Description
This collection contains negatives, prints, directories, programs, correspondence, business material, and studio ephemera
from the Ninomiya Studio that was located in the Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles, California. The negatives
and prints document Japanese American communities in the aftermath of World War II. Some of the images in the collection include
photograps of architecture in Los Angeles and Little Tokyo, Nisei Week parades, community and religious groups, family and
individual portraits, and photographs taken at weddings and memorials. Some of the photographs in the collection have been
digitized and are available online.
Background
Born on October 19, 1894, in Hiroshima Ken, Japan, Kinso Beach Ninomiya immigrated to the United States on May 27, 1913. His
wife, Kiyo Ninomiya (nèe Kodani), was born on February 16, 1907, in Tokyo, Japan, and immigrated with her family to the United
States on January 5, 1915. The two married in Los Angeles, California, on October 7, 1928, and had four children: Elwin Ichiro
(born February 23, 1929), Terry Terumi (born September 1, 1931), Clyde Kunio (born November 11, 1937), and Letty Hisako (born
February 17, 1940). In the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles, Kinso Ninomiya owned and operated the successful Ninomiya
Studio starting in 1922 and its satellite location on Terminal Island until its closure in the face of subsequent mass incarceration
of Japanese Americans in the United States following the U.S. entrance into World War II. The Ninomiya family was forcibly
removed to the Poston incarceration camp in Arizona on May 27, 1942, and remained there until 1945; Kinso Ninomiya was the
first of his family to be released from Poston on February 6, 1945. The eldest Ninomiya children, Elwin and Terry, were respectively
released from Poston on March 14 and September 23 of 1945. Kiyo and the two youngest children, Clyde and Letty, were all released
on October 20, 1945.
Restrictions
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Archives
and Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical
materials and not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.