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Title: Mollie Wilson Murphy papers
Dates: 1942-1945
Collection number: 2000.378
Creator:
Murphy, Mollie Wilson, 1923-
Collection Size:
0.50 linear feet
Repository:
Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Los Angeles, California 90012
Abstract: Mollie Wilson Murphy was an African-American woman who lived in Boyle Heights during World War II. She had many Japanese-American
friends who were forced into concentration camps during the war. This collection comprises of the correspondences between
Mollie and her friends in camp. The Mollie Wilson Papers include correspondence, school photographs, and miscellaneous photos
in Boyle Heights of Mollie and friends before the war, during and after camp. There are also mimeographs, and newspaper
clippings.
Physical location: Japanese American National Museum
100 North Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 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).
This finding aid was created as part of a project funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
The project started in 2007. Project Director was Cris Paschild. Project Archivists were Yoko Shimojo and Marlon Romero.
[Identification of item], Mollie Wilson Murphy papers. 2000.378, 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).
Gift of Mollie Wilson Murphy, 2000.
Biography / Administrative History
Mollie Murphy grew up on Boulder Street between Evergreen and Sloat in Boyle Heights. Her brother Atoy graduated from Roosevelt
in the late 1930s and Mollie graduated in summer 1943. The two of them had many close Japanese American friends and it seems
that their street was very heterogeneous. Mollie wrote in a correspondence, "As a child, I vividly remember that on my street
alone there were ten different ethnic families residing harmoniously together. My mother learned to cook from Jewish people,
because she had not been taught by her own mother. It often amazed me how my mother could communicate with Mrs. Kokoris or
Mrs. Akahoshi, because neither of them could speak English and my mother couldn't speak Greek nor Japanese! It goes to show,
that when it comes to mutual problems, you don't always need words to express your thoughts." Throughout the war, Mollie corresponded
with a number of her Japanese American girlfriends. Their correspondences extend the duration of the World War II exclusion,
from the assembly centers (Santa Anita and Pomona) to the camps (Amache, Heart Mountain, Manzanar, Gila River, and Poston)
to relocation.
Scope and Content of Collection
These letters provide the opportunity to explore the incarceration experience from a non-Japanese perspective and reveals
how Nisei teenagers represented their experiences to their non-Japanese American peers. Mollie’s relationship with a number
of these individuals continued well past World War II and into the present. For additional resources, refer to the Japanese
American National Museum’s Boyle Heights Oral History Project located in the museum’s Hirasaki National Resource Center.Most
recently, Mollie Wilson Murphy along with Mary (Murakami) Nishi and Sandie (Saito) Okada, participated in a collaborative
interview for the Japanese American National Museum’s Boyle Heights Oral History Project in 2002.
Letters have been broken down based on sender.
Series 1 : Letters
Series 2: Photographs
Series 3: Documents
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Murphy, Mollie Wilson, 1923-
Ikeda, Tomoko
Murakami, Mary
Igasaki, Lillian
Nagahiro, Haruko
Shimohochi, Yuri
Imamura, Miyeko
Saito, Violet
Saito, Sandie
Yoshigai, June
Nishioka, Sadae
Akahoshi, Chiyeko
Japanese Americans
African Americans
World War II
Japanese Americans--Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945.
Arizona
Wyoming
California
Colorado
Boyle Heights (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Justice Department Camps, Santa Fe
Jerome Relocation Center (Ark.)
Gila River Relocation Center
Heart Mountain Relocation Center (Wyo.)
Manzanar War Relocation Center
Poston Relocation Center (Ariz.)
Granada Relocation Center