Watsonville-Santa Cruz Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League records, 1934-2024

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Summary

Creators:
Hashimoto, Mas (Masaru), 1935-2022
Abstract:
This collection documents the activities of the Watsonville-Santa Cruz chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) from 1934 through 2021. Records of the Watsonville-Santa Cruz chapter's internal functions include organizational and administrative records such as financial documents and reports, membership lists, meeting minutes and agendas, event records, and ephemera. The collection also contains records that pertain to the Watsonville-Santa Cruz chapter's engagement with the JACL's Northern California, Western Nevada, and Pacific (NCWNP) district and the national JACL organization. Materials relate to Japanese immigration and community formation in California's Pajaro Valley before World War II, forced removal and incarceration, Nisei military service and veterans, and JACL's involvement in the redress and reparations movement. In addition, the collection holds records of the Watsonville-Santa Cruz JACL's efforts to preserve Pajaro Valley Japanese American history and public education and outreach. These records were created and collected by Mas and Marcia Hashimoto and Carmel Kamigawachi. Regarding community history, it includes photographs, family biographies, news clippings, and oral history interviews. It also contains educational materials and documentation of the chapter's involvement in public memorial projects.
Extent:
5.42 Linear Feet 3 cartons, 1 flat box and 5.5 GB 436 digital files
Language:
English , Japanese .
Preferred citation:

Watsonville-Santa Cruz Japanese American Citizens League records. MS 525. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection documents the activities of the Watsonville-Santa Cruz chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) from 1934 through 2021. Records of the Watsonville-Santa Cruz chapter's internal functions include organizational and administrative records such as financial documents and reports, membership lists, meeting minutes and agendas, event records, and ephemera. The collection also contains records that pertain to the Watsonville-Santa Cruz chapter's engagement with the JACL's Northern California, Western Nevada, and Pacific (NCWNP) district and the national JACL organization. Materials relate to Japanese immigration and community formation in California's Pajaro Valley before World War II, forced removal and incarceration, Nisei military service and veterans, and JACL's involvement in the redress and reparations movement. In addition, the collection holds records of the Watsonville-Santa Cruz JACL's efforts to preserve Pajaro Valley Japanese American history and public education and outreach. These records were created and collected by Mas and Marcia Hashimoto. Regarding community history, it includes photographs, family biographies, news clippings, and oral history interviews. It also contains educational materials and documentation of the chapter's involvement in public memorial projects.

Biographical / historical:

The Watsonville-Santa Cruz Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (W-SC JACL) is an organization in California's Pajaro Valley. It was established as the Watsonville Citizens League in the early 1930s by Nisei, second-generation, US-born children of Japanese immigrants. During its early years, the Watsonville Citizens League functioned as a social club. In 1934, the group became a member of the National Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) and worked to promote civic engagement and patriotism among its members. During World War II (WWII), due to the mass incarceration of individuals of Japanese ancestry, the Watsonville Citizens League ceased its operations. Its members were incarcerated at a temporary detention center at the Salinas Rodeo grounds and months later in Poston, a War Relocation Authority (WRA) concentration camp located in Arizona. Postwar, the Watsonville JACL resumed its activities and began to focus on community services. The organization's name was changed to Watsonville-Santa Cruz JACL in 1964. During the 1970s and 1980s, the National JACL organization and members of the W-SC JACL were involved with the national campaign for redress and reparations for individuals who were incarcerated during WWII. From the 1960s and continuing through the 2020s, members of the W-SC JACL have advocated for civil rights for all people, worked to document and educate the public about histories of Japanese incarceration, and supported cultural outreach.

The first Japanese immigrants (known as Issei) arrived in the Pajaro Valley during the 1880s. By the 1920s, Nisei in the Pajaro Valley and other areas of the West Coast began to form social, political, cultural, and mutual aid organizations. The National Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) was founded in 1929 as an umbrella organization for Nisei groups on the West Coast. Like the Watsonville Citizens League, local chapters of the JACL focused on spreading awareness of citizenship rights and responsibilities among Nisei communities.

After the outbreak of WWII and the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the National JACL promoted a public image of Nisei as loyal American citizens. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which authorized the U.S. military to forcibly remove and incarcerate 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans on the West Coast. Leaders of the Watsonville Citizens League initially considered voluntarily moving the entire Japanese population to an apple orchard in Idaho, but when the land proved inadequate, they advised the community to wait for instructions from the federal government. In total, 1,301 people of Japanese ancestry were forcibly removed from Santa Cruz County. In April 1942, they were taken to a temporary detention center on the Salinas Rodeo grounds. In July, members of the Watsonville JACL and most of the broader Pajaro Valley Japanese community were incarcerated in the Poston concentration camp in Arizona. Incarceration halted the activities of the Watsonville JACL as its members were split between camps I and II at Poston.

Postwar, in 1948, Nisei leaders met to discuss the reorganization of the Watsonville chapter of the JACL. They re-registered its members so they could vote in the 1948 elections and supported legislation granting naturalization rights to Issei. The organization began to carry out two primary functions: teaching the wider Pajaro Valley population about the Japanese American community and helping members file evacuee claims for losses caused by incarceration. It also created a partnership with the Blue Cross so members could access health insurance. During the 1950s, the Watsonville chapter focused on political and civil rights issues. Like the National JACL, its members advocated for the repeal of laws that disenfranchised and discriminated against Issei. In the 1960s, the National JACL increased efforts to provide services and care for the aging Issei population. It also began its efforts to support Sansei (third-generation Japanese Americans), which included creating college scholarships. During the 1970s, the Watsonville chapter purchased a building on Blackburn Street in Watsonville which became a place to hold meetings, Japanese cultural events, and Senior Center activities.

In 1970, the National JACL adopted a resolution calling for redress and reparations for people of Japanese descent who were unjustly incarcerated during WWII. In doing so, the organization joined other Japanese American activists in a national campaign for redress and reparations. The majority of the W-SC JACL members supported the redress movement, but some felt revisiting the issue of incarceration was too painful. Understanding the importance of the campaign, the chapter voted to support the National JACL redress committee. One member of the Watsonville-Santa Cruz chapter testified during the hearings held by the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) in 1981 and several others submitted written testimonies. In 1983, after the hearings, the CWRIC issued a report recommending that the U.S. government officially apologize for incarceration and provide monetary restitution. The JACL worked with other activist groups to lobby for the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which provided a formal apology by President Ronald Reagan and $20,000 in compensation to surviving U.S. citizens and legal residents of Japanese ancestry who were incarcerated. The letter of apology was signed by President George Bush in 1990. In addition to redress and reparations, the W-SC JACL has worked to address issues of anti-Asian racism locally and nationally from the postwar period through the 2020s. In the 1990s, the National JACL began to contend with questions about its recommended policies and actions during WWII including cooperation with the federal government and military enforcers. During the war, the National JACL objected to incarceration orders, but there was little judicial, legislative, or public support for Japanese and Japanese Americans whose constitutional rights and civil liberties were violated. Facing incarceration, Saburo Kido, president of the National JACL, and other JACL leaders adopted policies of cooperation to protect their communities, especially elderly individuals and children. Many Nisei JACL members enlisted and served in the U.S. military during WWII. In total, 33,000 Japanese Americans served in either the 100th Infantry Battalion; the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion; 442nd Regimental Combat Team; the Military Intelligence Service (MIS); or the Women's Army and Nurse Corps. These Japanese Americans felt that military service would demonstrate their loyalty to the United States. National JACL leaders, like Mike Masaoka, supported and encouraged their service.

Other Japanese and Japanese American incarcerees resisted incarceration and expressed their frustration with the U.S. government. In 1943, the WRA circulated a loyalty questionnaire in the hopes of segregating "loyal" and "disloyal" incarcerees. The questionnaire included two questions that aimed to determine incarcerees' loyalty to the U.S.: question 27, which asked if Nisei men were willing to serve in the U.S. military and question 28, which asked if individuals would swear unqualified allegiance to the United States and forswear any form of allegiance to the Emperor of Japan. These questions caused concern and unrest among incarcerees. A vast majority of incarcerees, including many JACL members, answered questions 27 and 28 affirmatively, however a significant minority either gave qualified answers or answered negatively. Individuals who answered both questions with "no" are often colloquially referred to as "No-nos" or "No-no boys." In concentration camps, confrontations occurred between the two groups of incarcerees due to their differing perspectives. After WWII, tensions surrounding loyalty, cooperation, and resistance continued to simmer. Some Japanese Americans, including members of the W-SC JACL, remembered individuals who answered "no-no" committing violent acts against incarcerees with whom they disagreed, JACL leaders, and Nisei who chose to enlist in the U.S. military. Many "No-nos" and Nisei who resisted U.S. military drafts during WWII and later wars recall ostracization and stigmatization from their communities and organizations like the JACL. In the year 2000, the National JACL proposed a plan to apologize to wartime resisters. A vast majority of Nisei WWII veterans opposed the apology plan. Veterans groups like the Japanese American Veterans Association and Friends and Families of Nisei Veterans argued instead that wartime resisters should apologize for their actions during incarceration. Two hundred Nisei men and three women from Santa Cruz County served in the U.S. Armed Forces during WWII. Many of these individuals and their families were and continue to be members of the W-SC JACL. The organization takes great pride in the military service of its members. To express solidarity with Nisei veterans in their membership, leaders of the W-SC JACL vocally opposed the National JACL's apology. The W-SC JACL's leadership voted against the apology unanimously; however, at the national level the apology resolution passed and was adopted. As of the 2020s, National JACL continues to engage in efforts to repair wartime divisions caused by discourses of patriotism and loyalty.

The Watsonville-Santa Cruz JACL chapter has engaged in efforts to preserve histories of Japanese incarceration, immigration, and community formation in the Pajaro Valley and greater Monterey Bay area. For example, in 1984, they partnered with the Salinas, Monterey, San Benito County, and Gilroy chapters of the JACL to sponsor a historical marker and memorial garden at the site of the detention facility at the Salinas Rodeo grounds. In 2002, the Watsonville-Santa Cruz JACL performed "Liberty Lost … Lessons in Loyalty", a first-of-its-kind re-enactment of the 1942 forced removal of Japanese and Japanese American individuals from the Pajaro Valley. JACL members Mas and Marcia Hashimoto and Carmel Kamigawachi led efforts to document and educate the public about Pajaro Valley Japanese American history. For example, they created an oral history project to interview members of the Nisei generation in 2006 and participated in the Preserving California's Japantowns project. The Watsonville-Santa Cruz JACL's historical documentation, education, outreach, and advocacy work continues today.

Written by Meleia Simon-Reynolds and Marcia Hashimoto, 2024

References used:

Sandy Lydon, "A Half Century of Service: The Watsonville Japanese-American Citizens League,1934-1984," Santa Cruz Public Libraries Local History collection, 1984.

Cherstin M. Lyon, "Japanese American Citizens League," Densho.

Japanese American Citizens League National Education Committee Curriculum and Resource Guide, A Lesson in American History: The Japanese American Experience.

Japanese American Citizens League, Power of Words Handbook: A Guide to Language about Japanese Americans in World War II, Understanding Euphemisms and Preferred Terminology, volume 4., August 2020.

Mas Hashimoto,"Liberty Lost...Lessons in Loyalty," 2002.

Mas Hashimoto and Sandy Lydon, Watsonville-Santa Cruz Japanese American Citizens League, 1934 - 2009 75th Anniversary Booklet, 2009.

Brian Niiya, "No-no boys," Densho.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Marcia Hashimoto, 2022.
Processing information:

This collection was stewarded by members of the Watsonville-Santa Cruz JACL before its accrual by UC Santa Cruz University Library Special Collections & Archives. This work included but was not limited to collecting, organizing, labeling, transcribing, digitizing, cataloging, and preserving documents from the JACL, its members, and the broader Pajaro Valley Japanese American community. After the collection was donated to Special Collections & in 2022, it was processed by Meleia Simon-Reynolds with assistance from Alix Norton in the Center for Archival Research and Training (CART),2024. The original arrangement and folder titles were retained when possible. JACL newsletters were separated from the collection and cataloged separately.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged in three series:

  • Series 1: Organizational Files
  • Series 2: Meeting Minutes
  • Series 3: Community History Files
Materials within each series are arranged chronologically, unless otherwise specified.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection open for research. Audiovisual media is unavailable until reformatted. Digital files are available in the UCSC Special Collections and Archives reading room. Some files may require reformatting before they can be accessed. Technical limitations may hinder the Library's ability to provide access to some digital files. Access to digital files on original carriers is prohibited; users must request to view access copies. Contact Special Collections and Archives in advance to request access to audiovisual media and digital files.

Terms of access:

Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by the creators and their heirs. Reproduction or distribution of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the copyright owner. It is the responsibility of the user to determine whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any necessary permissions. For more information see UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy on Reproduction and Use.

Preferred citation:

Watsonville-Santa Cruz Japanese American Citizens League records. MS 525. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Location of this collection:
Special Collections and Archives, University Library
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95064, US
Contact:
(831) 459-2547
speccoll@library.ucsc.edu
Website