Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Shibutani (Tamotsu) papers
3317
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
USC Libraries East Asian Library
Title: Tamotsu Shibutani papers
Creator:
Shibutani, Tamotsu, 1920-
Creator:
Shibutani, Taka, 1892-1986
Identifier/Call Number: 3317
Physical Description:
14.1 Linear Feet
13 boxes
Date (inclusive): ca. 1900-1999
Abstract: This collection chiefly consists of the professional papers of Japanese-American sociologist and professor Tamotsu Shibutani
(1920-2004). The bulk of the collection relates to Shibutani's academic career at the University of California, Santa Barbara,
in the form of research and writing materials, course files, and professional correspondence. In addition, there are photograph
albums of his mother, Taka Shibutani (1892-1986), dating from the early 1900s to 1980s.
Language of Material:
English, Japanese.
Tamotsu Shibutani (1920-2004), also known as Tom Shibutani, was a Japanese-American sociologist who was a professor at the
University of California, Santa Barbara. He was born in Stockton, California, the child of Naonosuke and Taka Shibutani (1892-1986).
He received an AB from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1942, and an AM and a PhD from the University of Chicago
(1944, 1948). During World War II, from 1942 to 1944, he worked as a researcher for the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement
Study while in an internment camp. He served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946. His parents were also interred, first at
Tule Lake Relocation Center and then for three years at the Granada Relocation Center in Wyoming.
Shibutani was a sociology instructor at the University of Chicago (1948-1951); an assistant professor of sociology at the
University of California, Berkeley (1951-1957); and an associate professor of sociology (1961-1966) and a full professor (1966-1991)
at the University of California Santa Barbara.
Shibutani was married to Tomika Harano from 1942 to 1968, Sandra Jean Gettman from 1981 to 1987, and later to Sandra Uyeunten.
This collection chiefly consists of the professional papers of Japanese-American sociologist and professor Tamotsu Shibutani
(1920-2004). In addition, there are photograph albums of his mother, Taka Shibutani (1892-1986), dating from the early 1900s
to 1980s.
The bulk of the collection relates to Shibutani's academic career at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), in
the form of research and writing materials, course files, and professional correspondence. There are more than seven boxes
of subject files on specific sociological topics, often with corresponding class lecture notes, articles, clippings, notes,
and occasional correspondence. In addition, there are also files for specific courses that contain Shibutani's lecture notes,
exams, syllabi, and reading lists, and a complementary series of course outlines and records for courses taught at the University
of Chicago (1948-1951), University of California, Berkeley (1951-1958), and UCSB (1962-1991). Publication files relate to
Shibutani's book and article projects and often include correspondence, research material, manuscript drafts, and royalty
statement.
There are also various personal and professional correspondence files chiefly related to Shibutani's professional life including
letters about job opportunities, speaking invitations, and his position as a University of California faculty member.
The collection also contains photograph albums presumably kept by Taka Shibutani that appear to reflect much of her life including
family photographs and a school yearbook from Japan (Box 13, Vols. 1-2), dating from the early 1900s; snapshots taken after
she moved to California (from the 1920s to the early 1980s) depicting her family, family events, and various trips. There
is also a scrapbook (Box 12, Vol. 4) and photograph album (Box 13, Vol. 5) related to her gardening, flower arranging, and
flower show participation. While there are almost no items reflecting Tamotsu Shibutani's experience during World War II,
the albums of his mother do include a notebook kept while she was interred at the Granada Relocation Center in Wyoming with
English language lessons (Box 13, Vol. 6). As part of this notebook, there are drafts of some letters written by Taka that
mention life in the camp.
Advance notice required for access.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the East Asian Library at
eal@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the East Asian Library as the owner of the physical items and
is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Rights Statement for Archival Description
Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
[Box/folder no. or item name], Tamotsu Shibutani papers, Collection no. 3317, East Asian Library, USC Libraries, University
of Southern California
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Sandra Uyeunten.
Processed by USC students in 2019 as part of the "Piloting a Shared Practice for Accessible Archival Descriptions" Dean's
Challenge Grant. Additional description by Diann Benti in 2021.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Japan -- Photographs
Flower arrangement -- Photographs
Japanese-Americans -- Archival resources
Japanese Americans -- Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945 -- Archival resources
Japanese Americans -- Photographs
Sociologists -- Archives
Universities and colleges -- Faculty -- Archival resources
World War, 1939-1945 -- Japanese-Americans -- Archival resources
Faculty papers
Research (documents)
Photograph albums
Shibutani, Tamotsu, 1920- -- Archives
Shibutani, Taka, 1892-1986 -- Archives
University of California, Santa Barbara -- Faculty -- Archives