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INVENTORY OF THE KIYOKO MATSUURA CRYSTAL CITY COLLECTION,
1944-1945
SPC.1900.033
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Table of contents
Title: Kiyoko Matsuura Crystal City Collection
Dates: 1944-1945
Collection Number: SPC.1900.033
Creator:
Matsuura, Kiyoko
Extent:
1 box
.20 linear ft.
Repository: California State University, Dominguez Hills
Archives and Special Collections
Archives & Special Collection
University Library, Room 5039
1000 E. Victoria Street
Carson, California 90747
Phone: (310) 243-3895
URL: http://www4.csudh.edu/libarchives/index
Abstract:
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.
Language: Collection material is in Japanese
There are no access restrictions on this collection.
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.
[Title of item], Kiyoko Matsuura Crystal City Collection, Courtesy of the Department of Archives and Special Collections.
University Library. California State University, Dominguez Hills
Library acquisition.
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] C. Harvey Gardener, Pawns in a Triangle of Hate: The Peruvian Japanese and the Unites States (Seattle: University of Washington
Press, 1983), viii.
[2] Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law, Treatment of Latin Americans
of Japanese Descent, European Americans, and Jewish Refugees During World War II , 111th Cong., 1st Sess., March 19, 2009,
7.
The Kiyoko Matsuura Crystal City Collection (1944-1945) contains two letters written from Kiyoko Matsuura to family members
in Lima, Peru updating them on life in the Crystal City Incarceration Camp as well as inquiring about her family members’
well-being. Both letters are in Japanese.
Letter 1: Kiyoko Matsuura to Mizuko Noda, September 5, 1944
In this letter, Kiyoko Matsuura writes to her sister, Mizuko Noda who is living in Lima, Peru. Matsuura tells Noda to thank
their father for the money he gave her, and tells her sister that the reason she did not board the repatriation ship was because
she was worried about her newborn baby. She also gives her condolences to her sister regarding an uncle who has passed away,
and inquires about her sister’s lunch routines and new house.
Letter 2: Kiyoko Matsuura to Kikuko Noda, January 26, 1945
In this letter, Kiyoko Matsuura writes to her mother, Kikuko Noda who is living in Lima, Peru. In her first letter written
of the year to Noda, Matsuura thanks her mother for the gifts she received for her baby, Kuniko which included a kimono, baby
sweater, and baby rattle, as well as yarn for Kiyoko, and other gifts for the family. Kiyoko also wishes her mother a happy
New Year, and tells her mother about how they had o-toso, a sake traditionally consumed on New Year’s Day.
Arrangement
Arranged in 1 box.
Concentration camps--United States.
Japanese Americans--Pacific States--History--20th century.
Japanese Americans
Japanese Americans--Texas--History.
Crystal City Internment Camp (Crystal City, Tex.)
Japanese Americans -- Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
World War, 1939-1945 – Texas
Crystal City (Tex.)
Lima (Peru)
For access to the digital collection please consult the CSU Japanese American Digitization Project located here: http://csujad.com