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Title: Ruth A. Leppman papers
Dates: 1942-1953
Bulk Dates: 1952
Collection number: 2006.12
Creator:
Leppman, Ruth A.
Collection Size:
2 folders
Repository:
Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Los Angeles, California 90012
Abstract: 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.
Physical location: Japanese American National Museum
100 North Central Avenue, Los Angeles 90012
By appointment only.
Please Contact the Collections Management and Access Unit by email (collections@janm.org) or telephone (213-830-5615).
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).
[Identification of item], Ruth A. Leppman papers. 2006.12, Japanese American National Museum. Los Angeles, CA.
Biography / Administrative History
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."
The correspondence begins again in 1952, as Kiyoko was working at a U.S. Army base in Gifu. She began the procedures of trying
to return to the United States, first through a 'private bill' sponsored by a congressional representative, but eventually
entering in 1953 under a immigration visa as returning resident alien after the McCarran-Walters immigration law passed in
1952. The collection includes Ruth's correspondence with several congressmen and blank affidavit forms that were used to
prove that Kiyoko would not become a public charge.
After returning to the United States, Kiyoko worked for Bank of American in California. She married a widower, Richard Hiramatsu,
whom she had known in Gila. They settled in Santa Maria, where Kiyoko had spent part of her childhood.
Kiyoko and Ruth lost touch for many years, but got in contact again in the late 1980s and visited before Ruth died in the
1990s.
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection is largely comprised of letters, with a bulk of the materials relating to Kiyoko’s sponsorship to re-enter
the United States. Ruth was instrumental in securing Kiyoko’s sponsorship through her outreach with congressmen. This is a
valuable collection indicating the on-going friendship between a Japanese American woman and Euro-American woman that spanned
decades and continents. It also illustrates the role of Quakers helping to mitigate the consequences of the incarceration,
even into the following decades.
The letters are arranged chronologically between two folders.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Leppman, Ruth A.
Hiramatsu, Kiyoko Oda
Japanese Americans
World War II
Japanese Americans--Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945.
United States. War Relocation Authority
Japanese American evacuation and resettlement
Gila River Relocation Center
Gila River Indian Reservation (Ariz.)
Oberlin College. Conservatory of Music
Oberlin College
Gifu-shi (Japan)
Oberlin (Ohio)
Santa Maria (Calif.)