Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Miwa Family Collection
- Dates:
- 1930-1945, bulk 1940-1945
- Creators:
- Miwa, Frank Hidenobu and Higaki, Mae Yoshiko Miwa
- Abstract:
- The collection contains a scrapbook of Miwa family photographs, four hundred (400) photographs of the Miwa family, and fourteen (14) carved wood pins made by Mae (Miwa) Higaki and Frank Miwa while incarcerated at Poston concentration camp during World War II. The scrapbook depicts Frank's life as a student; the photographs are of the Miwa family in the 1930s and 1940s including at Poston.
- Extent:
- 1 linear foot (1 scrapbook, photographs, and pins)
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Miwa Family Collection. 2018.22, Japanese American National Museum. Los Angeles, CA.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection includes a scrapbook assembled by Frank during his school years prior to World War II, including photographs from a visit to the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition (San Francisco), baseball, sporting activities at Hollister High, Miwa family vacations, and other events. Additionally, roughly 400 loose photographs taken and collected by Frank from the mid 1930s through mid-1940s are part of the collection, including many of Poston. Finally, there are wooden pins (birds, hearts, a maple leaf, and a letter 'M') from Poston crafted by either Frank or Mae. The donor believes the 'M' pin is for Mae or Miwa, and they were originally kept by Frank until his passing.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Frank Hidenobu Miwa (1922-2008) was born in San Juan Bautista, and the family moved between there and Hollister throughout his childhood. His senior year of high school was interrupted at San Benito County High School in Hollister, when the Miwa family was forcibly removed from California to Poston, Arizona. Frank’s hobby was photography as a young man before World War II. He took photographs and organized them into a scrapbook documenting his life. His other interests and hobbies included: playing baseball, bowling, collecting stamps, oil painting, and surf fishing with his father and brother. Upon entering Poston I, he was hired as an assistant photographer to take photographs for identification cards of the incarcerated Japanese Americans when they left camp. With the closure of the camps, Frank went to Los Angeles in September, 1945 and later to Scottsdale, Arizona to look for work.
In the late 1940s, Frank returned to Los Angeles to find better job opportunities and spent most of his working life in Southern California. He lived in San Pedro and worked at the Pan-Pacific Fisheries Cannery located on Terminal Island, where he worked for more than 35 years. He started in a clerical position, but eventually worked his way up to the warehouse inventory manager position. Frank retired in 1985 and moved to Sacramento where his mother and brother’s family lived. While Frank was single throughout his life, he lived with and took care of his mother in a house they purchased in the South Land Park district. He continued with his interest in photography during retirement, and also enjoyed bowling and dabbling in the stock market. He passed away in 2008.
Frank's sister, Yoshiko Mae (Miwa) Higaki (1925-2018) was also born in San Juan Bautista, and was in her junior year at San Benito County High School when the family was forcibly removed to Poston. Mae worked part time in the seasonal leave office while she attended high school at Poston. Eventually, she worked full time in the office after graduation. In September, 1945, Mae also left Arizona for Los Angeles to search for work. She lived in a church hostel for a period of time, and eventually found a domestic housework job in North Hollywood. In 1946, she was able to return to San Juan Bautista to rejoin her parents.
Mae went to San Francisco to seek employment and stayed at a hostel at the San Francisco Buddhist Church while job hunting. Another hostel resident who later became Mae’s roommate, worked at Joseph Magnin as a stock clerk and recommended Mae apply for a job. Mae was hired in the accounting office. She later took a state civil service exam, which enabled her to work for the California state health department until her marriage in 1953.
Mae met her husband, Naomi, through his friend who was dating Mae’s roommate. Their marriage took place in San Jose on February 15, 1953. Their reception was held at the De Anza Hotel in downtown San Jose. The Higakis had two sons, Ronald Takashi (born 1954) and Steven Yasuo (the donor, born 1955). The Higakis moved to Sunnyvale, California, to manage one of the locations of Bay City Flower (the Higaki family nursery), where they grew carnations and chrysanthemums. They lived in an old house on the nursery property until 1960, when they bought a house a few miles away in Santa Clara. (Mae and Naomi lived in the house until 2018.) Bay City Flower bought additional property in Half Moon Bay in 1960, where they continued in business; the Sunnyvale property stopped flower production in 1972. The Higakis commuted from Santa Clara to Half Moon Bay until their retirement in 1990. They enjoyed travel during their retirement, with visits to Europe, Japan, Canada, and many to Reno, Nevada. Mae passed away in 2018.
- Acquisition information:
- Acquired in 2022 as a gift of the Miwa and Higaki Families.
- Processing information:
-
Photographic materials were initially processed and digitized by Densho staff prior to their donation to JANM. Existing order was retained by museum staff, some materials were rehoused. Family artifacts (pins) were described by JANM staff.
- Arrangement:
-
Items remain in the order they arrived.
- Physical location:
- Japanese American National Museum. 100 North Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012.
- Rules or conventions:
- Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard
Indexed terms
About this collection guide
- Date Prepared:
- © 2024
- Date Encoded:
- Machine-readable finding aid created by Jamie Henricks. Date of source: May 14, 2024 .
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
By appointment only. Please contact the Collections Management and Access Unit (collections@janm.org). Advanced notice is required.
- Terms of access:
-
All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in this collection must be submitted to the Collections Management and Access Unit at the Japanese American National Museum (collections@janm.org).
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Miwa Family Collection. 2018.22, Japanese American National Museum. Los Angeles, CA.
- Location of this collection:
-
Collections Management & Access Unit100 North Central AvenueLos Angeles, CA 90012, US
- Contact:
- 213-625-0414