Spanning the years 1920 to 1989, the collection consists of approximately six linear feet of archival material. The bulk of the collection contains materials dating from 1920 until Myaida's retirement in 1972. The collection chiefly consists of documents, such as letters, immigration papers, and class notes, ephemeral items, news clippings, and printed material about gardens, flower arrangements, and landscapes. Moreover, there are hundreds of photographs related to Myaida's studies, social activities, and garden projects. Significant documents include the family registry, licenses, naturalization papers, and patents. While a majority of the manuscripts are written in English, a number of items such as his class notes, immigration and travel documents, and various printed materials are in Japanese.

Between 1885 and 1924, approximately 200,000 Japanese traveled to Hawaii and 180,000 to the United States mainland. They were predominantly young men, were well educated (with an average of eight years of schooling), and had a high literacy rate. Mostly coming from the farming class, many of this generation of Japanese immigrants, known as the "First Wave" came to the United States with more financial resources than European immigrants.(Ronald Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore (New York: Penguin, 1989), pp.45-46.) It is in this first group of Japanese immigrants that Shogo Joseph Myaida belongs. However, while many of the first Japanese immigrants came from the agricultural fields of Japan, Myaida's background differs from many of the Japanese of the "First Wave".

6 linear feet

All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in this collection must be submitted to the Collections Management and Access Unit at the Japanese American National Museum (collections@janm.org).

By appointment only. Please contact the Collections Management and Access Unit (collections@janm.org). Advanced notice is required.