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Jack and Aiko Herzig papers
451  
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Table of contents What's This?
  • Restrictions on Access
  • Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
  • Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
  • Provenance/Source of Acquisition
  • Preferred Citation
  • UCLA Catalog Record ID
  • Biography/History
  • Scope and Content
  • Organization and Arrangement
  • Abbreviations

  • Title: Jack and Aiko Herzig papers
    Collection number: 451
    Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections
    Language of Material: English
    Physical Description: 109.5 linear ft. (219 boxes, 21 shoe boxes, and 2 oversize flat boxes)
    Date (bulk): Bulk, 1940-2000
    Date (inclusive): ca. 1940-ca. 2011, bulk 1940-2000
    Abstract: Community advocates Jack and Aiko Herzig played a pivotal role in the World War II Japanese American redress movement through their historical research at archives and libraries across the nation. Their discoveries aided in redress for thousands of Americans illegally incarcerated during World War II and the vacating of wartime convictions of Japanese Americans in the Supreme Court Coram nobis cases. The collection consists original and facsimile materials and includes card indexes, evidentiary documents, reports, public hearings and court transcripts, correspondence, books, articles, clippings, and a small amount of electronic files.
    Physical Location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
    Creator: Herzig, John A., 1922-2005
    Creator: Yoshinaga-Herzig, Aiko

    Restrictions on Access

    COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.

    Restrictions on Use and Reproduction

    Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

    Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

    THE COLLECTION CONTAINS DIGITAL MATERIALS: Special equipment or further processing may be required for viewing. To access digital materials, please notify the reference desk in advance of your visit.

    Provenance/Source of Acquisition

    Gift of Jack Herzig and Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, 2003.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Jack and Aiko Herzig Papers (Collection 451). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

    UCLA Catalog Record ID

    UCLA Catalog Record ID: 5237434 

    Biography/History

    Aiko Yoshinaga (later changed to Herzig-Yoshinaga) was born in 1924 in Sacramento but grew up in Los Angeles. At the outset of World War II, she and her family were imprisoned in three War Relocation Authority-administered camps of Manzanar, California; Jerome, Arkansas; and Rohwer, Arkansas. Following WWII, she spent five years in Japan before returning to the United States and settling in New York City. In the 1950s, she was involved with a variety of human and civil rights organizations, and participated in community demonstrations as a member of Asian Americans for Action (often referred to as Triple A), one of the very first East Coast Asian American grassroots community organizations to join the fight for civil rights.
    John A. "Jack” Herzig was born in New Jersey in 1922. Jack was attending Long Island University in New York when World War II broke out, at which time he was drafted out of the National Guard as a reserve. He volunteered to participate in a paratrooper unit, and after basic training, he joined the 503rd Parachute Regimental Combat Team as a combat paratrooper. He was honorably discharged on Aug. 6, 1945, the day the United States government dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Jack returned to civilian life and resumed his education at New York University but was recalled-to duty at the start of the Korean War. For the next 27 years he continued to work for the military and was honorably discharged as a lieutenant colonel. He then worked at various governmental agencies in Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C., including the Department of Defense as a counterintelligence expert, before joining Public Technology, Inc., a non-profit organization. In 1977, he was awarded a Conspicuous Service Cross medal by the State of New York. John ‘Jack’ Herzig died in Gardena, California, on August 21, 2005.
    Jack and Aiko Herzig played a pivotal role in the redress movement through their research at the National Archives and many other repositories across the nation. The documents they compiled proved to be instrumental in the WWII Supreme Court coram nobis litigation cases that vacated the wartime convictions of Fred Korematsu and Gordon Hirabayashi. They conducted primary research of official documents for the National Council for Japanese American Redress in the class action lawsuit, William Hohri et al., vs. USA. Herzig-Yoshinaga also worked with the Department of Justice Office of Redress Administration to assist with and verify eligibility of individuals from the Nikkei community eligible for both redress compensation and formal legislative letter of apology.
    In 1978, Jack and Aiko Herzig were married and moved to Washington, D.C. With a project that started as personal research for Herzig-Yoshinaga, Jack and Aiko Herzig began examining documents related to the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans at the National Archives and Records Administration. In the years to follow, their research evolved into a larger effort with expanded scope. Herzig-Yoshinaga joined the National Council for Japanese American Redress (NCJAR) in 1980 (the same year the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) was created) and contributed her compiled body of research to NCJAR's class-action lawsuit seeking reparations from the government. The following year, in 1981, she was hired by the CWRIC as its lead researcher. During this time, they discovered the only surviving draft of the Western Defense Command’s Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast 1942, also known as DeWitt’s suppressed version; this was to become the ‘smoking gun’ piece of evidence for the coram nobis court case for redress.
    Extensive research provided both Aiko and Jack Herzig with expertise needed in the Japanese American community. Jack Herzig testified as an expert witness in the evidentiary hearing for a writ of error coram nobis in Hirabayashi v. the United States (1985) that helped vacate the wartime Supreme Court convictions of Gordon Hirabayashi, Fred Korematsu and Minoru Yasui. The couple also provided evidentiary documents in the near-success of the class action lawsuit filed against the U.S. government by the National Council for Japanese American Redress, among others. Jack Herzig also testified before Congressional subcommittees that the MAGIC Cable intercepts were not proof of Japanese American disloyalty before the war. Additionally with the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, Herzig-Yoshinaga (with the assistance of Jack Herzig) was hired by the Department of Justice to conduct research for the Office of Redress Administration to identify Japanese Americans eligible for reparations and a formal Presidential letter of apology.
    Over the years, the Herzigs continued to offer research assistance to the general public and served as consultants for the Smithsonian lnstitute's exhibit "A More Perfect Union." Together they received many honors for their work.
    Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga has personally published the monograph, "Words Can Lie or Clarify: Terminology of the World War II Incarceration of Japanese Americans.” Additionally she was principal editor of the publication, Speaking Out for Personal Justice, co-edited with Marjorie Lee, and funded by a grant from the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund.

    Scope and Content

    The collection consists of material compiled by and related to the research of community advocates Jack and Aiko Herzig regarding the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans, the Japanese American redress movement, and wartime convictions of Japanese Americans in the Supreme Court Coram nobis cases. Additionally, there is information pertaining to the MAGIC Cables and the National Japanese American Memorial controversy. Represented is their participation with and/or for the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, the Office of Redress Administration, the National Council for Japanese American Redress, and the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund. The collection includes a card index, evidentiary documents, reports, public hearings and court transcripts, correspondence, books, articles and clippings, and a small amount of electronic files. Most of the documents are photocopies compiled from various institutions such as The Bancroft Library, Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (FDRL), George C. Marshall Library, and National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), among others. Also included is a small amount of the Herzigs’ personal files.

    Organization and Arrangement

    Arranged in the following series:
    • Series 1. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians
    • Series 2. MAGIC Cables Research
    • Series 3. Redress Movement
    • Series 4. Office of Redress Administration
    • Series 5. Coram nobis Litigation Cases
    • Series 6. Correspondence
    • Series 7. National Council for Japanese American Redress
    • Series 8. National Japanese American Memorial Controversy
    • Series 9. Civil Liberties Public Education Fund Editing Project
    • Series 10. Ongoing Research
    • Series 11. Research Aids
    • Series 12. Reference Materials
    • Series 13. Personal Records

    Abbreviations

    List of Acromyns used in this collection:
    • A.B. Assembly Bill
    • AHY Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga
    • AWVRA American War Veterans Relief Association
    • BN Battalion
    • CAD Civil Affairs Division
    • CLPEF Civil Liberties Public Education Fund
    • Ct. App. Court of Appeals
    • CWRIC Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilian
    • DOJ Department of Justice
    • EO Executive Order
    • F Folder (NARA)
    • FA Fourth Army
    • FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation
    • FDRL Franklin D. Roosevelt Librar
    • H.R. House resolution
    • INS Immigration and Naturalization Service
    • JA Japanese American
    • JACL Japanese American Citizens League
    • JAH John A. Herzig, aka Jack
    • JERS Japanese Evacuation and Resettlement Study
    • LC Library of Congress
    • LEC Legislative Education Committee (JACL)
    • MIS Military Intelligence Service
    • MISLS Military Intelligence Service Language School
    • MISC-SC MIS Club of Southern California
    • MIS-X Military Intelligence Service, Escape and Evasion Section
    • MNW Michi Nishiura Weglyn
    • NARA National Archives and Records Administration
    • NCJAR National Council for Japanese American Redres
    • NJAMF National Japanese American Memorial Foundation
    • NSA National Security Agency
    • ONI Office of Naval Intelligence
    • ORA Office of Redress Administration
    • PHI Peter H. Irons
    • PHLO Pearl Harbor Liaison Office
    • POW Prisoners of War
    • RCT Regimental Combat Team
    • RG Record Group (NARA)
    • S. Senate resolution
    • SOPJ Speaking Out for Personal Justice
    • WCCA Wartime Civil Control Administration
    • WDC Western Defense Command
    • WMH William Minoru Hohri
    • WRA War Relocation Authority (RG 210)
    • WWII World War II

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Herzig, John A., 1922-2005 -- Archives
    Yoshinaga-Herzig, Aiko -- Archives
    Japanese Americans--Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945--Research.
    Japanese Americans--Evacuation and relocation, 1944-1945--Archives.