This collection contains letters between Kiyoko Oda and Ruth A. Leppman and cover Kiyoko’s time at Gila River, her return to Japan in 1943, and her process of returning to the United States that began in 1951. The collection also includes Kiyoko’s sponsorship documents for her re-entry into the United States.

Kiyoko Oda Hiramatsu was born in 1914 in Giru, Japan. She immigrated with her parents in 1920 and graduated from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music in 1938. The first few letters were written in 1942 between Kiyoko and her Quaker college friend Ruth Armstrong Leppman. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Kiyoko decided to enter the camps rather than impinge on her friends in the Midwest and ended up at Gila River before returning to Japan with her parents in 1943. One typed letter contains the poignant handwritten marginalia: "My piano is for sale."

2 folders

All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in this collection must be submitted to the Hirasaki National Resource Center at the Japanese American National Museum (collections@janm.org).

By appointment only. Please Contact the Collections Management and Access Unit by email (collections@janm.org) or telephone (213-830-5615).