Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Goodman (Joseph R.) Papers on Japanese American
Incarceration
MS 840
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
California Historical Society
Title: Joseph R. Goodman papers on Japanese American incarceration
Creator:
Goodman, Joseph R.
Identifier/Call Number: MS 840
Physical Description:
3 linear feet
3 boxes, 1 half box, and 1 oversize box
Date (inclusive): 1941-1945
Abstract: Personal correspondence, organizational records, government
documents, publications, and other papers created or collected by Joseph R. Goodman
documenting the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II,
as well as organized resistance to incarceration. Included in the collection are records of
the Japanese Young Men's Christian Association and the Japanese American Citizens League in
San Francisco, including papers of the Japanese YMCA's executive secretary Lincoln Kanai;
Sakai family papers; Goodman's correspondence to and from Japanese American incarcerees,
anti-internment organizations, the War Relocation Authority, and others; publications,
photographs, and ephemera from the Topaz Relocation Center, where Goodman taught high
school; War Relocation Authority records and publications; and newspaper clippings,
pamphlets, and reports about Japanese American incarceration created by various government,
religious, and civic organizations, in California and nationwide.
Physical Location: Collection is stored onsite.
Language of Material: Collection materials are in English, with some materials in
English and Japanese.
CHS is not taking appointments for research at this time. Please check the Library's website updates:
https://californiahistoricalsociety.org/collections/north-baker-research-library/
Donated to the California Historical Society by Dr. Joseph R. Goodman in 1972. Three
volumes (
Ramblings, hardcover, 1943, 1944, and 1945) were
returned to Dr. Goodman in 1974.
Existence and Location of Copies
Majority of the collection has been digitized and is available online through the
California Historical Society Digital Library, as well as through the CSU Japanese American
Digitization Project at https://csujad.com.
Joseph R. Goodman was an advocate for the Japanese American community in San Francisco and
nationwide during World War II, providing assistance and support to friends and incarcerees
at the camps; aiding Japanese American students and activists; participating in the
anti-internment movement; and, between 1942 and 1944, teaching high school math and science
at the Topaz Relocation Center in Utah.
Born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1911, Goodman moved to San Francisco in the early 1940s,
where he met his wife Elizabeth Baker and worked as assistant superintendent of the
Steinhart Aquarium. Active members of the American Friends Service Committee, the Goodmans
began to assist and advocate for Japanese Americans forced from their homes in San
Francisco, beginning in 1942. Among their friends were Lincoln Kanai, executive secretary of
the San Francisco chapter of the Japanese Young Men's Christian Association and civil rights
advocate; and the Sakai family, whose San Francisco home the Goodmans rented. (It later
became the "Sakai House" cooperative.) Between 1942 and 1944, Goodman taught math and
science at Topaz High School. Elizabeth Goodman also worked at the camp.
After World War II, Goodman served as a professor at the Veterans Administration Hospital
and in the pediatrics department at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). He
died in 2004.
Formerly described as the Goodman (Joseph R.) Papers on Japanese American Internment.
Material from this collection was digitized as part of the CSU Japanese American
Digitization project. https://csujad.com/
[Identification of item], Joseph R. Goodman papers on Japanese American incarceration,
MS-840; California Historical Society.
The collection was processed by California Historical Society staff in 1972. Materials were
rehoused in 2011.
The collection consists of personal correspondence, organizational records, government
documents, publications, and other papers created or collected by Joseph R. Goodman
documenting the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II,
as well as organized resistance to incarceration. Included in the collection are records of
the Japanese Young Men's Christian Association and the Japanese American Citizens League in
San Francisco, including papers of the Japanese YMCA's executive secretary and civil rights
advocate, Lincoln Kanai; Sakai family papers, including Ayako Sakai's letters from the
Tanforan Assembly Center; Goodman's correspondence to and from Japanese American
incarcerees, anti-internment organizations, the War Relocation Authority, and others;
publications, photographs, and ephemera from the Topaz Relocation Center, where Goodman
taught high school; War Relocation Authority records and publications; and newspaper
clippings, pamphlets, and reports about incarceration of Japanese Americans created by
various government, religious, and civic organizations, in California and nationwide.
Comprising correspondence, reports, recommendations, notes, addresses, and other
documents, Lincoln Kanai and the Japanese Young Men's Christian Association papers (1942)
document conditions at the camps, as well as Kanai's involvement in the anti-internment
movement. Included in these files are reports from the Puyallup, Tanforan, Pinedale, and
Santa Anita Assembly Centers; written protests; and copies of letters from Robert Sproul and
to Dorothea Lange. The records of the Japanese American Citizen League of San Francisco,
also dated from 1942, include minutes, newsletters, bulletins, and correspondence
documenting that organization's advocacy work on behalf of Japanese Americans during World
War II. Ayako Sakai papers (1942-1943) comprise letters, poetry, and other documents, many
of which were sent to Sakai by family members and friends while she was incarcerated at
Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno.
Joseph R. Goodman correspondence and other papers (1942-1943) include letters written to
and from Goodman documenting his advocacy efforts on behalf of the Sakai family, Japanese
American students, and the Japanese American community in San Francisco and nationwide.
Correspondents include Goodman's friends Ayako Sakai, George Sakai, and Lincoln Kanai; the
National Japanese American Student Relocation Council; the Fellowship of Reconciliation; the
American Friends Service Committee, Northern California Section; the Northern California
Committee on Fair Play for Citizens and Aliens of Japanese Ancestry; the Sakai House, a San
Francisco cooperative; and the War Relocation Authority. Goodman's papers also include
letters written to and by Lincoln Kanai, which Kanai copied for Goodman's files.
In addition to these papers, the collection includes publications, photographs, and
ephemera created at the Topaz Relocation Center (1942-1944), where Goodman taught high
school science and math. Among these are the journals
Volunteers for
Victory
,
Topaz Times,
All
Aboard
, and
Trek; the Topaz High School newspaper
Topazette; photographs of the Topaz High School football
team; and a 1943 copy of
Ramblings, the Topaz High School
yearbook, owned by Lincoln Kanai.
The collection also contains a wide variety of published material collected by Goodman
documenting the incarceration of Japanese American and anti-Japanese racism during World War
II (1941-1945), including newspapers, especially the
Nichi
Bei
; newspaper clippings; magazine articles; pamphlets; reports; and a scrapbook
of newspaper clippings.
Because of the assembled nature of this collection, copyright status varies across the
collection. Copyright is assumed to be held by the original creator of individual items in
the collection. Unpublished works are expected to pass into the public domain 120 years
after their creation; works published before 1923 have entered the public domain. The
California Historical Society (CHS) is not authorized to grant permission to publish or
reproduce materials from this collection. For more information, please contact
rights@calhist.org.
Sources consulted for the biographical note:
Gathright, Alan, "Joseph Goodman -- UCSF pediatrics professor,"
San Francisco Chronicle, 2004 April 22.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Japanese Americans -- California
Japanese Americans -- Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
World War, 1939-1945 -- Evacuation of civilians
World War II -- Mass removal ('Evacuation')
World War II -- Incarceration camps
World War II -- Temporary Assembly Centers
World War II -- Resistance and dissidence
Correspondence
Documents
Periodicals
World War, 1939-1945 -- Evacuation of civilians
Central Utah Relocation Center.
Goodman, Joseph R.--Archives.
Japanese American Citizens' League. San Francisco
Chapter.
Japanese Young Men's Christian Association (San
Francisco, Calif.).
Kanai, Lincoln.
Sakai family.
United States. War Relocation Authority.