This collection contains one box of two letters from Kiyoko Matsuura written while Matsuura was imprisoned at Crystal City Incarceration Center in Crystal City, Texas. The letter to Mizuko Noda contains information regarding why Kiyoko did not board a repatriation trip, as well as inquiries about her sister’s lunch routine and new house. The letter to Kikuko Noda contains information regarding Kiyoko Matsuura’s New Year’s Day celebration, and she also thanks her mother for the gifts they received. Both letters are in Japanese.

During World War II, the United States government developed three separate incarceration programs that deprived thousands of people of Japanese descent of their liberty. The most well-known program was operated by the US War Relocation Authority, which incarcerated 110,000 US citizens and residents of Japanese descent living in California, Oregon and Washington.[1] Another program was operated by the Justice Department and led to the incarceration of 17,000 Japanese nationals living throughout the United States. The third and least-known program involved the incarceration of Latin American citizens and residents of Japanese ancestry. From 1942 to 1945, the US Department of War took 2,260 Japanese Latin Americans from their home countries and incarcerated them in the United States.[2] The vast majority of these Japanese Latin American prisoners were held in in the US Department of Justice internment camp at Crystal City,Texas. The combination of xenophobia in countries like Peru and wartime hysteria in the United States led the US government to incarcerate ethnic Japanese from Latin America. This program resulted in a significant deprivation of rights and considerable hardships for the incarcerated Japanese Latin American civilians.

1 box .20 linear ft.

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