Claire (Tsuyuko Fukumitsu) and Isao Suzuki papers, 1913-1999

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Summary

Creators:
Suzuki, Claire (Tsuyuko Fukumitsu) and Suzuki, Isao
Abstract:
This collection contains artifacts, photographs, and papers pertaining to Claire (Tsuyuko Fukumitsu) and Isao Suzuki’s family history, childhood, their incarceration at Tule Lake during World War II, and their post-war business careers.
Extent:
10 linear feet
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Claire (Tsuyuko Fukumitsu) and Isao Suzuki papers. 2003.2, Japanese American National Museum. Los Angeles, CA.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains correspondence, photographs, albums, scrapbooks, diaries, documents, and artifacts that relate to Isao and Tsuyuko Suzuki’s early lives, their incarceration at American concentration camps during WWII, and their post-war business careers. Kawase owned the empty box of fingertip service cards and compiled the family photograph album included in this collection.

Biographical / historical:

Tsuyuko and Yukie Fukumitsu grew up in Ogden and Brigham, Utah where their father worked various jobs on sugar beet farms, in restuarants, and for railway companies such as Western Pacific. When Tsuyuko was five and Yukie, was three, their mother, Tazu Fukumitsu, took them to Hiroshima to live with relatives and receive a Japanese education. While Yukie shortly returned home, Tsuyuko remained in Japan until she was fifteen years old. When the Fukumitsu family moved to Nevada, Tsuyuko attended an intensive English language program for four years. The family moved to Sacramento in 1935, and would lived there until 1942 when they were incarcerated in the Tule Lake concentration camp. During this period, Yukie had a child with her husband and Tsuyuko taught sewing classes. Tsuyuko was accepted into fashion design school.

Isao Suzuki was born in 1917 and grew up in Montebello, California, close to Los Angeles. He attended primary school in Japan from 1928 to 1937 and graduated from Montebello High School in 1939. He was deported to Santa Anita temporary detention center in 1942 and transferred to Jerome incarceration camp in 1943. At Jerome, he was employed as a manager for Block 5, the same block where his family resided. He was paid $19 per month, common for the WRA’s artificially low wage scale that prevented inmates from earning more than soldiers and white employees. When the WRA issued the loyalty questionnaire in early 1943, he was deemed “disloyal” for answering “no” to one of the questions and transferred to Tule Lake in May of 1944. When the camp closed in 1946, he lived in Cleveland, Ohio until he returned to Montebello in 1948. He would live and work in Los Angeles area for the next several decades.

Tsuyuko Fukumitsu and Isao Suzuki married on November 27, 1949. The couple lived and worked in Los Angeles during the post-war era. From the 1950s to early 1960s, Isao operated a Snowbird Ice Cream store, a chain that would later become Baskin Robbins, and Tsuyuko ran the store at night. During the day, Tsuyuko worked as an assistant for fashion designer Dorothy O’Hara. After O’Hara fell ill and could no longer run her business, O’Hara’s husband encouraged Tsuyuko to pursue her own company. Tsuyuko and Isao established Claire & Ken, Inc., which they named after their respective English names. Their manufacturing business officially opened in the mid-1960s, operating out of a warehouse built in Buena Park, California. O’Hara, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Georgette Trilere hired the company to produce their clothing designs.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Yukie Kawase.
Processing information:

This collection was processed by staff at an earlier date. The finding aid was written in 2018 by Mariah Sander and updated in 2024 by Jamie Henricks.

Arrangement:

The collection is organized into the following series:

  • Series 1: Tsuyuko (Fukumistu) Suzuki collection
  • Series 2: Isao Suzuki collection
  • Series 3: Wayne M. Collins citizenship documents and correspondence
  • Series 4: Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act compensation documents
  • Series 5: Fukumitsu and Suzuki photographs
Physical location:
Japanese American National Museum. 100 North Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012.
Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

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

Terms of access:

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).

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Claire (Tsuyuko Fukumitsu) and Isao Suzuki papers. 2003.2, Japanese American National Museum. Los Angeles, CA.

Location of this collection:
Collections Management & Access Unit
100 North Central Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012, US
Contact:
213-625-0414
collections@janm.org
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