Claire Gordon and Kelly Gates
Japanese American National Museum
© 2014
100 North Central Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone: (213) 830-5615
Email: collections@janm.org
URL: http://www.janm.org/
Japanese American National Museum. All rights reserved.
Finding aid for the Gorman F. Kelley Papers
Collection number: 91.149, 94.296, 96.103
Japanese American National MuseumLos Angeles, California
- Processed by:
- Claire Gordon and Kelly Gates
- Date Completed:
- November 2014
- Encoded by:
- Lauren Zuchowski
© 2014 Japanese American National Museum. All rights reserved.
Title: Gorman F. Kelley papers
Dates: 1941-1943
Collection number: 91.149, 94.296, 96.103
Creator:
Kelley, Gorman F.
Collection Size:
.25 linear feet
Repository:
Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Los Angeles, California 90012
Abstract: Gorman F. Kelley worked for the War Relocation Authority during World War II. This collection is largely comprised of letters
written from Kelley during his four month employment at Tule Lake to his family in Los Angeles.
Physical location: Japanese American National Museum
100 North Central Avenue, Los Angeles, California 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], Gorman F. Kelley papers. 91.149, 94.296, 96.103, Japanese American National Museum. Los Angeles,
CA.
Alternative Forms of Material Available
The collection has been scanned and made available through Densho (http://ddr.densho.org/collections/#ddr-janm).
Biography / Administrative History
Gorman F. Kelley was born on August 19, 1892 in Iowa and eventually made his way to Los Angeles, California, where he married
and had children. He fought in World War I and later worked as a government employee with the War Relocation Authority during
World War II. For four months (May, June, July, August 1942) Kelley was temporarily assigned to Tulelake and Tule Lake War
Relocation Center in Northern California while his family remained in Los Angeles before receiving his permanent assignment
in the Corp of Engineers.
Tulelake neighbored the Tule Lake Relocation Center but differed in purpose. Originally built in 1933 as a work relief program
in conjunction with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, Tulelake camp became a prison for Japanese American dissidents
and housed German and Italian prisoners of war during World War II. In March 1943, more than 100 men from the Tule Lake Relocation
Center were arrested and taken to Tulelake (renamed Camp Tulelake) after refusing to answer or answering “no-no” for questions
27 and 28 on the loyalty questionnaire. These prisoners completed repair work on the abandoned buildings while imprisoned
at Tulelake. After several months they were either released back into Tule Lake Relocation Center or transferred to other
Department of Justice Camps. In additional, Camp Tulelake also sheltered Japanese Americans brought from other concentration
camps to help the WRA undermine strikes at Tule Lake. Although Kelley worked at both Tulelake and Tule Lake it is important
to note as Kelley’s letters often reflect the negative attitude towards Japanese Americans during World War II.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection is primarily made up of letters written by Kelley to his family, who remained in Los Angeles during his temporary
assignment in Tule Lake. They are important in illustrating the general viewpoints of government employees towards the Japanese
Americans during World War II and provide daily insights to his work with the WRA. In addition to the letters written by Kelley,
there are also letters written to Kelley, WRA documents (pamphlets, timecards), newspapers and newspaper clippings, and invitations
to various WRA-related events. These items show a small snippet of a government official’s daily life as tensions were high
in the earlier war years.
The collection has been broken down into the following series:
Series 1: Correspondence
Series 2: Invitations
Series 3: Newspapers and Clippings
Series 4: Documents
Individual donations have been kept together based on their object identification number within the larger collection.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Kelley, Gorman F.
Tule Lake Relocation Center
United States. War Relocation Authority
World War II
Japanese Americans—Evacuation and Relocation, 1942-1945