The collection consists of mainly letters to Sukegoro and Chiyoko Tawa from their family and friends between the 1920s and 1960s. Also included are wartime documents issued during the Tawas' incarceration and copies of Sukegoro Tawa's case file as well as family and friends' portraits, and haiku poems.

田和助五郎 Tawa, Sukegoro, 1888-1985: Sukegoro Tawa was born on February 27, 1888, in Kamo-mura, Okayama, Japan and immigrated to the U.S. in 1907. He worked as a houseboy while completing school (the Royal High School) in San Francisco. In 1920, he returned to Japan and married his wife, Chiyoko Yoshida, and they came back to the United States in 1921. They had three American-born children, Junko Mary, Tsuyoshi Ken, and Katsumi. He operated the Tawa Seed Co. on 2nd Street, Los Angeles, developing a special tomato variety and selling seeds to farmers in California. His business was successful, earning approximately $150 a month, and had continued for 22 years until the war interrupted it. He was a member of the Japanese Association of Los Angeles and the Buddhist Church of Los Angeles, and appointed as the Treasurer of the Chuo Gakuen, a Japanese language school.三宅克己 Miyake, Katsumi "Kokki" (1874-1954) and 三宅せい子 Miyake, Seiko (d.1934): Katsumi "Kokki" Miyake was an influential watercolor landscape painter who was pioneering and promoting watercolor painting in Japan. He was born in Tokushima, Japan in 1874 and moved to Tokyo when he was age 6 because of his father's assignment. He grew up in the neighborhood where artists resided and learned the Western-style painting from Sachihiko Soyama (1859–1892) and Naojiro Harada (1863–1899) who were well known painters. While studying in Tokyo, he was inspired by watercolor paintings by John Varley Jr. (1850-1933) and Alfred Parsons (1847-1920), and decided to pursue watercolor painting. He traveled to the U.S. in 1897 and studied at the Yale University School of Art, and moved to England in 1898, continued his study in Europe, including France and Belgium, and retuned to Japan in 1899. While staying in the United States, he was able to raise enough capital from his paintings and continue his study in Europe. His study-abroad method inspired other artists, and they followed in his footsteps and studied in art in Europe, traveling via the U.S. His wife, Seiko Miyake, was also a watercolor painter.

2 boxes (0.83 linear feet)

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, except for the files including the Tawa family tree and Xeroxed copies of Sukegoro Tawa's case file and internee card which were provided by the donor for research purposes only. Those files are available only at the Reading Room.