Guide to the Shizuko Kayashima Photograph Album MC317

Language of Material: English

Contributing Institution: University of California, Davis Library, Dept. of Special Collections

Title: Shizuko Kayashima Photograph Album

Creator: Kayashima, Shizuko

Identifier/Call Number: MC317

Physical Description: 1 volume 222 black-and-white photographs, from 1.5 x 1 inch thumbnail portraits to 8 x 10 inches. Oblong folio. Contemporary cream cloth photograph album, decoratively-stamped in gilt, white, and blue, with the image of a naval ship stamped on the front cover, string- tied.

Date (inclusive): 1936-1943

Abstract: Photograph album memorializing the school-age life of Shizoku Kayashima, a young Japanese-American woman living in California in the 1930s.

Physical Location: Researchers should contact Archives and Special Collections to request collections, as many are stored offsite.

Shizoku Kayashima was a young Japanese-American woman living in California in the 1930s. Shortly after graduating from high school, she was interned at the Poston War Relocation Center. While there, she met her future husband, fellow internee George K. Hasegawa; the couple married in Detroit in 1944. After Hasegawa served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946, the couple settled in St. Louis, where they became notable members of the Japanese- American community.

Annotated vernacular photograph album memorializing the school-age life of a young Japanese-American woman in California named Shizuko "Skeets" Kayashima, mostly in the years immediately preceding the internment period, but with a few internment- related photographs. The album captures three images of Kayashima's grammar school in Terra Bella in 1936 and numerous shots of her life at Porterville Union High School beginning in 1938. There are several photographs inscribed to Kayashima, along with multiple portraits of her mounted in the album. There are also a few dozen photographs, both individual and group shots, featuring identified Japanese Americans and other fellow students and friends of Kayashima's. These photographs provide a rare and valuable record of young Japanese-American men and women in central California before the internment period. The album also includes pictures of school groups on field trips, at French Camp, in a school production of The Magic Beanstalk, and more. Several photographs from the summer of 1941 show Kayashima and her fellow students at their high school graduation. The largest photograph in the album features the Southern District Young Woman's Buddhist Association's 4th Annual Play Day on August 10, 1941. The final leaves of the album contain about a dozen professional portraits Toward the end of the album, two photographs show Kayashima's friends in Denson, Arkansas, the location of the Jerome War Relocation Center. The first, featuring Funye Tahara, is inscribed to Kayashima in 1943. The second, inscribed to Kayashima using her nickname "Skeets," shows a young Japanese- American soldier named Ross Iwanaga at Denson, in front of a sparse background. He is shown wearing a shirt for Camp Wolters, an American military base located near Mineral Wells, Texas. Iwanaga is listed as an internee at Jerome in the Christmas Eve, 1942 issue of Communique, the internment camp newsletter. Shortly after graduating from high school, Shizuko "Skeets" Kayashima was interned at the Poston War Relocation Center.

[Description provided by William Reese]

Collection is open for research.

Liz Phillips created this finding aid with information supplied by William Reese.

Purchased from William Reese, 2021.

[Identification of item], Shizuko Kayashima Photograph Album, MC317, Archives and Special Collections, UC Davis Library, University of California, Davis.

All applicable copyrights for the collection are protected under chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code. Requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of California as the owner of the physical items. It is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.