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Orange County Japanese American Youths (scrapbook)
2020.004.s.r
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Frank Mt. Pleasant Library of Special Collections and Archives, Leatherby Libraries
Title: Orange County Japanese American Youths scrapbook
source:
Kakuda, Roy
source:
Orange County Japanese American Youths
Identifier/Call Number: 2020.004.s.r
Physical Description:
2 Linear Feet
1 custom box (21 x 5 x 26 inches)
Date (inclusive): 1954-1992
Date (bulk): 1954-1972
Abstract: This collection contains 1 oversized scrapbook created by and documenting the history of the Orange County Japanese American
Youths organization (OC JAYs). It also includes a folder of loose materials that were found inside the scrapbook.
Condition Description: This handmade scrapbook album is oversized, in thick wooden covers, extremely heavy, and fragile. Handle with care. Pages
are crumbling. Many pages already separated from binding. Loose material of around 60 items has been placed in a folder. Some
of those items had most likely been glued in but fallen off the scrapbook pages.
Language of Material:
English
.
Container: 1
This collection is open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Orange County Japanese American Youths in March 2020. Transferred by former member, Roy Kakuda.
This collection is arranged by material type and chronologically within those groups.
This collection's scrapbook was compiled by members of the Orange County Japanese American Youths (OC JAYs) organization that
was prominent from the 1950s to the early 1970s. The first OC JAYs event took place in July 1954 when Janet Fukuda and Jun
Nishino invited other young Japanese Americans living in the Santa Ana area (Orange County, CA) to a picnic and baseball game.
OC JAYs was founded that year under the organizational umbrella of the Orange County chapter of the Japanese American Citizens
League (JACL).
Many OC JAYs members were Nisei teenagers and young adults who had been incarcerated in internment camps as children during
World War II. "Nisei" is the Japanese word for "second-generation" and it refers to children of Japanese immigrants who were
born and educated in the United States.
Bill Marumoto was the first OC JAYs president and Janet Fukuda was vice president. Subsequent officers exemplified leadership
positions in their academic life as well. For instance, a later OC JAYs president, Joe Nakamura, was elected Associated Student
Body President at Anaheim High School in 1959.
The OC JAYs sponsored service opportunities and social events for Japanese American youth in the area. For instance, club
members participated in Nisei week in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo neighborhood, sporting events such as the JACL-sponsored Nisei
relays, and "Hi-Co" conferences that aimed to cultivate civic leadership and celebrate ethnic heritage among Japanese American
high school and college students.
The OC JAYs also raised money for scholarships and charities. Scholarships were awarded at annual induction ceremonies that
featured prominent guest speakers, such as Dr. Sammy Lee (1920-2016), Louis Zamperini (1917-2014), and Walter Knott (1889-1981).
Dr. Sammy Lee was a Korean American, physician, Korean War veteran, and U.S. Olympic diver who was the first Asian American
to win a gold medal. He won a bronze and was the first person to win two consecutive platform diving gold medals. Louis Zamperini
was a U.S. Olympic distance runner, a World War II Army Air Corps veteran and prisoner of war of Japan, and an inspirational
speaker whose life is chronicled in Laura Hillenbrand's book
Unbroken. Walter Knott popularized the boysenberry and started Knott's Berry Farm of Buena Park, CA with his wife Cordelia in the
1930s.
In 1958, Lynell K. Tanigoshi received an OC JAYs scholarship that he used to attend Long Beach State College (now known as
California State University, Long Beach). As was the case for most of the OC JAYs youth, Tanigoshi's childhood was marked
by the experience of internment. He and his family were incarcerated in Arizona's Poston camp during World War II. They eventually
returned to their 10-acre farm in Orange County, located in an area known as Talbert Farm. Tanigoshi had a brief film career
and went on to receive his Ph.D. in entomology and plant pathology from University of California, Riverside. He became professor
emeritus at Washington State University Mount Vernon and an expert in biological pest control for fruit trees.
Another notable OC JAYs participant was advisor and JACL member James Kanno. He led a campaign in the 1950s to incorporate
the Talbert Farm area into a new city called Fountain Valley. Kanno served as the first mayor of Fountain Valley, CA from
1957 to 1962 and was one of the first Japanese American mayors in the mainland U.S. Born and raised in Santa Ana, he was incarcerated
with his family at Poston camp in his senior year of high school. He spent several years after the war working on his family's
farm while attending Santa Ana College and University of California, Los Angeles.
Several OC JAYs members won "good citizenship" awards from the Daughters of the American Revolution, a recognition that was
celebrated in publications like the
Santana Wind. By the 1960s, however, teens involved in the OC JAYs did not have first-hand experience of incarceration and perhaps felt
less pressure than previous generations to prove that they were patriotic Americans. Membership in the OC JAYs gradually declined
and the organization ended around 1973.
The
Santana Wind newsletter was the official publication of the Orange County JACL.
The Rafu Shimpo is a Japanese American newspaper based in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, CA that was first established in 1903. This collection
has news clippings from these two publications.
[Item title / description; Box "n" / Folder "n"], Orange County Japanese American Youths scrapbook (2020.004.s.r), Frank Mt.
Pleasant Library of Special Collections and Archives, Chapman University, CA. For the benefit of current and future researchers,
please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder
descriptions, and box/folder locations.
Processed by Victoria Perez in February 2022. Biographical note written by Wendy Gonaver and Victoria Perez. Album was left
in its original organization and loose materials were organized by material type and then chronologically. Last updated by
Victoria Perez as of December 2022.
Redaction was conducted to protect people's personally identifiable information and their privacy.
The Orange County Japanese American Youths' (OC JAYs) scrapbook and its loose materials document the organization's history
mainly from 1954 to 1972. Members contributed pieces of ephemera, correspondence, photographs, and news material regarding
their organizational social life.
Ephemera items include event invitations, tickets, programs, and award certificates; a Movieland Wax Museum giftshop bag;
and a printout of President Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address."
News materials consist of clippings from newspapers and newsletters, which include but are not limited to
The Rafu Shimpo and the
Santana Wind.
Loose material folder contents:
- ephemera, 1955 August 12-1972 January 8
- correspondence, 1956 June 6-1969 April 17
- photographs, 1968 December 21-1969
- news material, 1969 February 22-1988 June 23
OC JAYs scrapbook events or topics include picnics, Nisei Week, annual Installation Banquets (eg. p. 70), dances, wider JACL-sponsored
events, "Hi-Co" conferences and snow trips in the San Bernardino mountains, carnivals with talent shows and judo tournaments,
holiday parties, skating parties, Japanese movie nights, and sports. Some pages even include guest registration for visitors
to OC JAYs events.
Notable events or topics covered:
- Clean up day at Talbert Hall, Nov. '54
- Members/JAYs in the news
- Club/JAYs Activities
- "Hi-Co" Club Long Beach Basketball Invitational Tournament, which OC JAYs won in 1957 (p. 85)
- 1968 Christmas party with Latino/Latinx youth at the Cypress Street Barrio Friendly Center in Orange, CA
- 1969 Installation Banquet at Disneyland Hotel
Notable individuals in the scrapbook include Dr. Sammy Lee (pictured at the 1957-1958 Installation Banquet, p. 70-71), Louis
Zamperini (pictured at the 1959-1960 Installation Banquet, p. 116), Walter Knott (Installation Banquet, 1961-1962, p. 135),
and James Kanno (pictured at the 1962-1963 Installation Banquet, p. 162).
There are no restrictions on the use of this material except where previously copyrighted material is concerned. It is the
responsibility of the researcher to obtain all permissions.
Biography.com Editors. "Louis Zamperini Biography." October 2, 2020. https://www.biography.com/military-figure/louis-zamperini.
Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Knott's Berry Farm." Last updated June 21, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/place/Knotts-Berry-Farm#ref632906.
Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Nisei." Last updated September 11, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nisei.
Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Sammy Lee." Last updated July 28, 2022. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sammy-Lee.
Ellis, Janey. "The History of Knott's Berry Farm." March 31, 2020. https://www.knotts.com/blog/2020/april/the-history-of-knotts-berry-farm.
Karas, Rachel. "Orange County Japanese American Youths Scrapbooks." December 1, 2020. https://blogs.chapman.edu/library/2020/12/01/orange-county-japanese-american-youths-scrapbooks/.
McKenzie, Cathy. "Lynell Tanigoshi: A Groundbreaker in Many Fields." March 29, 2016. Washington State University Mount Vernon
Newsletter, March 2016. https://cahnrs.wsu.edu/blog/2016/03/lynell-tanigoshi-a-ground-breaker-in-many-fields/.
Olympics.com. "Louis Silvie ZAMPERINI Biography." Accessed August 19, 2022. https://olympics.com/en/athletes/louis-silvie-zamperini.
The Rafu Shimpo. "James Kanno, First Mayor of Fountain Valley, passes away at 91." July 21, 2017. https://www.rafu.com/2017/07/jim-kanno-1st-mayor-of-fountain-valley-passes-away-at-91/.
The Rafu Shimpo Los Angeles Japanese Daily News. Accessed February 2, 2022. https://rafu.com.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Japanese Americans.
Orange County (Calif.) -- History.
Kakuda, Roy
Orange County Japanese American Youths