Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Finding Aid for the Toyota family papers, ca. 1910-1961
2010  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Biography
  • Scope and Content
  • Organization and Arrangement
  • Indexing Terms
  • Related Material

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Toyota family papers
    Date (inclusive): ca. 1910-1961
    Collection number: 2010
    Creator: Toyota family
    Extent: 2 boxes (1 linear ft.)
    Abstract: Fred Shizutaro Toyota (1885-1959) worked as a labor contractor heading the Japanese labor camp for the Nevada Consolidated Copper Corporation from 1912 to 1941. He arrived in the United States from Hiroshima Prefecture in 1905. In 1916 he married Kame Tetsumura, another Hiroshima native who came to join her husband in the United States the following year. Together they had five children. Kame and her children worked tirelessly to prove Fred's innocence and seek justice during his internment from 1941 to 1944 on false charges. The collection consists of personal and financial document of the family, numerous correspondence including letters of appeal, as well as records relating to the labor camp Fred headed. Materials are in both English and Japanese.
    Language: Finding aid is written in English and Japanese.
    Repository: University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections.
    Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
    Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections for paging information.

    Administrative Information

    Restrictions on Access

    Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections for paging information.

    Restrictions on Use and Reproduction

    Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. 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.

    Processing Note

    Processed by Susanne Mari Sakai in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Megan Hahn Fraser, November 2011.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Toyota family papers (Collection 2010). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.

    UCLA Catalog Record ID

    UCLA Catalog Record ID: 4233210 

    Biography

    Fred Shizutaro Toyota was born March 18, 1885 and a native of Hiroshima Prefecture. He arrived in the Untied States in 1905. After working as an interpreter and foreman for various railroad companies, he was put in charge of a Japanese labor camp of about 250 men for the Nevada Consolidated Copper Corporation at Ruth and McGill, Nevada in 1912. He remained in this position until 1941, when he was arrested and interned on the suspicion of loyalty to an enemy nation, stemming from the fact that he had been sending money back to Japan on behalf of some of his workers. In the span of December 1941 to Janauary 1944, he was interned at Fort Missoula, Montana; Fort Sill, Oklahoma: Fort Livingston, Louisiana; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. He died on May 22, 1959 from a lingering illness.
    Kame Toyota (né.e Tetsumura) was born July 10, 1894 and also a native of Hiroshima Prefecture. She married Fred S. Toyota on August 17, 1916 and arrived in the United States in 1917 to join her husband. Prior, she taught elementary school in Hiroshima. During her husband's internment, she worked tirelessly to appeal charges against him.
    Together, they had five children: Yoshiko, Toshiko, Fred Taro, Shizuko, and Kimiko.

    Scope and Content

    The collection consists of documentation and ephemera for Fred and Kame Toyota individually as well as official and financial records of their family as whole. A large portion of it comprises of various correspondence, both within family members and with others. Included among the correspondence are letters written by Kame and her children to appeal charges against Fred and seek justice for his wrongful internment. Further, the collection contains materials relating to the Japanese labor camp Frank headed in McGill, Nevada, such as correspondence between camp workers and the Toyotas as well as the camp's financial records. Materials are in both English and Japanese.

    Organization and Arrangement

    Arranged in the following series:
    1. Personal and financial records of the family
    2. Correspondence of the family
    3. Correspondence regarding Fred Toyota's wrongful internment and his family's efforts to seek justice
    4. Personal correspondence of Kame Toyota
    5. Documents relating to the Japanese labor camp in McGill, Nevada and its employees

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

    Subjects

    Toyota Family--Archives.
    Toyota, Seitaro--Archives.
    Toyota, Kame--Archives.
    Japanese American Research Project (University of California, Los Angeles).
    Japanese American families--United States--Archival resources.
    Japanese Americans--Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945.

    Genres and Forms of Material

    Letters.
    Family papers.
    Correspondence.

    Related Material