The Secretary Norman Y. Mineta Papers documents the career of Mineta after his 2006 resignation as Secretary of Transportation under President George W. Bush. This collection primarily documents his projects during his five-year appointment at Hill & Knowlton, a global public relations consulting company, headquartered in New York City.

Norman Y. Mineta was born in San Jose, California on November 12, 1931. His father immigrated to the U.S. from Japan as a boy, and went on to build a successful insurance company in San Jose, where the family was prominent in the community. Their lives were severely disrupted during World War II, with the issuance of Executive Order 9066, which mandated relocation of all Japanese Americans living on the Pacific Coast to incarceration camps. From 1943 to 1944, the Mineta family was incarcerated at Heart Mountain Internment camp in Wyoming. Local attorney James B. Peckham protected their home by taking title of the deed; he rented the home to Dr. Lucy Lawson, a professor at San Jose State University. The mortgage on their home was held by Parton Savings and Loan. During the war, Norman Mineta's father, Mr. Mineta, served as a volunteer, instructing American army officers in Japanese in Chicago; his insurance company shut down during the family's incarceration, and reopened in 1946 following their return to San Jose. Norman Mineta graduated from high school in San Jose in 1949, serving as student body president in his senior year. Following high school, he attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a degree in business in 1953. In the same year, he joined the Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC) and served as an intelligence officer with the U.S. Army in Korea and Japan from 1953-1956. Following his military service, he returned to San Jose to work with his father in the insurance business.

18 boxes (26.6 Linear Feet)

Copyright is assigned to the San José State University Special Collections & Archives. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Special Collections & Archives. Copyright restrictions may apply to digital reproductions of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.

The collection is open for research.