Description
The Yoshikawa Family Collection consists chiefly of: family
correspondence (1937-1947); Rohwer Relocation Center schoolwork and other
memorabilia (1942-1945); and, photographs---many taken by Richard Shizuo
Yoshikawa---of Rohwer Relocation Center, friends and clients in New York and
elsewhere.
Background
Nisuke Yoshikawa (1888-1977) probably came to San Joaquin County
(Calif.) before World War I. In the years between the two wars he worked in
Stockton as a barber. Sometime before 1920 he married Misako Nakamura and they
had five children: Richard Shizuo (b. 1920); Edward Fumio (b. 1922); Amy Emikio
(b. 1930); Tadao (b. 1935); and Yukio (b. 1935?). The eldest son, Richard,
became a professional photographer in Stockton and was later a San Joaquin
County Supervisor. He was studying at a Los Angeles photography school at the
the outbreak of World War II and was able to move to New York City, where he
continued his studies at the School of Modern Photography (1943-1944). Second
son, Edward Fumio, was a pre-engineering student at Stockton Junior College in
1942. He entered the U.S. Army when Nisei were allowed to do so. Amy Emikio
spent World War II as a high school student in Rohwer (Ark.) Relocation Center
with her parents and younger brothers, Tadao and Yukio. Following the War the
elder Yoshikawas and all of their children returned to Stockton.