Ted Kihara Photograph Collection, 1945-1964

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Summary

Creators:
Kihara, Ted
Abstract:
This collection contains one box of photographic images taken by Ted Kahara, a World War II Japanese-American Infantryman and Intelligence Officer. Materials include: 35 mm slides and negatives, and photographs.
Extent:
1 box [.25 linear ft]
Language:
Collection material is in English

Background

Scope and content:

The Ted Kihara Photograph Collection (1945-1964) contains approximately 289 color 35mm slides, approximately 121 35mm negatives, and two photographs of events and activities from Ted Kihara’s life. The majority of the photographs were taken in Berkeley, California and Tokyo, Japan. Color slides feature images of various activities and events taking place at Ted Kihara’s home in Berkeley, California such as parties and a Christmas celebration, and also include images featuring family automobiles such as a Cadillac Coupe de Ville and Ford station wagon. Other color slides include images taken at funerals, and family vacations to Yosemite National Park, and Disneyland, as well as images of the 1958 Pacific Festival, featuring Kihara’s family aboard Japanese warships and the Japanese freighter, Yamatsuki Maru. The negatives feature images taken during Kihara’s time in Tokyo, Japan during World War II.

Biographical / historical:

Ted T. Kihara (1915-2003), was the son of Gonjiro Kihara who immigrated to the United States in 1892 and originally worked as a houseboy in San Francisco before opening a café in Sacramento, a boarding house in Seattle, and eventually a laundromat in Winnemucca, Nevada. Ted enlisted in June 1941 and served in the U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps. Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Ted Kihara transferred to the infantry and attended the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) in Savage, Minnesota. Upon graduation, Kihara was assigned to the 43rd Infantry Division as a Japanese translator and earned the Combat Infantryman Badge during the battle for Munda Airfield in the Solomon Islands. After returning stateside to complete Office Candidate School at Fort Benning, Kihara worked with the Canadian Army to help establish its Japanese Language School. Following the Japanese surrender, Kihara was reassigned to the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) in the newly established Far East Command’s General Headquarters at the Dai Ichi Building in Tokyo, Japan. Among the duties the ATIS performed during the occupation were translating documents and news accounts, interrogating prisoners of war, and assisting in the effort to return Japanese soldiers and civilians who were stranded outside Japan after its surrender. While in Tokyo, Kihara met and married a Japanese national named Kimiko Mikumi and started a family before leaving the Army and settling in Berkeley, California.

Acquisition information:
Library acquisition
Arrangement:

Arranged in 1 box.

Rules or conventions:
Finding Aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Location of this collection:
University Library, 5th Flr (5039)
1000 E. Victoria Street
Carson, CA 90747, US
Contact:
(310) 243-3895
archives@csudh.edu
Website