orders and instructions
1942
Folder 32
Administrative instructions/memoranda/Evacuation and transfer orders
1942
Folder 33
Administrative instructions/memoranda/Miscellaneous
1942
Folder 36
Civilian restrictive orders
1942
Folder 37
Public proclamations and exclusion orders 1 of 2
1942
Folder 38
Public proclamations and exclusion orders 2 of 2
1942
Box 4
Oversized/Civilian exclusion orders
1942
Box 5
Oversized/ Evacuation instructions, exclusion area maps, population graph
1942
Box 6
Series VI
Printed Matter
1935-1945
1921
1947
1948
1966
Physical Description:
7 folders
Scope and Content Note
This series is arranged alphabetically and is deliniated by division name, document type and date.
This series is comprised of senate bills and reports, press releases, speeches and excerpts of speeches from a variety of
government representatives and private individuals as well as publications advocating for and against Japanese Americans and
their civil rights. Of note, is a hand written letter concerning naturalization of Japanese Americans (in Miscellaneous)
and the publications produced in the internment camps.
Folder 39
National Defense Migration 4th Interim Report
1942
Folder 40
U.S. and CA. senates’ reports
1942
1944
1945
1947
Folder 41
Government and private publications
1921
1938-1945
1966
Folder 42
Miscellaneous
1942
1943
1948
Folder 43-44
Speeches, official statements, press releases
1935
1936
1939
1942-1945
Folder 43
California Joint Immigration Committee
1935
1936
1939
Folder 44
Miscellaneous
1942-1945
1935
Folder 45
Relocation Center Publications
1942
1943
Box 7
Series V
Japanese Internment Photograph Album
1942-1945
Physical Description:
1 photo album (149 photographs)
Scope and Content Note
This series contains photographs, taken from multiple sources, depicting a variety of activities
undertaken by the Japanese evacuees from their initial registration at Civilian Control Centers,
to their lives at the assembly centers and finally their evacuation to the internment camps (Relocation Centers).
Of note is a photograph of a soldier posting exclusion order #1 that affected the Japanese living on Bainbridge
Island in Puget Sound, Washington. The compiler of the album is not stated.
- Assembly Centers pictured
-
Santa Anita
Pomona,
Fresno
Stockton
Sacramento
Turlock
Puyallup
Long Beach
Salinas
- Civilians Control Stations/ Reception centers pictured
-
Visala
Sanger
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Manzanar
- War Relocation Centers pictured
-
Heart Mountain
Granada
