The collection comprises of Tule Lake newsletters and bulletins, materials issued by the Pro-Japan group, 報國奉仕團 Hokoku Hoshidan (or Hoshi Dan), WRA publications, and incarceration documents that mostly belonged to Kiyoshi and Mitsuye Uyekawa. There are also Kiyoshi's manuscripts of original fictional works, copies of fictional works by Japanese authors, and correspondence, bulletins, and manuscripts by the haiku circle members. Most of the items in this collection have been digitized and are available online.

Kiyoshi Uyekawa (1921 March 30-2008 March 5) was born on March 30, 1921 in Livingston, Montana. His parents, Kiyono (nee Yokota) and Kiyoto Uyekawa, immigrated from Kabe, Hiroshima, Japan to the United States where his father worked as a railroad foreman. Not liking the railroad gang environment, Kiyono moved back to Hiroshima with her two sons and two daughters. When Kiyoshi completed high school in Japan, he was sent back to the United States by his mother in 1938 to work with his father in Seattle, Washington because she felt she could not support his dream of attending university to become a novelist in Japan. He briefly moved to Los Angeles to live with his aunt and uncle at their hotel and attended Belmont High School to learn English, but he eventually moved back to Montana and then back to Seattle once again for railroad-related work.Mitsuye Uyekawa (nee Ogo) (1921 December 6-2008 April 25) was born on December 6, 1921 in Los Angeles, California. When Mitsuye was 6 months old, her mother, Kiyo, returned to Toyoku, Okayama, Japan, bringing all her siblings because of Kiyo's ill health. After recuperation, her mother and siblings left for the United States but she remained in Japan and was raised by her aunt and uncle. After she completed high school, she decided to return to the United States in 1939 to reunite with her widowed father, Mohei (1881-1972), and brother, Hideo (1917-1990), in Compton, California. When the war broke out, the Ogos fled to Clovis and Mitsuye's sister, Takeko, and her husband left for Utah respectively to avoid the military zones by Executive Order 9066. However, six months later, the Ogos received the notice in Clovis, California and was incarcerated at the Poston incarceration camp in Parker, Arizona. During incarceration, Mohei chose to go to the Tule Lake Segregation Center in Newell, California and the whole family was transferred in October 1943. It was there where Mitsuye met Kiyoshi Uyekawa through her father and they were married on December 16, 1944. They had their first child, David Tadasu in the camp, and left for Utah with her brother, Hideo, and father, Mohei, and reunited with her sister, Takeko. Later, Kiyoshi, Mitsuye, and David returned to Gardena and other four children they named Gary Takashi, Naomi Margaret, Richard Sanao, and Eddie Wataru were born. They settled in Gardena, California where she maintained a busy and active life until she passed away on April 25, 2008.Segregation of "disloyal" incarcerees in the Tule Lake Segregation Center escalated Japanese nationalism and let to form pro-Japan groups at Tule Lake. At the same time, the Renunciation Act of 1944 signed by the President Roosevelt encouraged the Nisei to renounce their U.S. citizenship. The pro-Japan groups were commonly referred to the "報國奉仕團 Hokoku Hoshidan (or Hokoku Hoshi Dan) which consisted of three groups: (1) 即時帰國奉仕團 Sokuji Kikoku Hoshidan (Hoshi Dan), translated as "Organization to Return Immediately to the Homeland Japan to Serve" consisted of the Issei leaders; (2) 祖國研究靑年團 Sokoku Kenkyu Seinendan (or Seinen Dan), or "Young Men's Association for the Study of the Motherland," and later renamed to 報國靑年團 Hokoku Seinendan (or Seinen Dan), or "Young Men's Association to Serve the Nation" led by the Kibei Nisei men; and (3) 報國女子靑年團 Hokoku Joshi Seinendan (Seinen Dan), or "Young Women's Association to Serve the Nation," a women's group. As a result, 5,700 Nisei renounced their U.S. citizenship and about 8,000, including Issei repatriates, returned to Japan.小池恭 Koike Kyo (1878 February 11-1947 March 31) was born in Japan in 1878, immigrated to the United States, and settled in Seattle, Washington. He was a highly respected photographer nationally and internationally as well as a physician and poet under the pseudonym, 小池晩人 Koike Banjin, in the Japanese American community. He founded the Seattle haiku circle, "Rainier Ginsha," in 1934, which has still continued now, and served as an editor for their monthly bulletins. During the war, the Rainier Ginsha disbanded because of the mass removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast but he established the Minidoka haiku circle, "Minidoka Ginsha," during his incarceration in the Minidoka camp in Idaho. Haiku circles, "Ginsha," were formed in several incarceration camps during the war, and the members in different camps interacted with each other. After being released from the camp, Dr. Koike returned to Seattle and resumed the Rainier Ginsha and continued mentoring the Tule Lake haiku circle members. He passed away in 1947.

3 boxes (3 document boxes)

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.

There are no access restrictions on this collection.