Restrictions on Access
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Preferred Citation
Processing Information
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biography
Scope and Content
Organization and Arrangement
Related Material
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Yuji Ichioka papers
Creator:
Ichioka, Yuji
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.0242
Physical Description:
681.0 Linear Feet
(162 boxes and 2 oversize boxes)
Date (inclusive): circa 1880-2002
Abstract: Yuji Ichioka (1936-2002) was an American-born Japanese (Nisei) historian who pioneered in studies of Japanese American experiences.
Coining the term "Asian American," Ichioka was also instrumental in developing an academic field of Asian American Studies
since the late 1960s. The 2009 addition to the original Ichioka papers (processed in 2005) consists of personal documents,
materials relating to the establishment and initial operation of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, Ichioka's involvement
in the early phase of an ethnic studies program at UC Berkeley and community activism in northern and southern California,
correspondence, conference planning and participations, publication drafts, research materials, teaching materials, and subject
files.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Restrictions on Access
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
CONTAINS DIGITAL MATERIALS: This collection contains both processed and unprocessed digital materials. Digital materials are
not currently available for access, unless otherwise noted in a Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements note at
the series and file levels. All requests to access processed digital materials must be made in advance using the request button
located on this page.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. The copyright to the duplicates of manuscript papers belongs to the archives
that house them. 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.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of Emma Gee, 2005.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Yuji Ichioka Papers (Collection Number 242). UUCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young
Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Processing Information
Processed by Eiichiro Azuma, 2005 and 2009.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user
interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides
a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive
processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
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UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biography
Yuji Ichioka (1936-2002) was born in San Francisco, California, as a son of Japanese immigrants. Having interned at the Topaz
internment camp in Utah during the Pacific War, he returned to the San Francisco bay area with his parents and siblings to
start a new life in Berkeley, where he stayed until his high school graduation in 1954. Ichioka then served in the United
States Army to station in Germany, and after his discharge, he attended UCLA and graduated in 1962. Intending to pursue graduate
study in Chinese history with a fellowship from Columbia University, Ichioka moved to New York City, but he quit the program
soon after. Having served as a youth parole worker with the New York State Training School for Boys, he traveled to Japan
for the first time in the winter of 1966, an experience that inspired him to take up the study of Japanese language and pursue
research on Japanese immigrant experience in the United States. After he returned from the trans-Pacific trip, Ichioka enrolled
in an MA program in Japanese history at the University of California at Berkeley, which he completed in 1968. Around this
time, he also played a central role in forming the Asian American Political Alliance, and Ichioka, along with his partner
Emma Gee whom he had met at Columbia, steered the younger generations of Asian Americans to a civil right/antiwar movement.
Recruited as the instructor of the first Asian American studies course at UCLA, Ichioka took part in the establishment of
the UCLA Asian American Studies Center while maintaining his ties to early leaders in UC Berkeley's ethnic studies. By 1972,
Ichioka permanently moved to southern California, where he continued his research and writing on Japanese American history
until his death in September 2002. At UCLA he was Research Associate and Adjunct Associate Professor of History. Ichioka was
married to Emma Gee, a scholar of Asian American woman history, as well as a writer and labor activist.
During his career as a professional historian, Ichioka traveled numerous times to Japan for research and teaching while writing
two major monographs:
The Issei: The World of the First Generation Japanese Immigrants, 1885-1924 (1988), and
Before Internment: Essays in Prewar Japanese American History (posthumously published in 2006). Other publications of his include; 2 edited volumes: Karl G. Yoneda,
Ganbatte: Sixty-Year Struggle of a Kibei Worker (1983), and
Views from Within: The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study (1989); 2 annotated bibliographies: A Buried Past (1974), and
A Buried Past II (1999); and a dozens of path-breaking journal articles in
Amerasia Journal, Pacific Historical Review,
Agricultural History, and
California History, among others. Ichioka was among the first few Asian Americanists who showed an interest in studies of Asian immigration
to Latin America when such a subject was unconceivable in the field, and he took a few trips to Peru and Brazil for networking
and preliminary research for a comparative study project and international conference on Japanese in the Americas.
Scope and Content
Collection consists of Yuji Ichioka's correspondence (1970-2002), research papers, writings, teaching materials, rare Japanese
American periodicals, and miscellaneous subject files. The research papers contain photocopies of Japanese immigrant publications
and newspaper clippings, Japanese diplomatic papers, American and Japanese magazine articles, and U.S. National Archives materials,
which are related to various aspects of Japanese American experiences running mainly from the 1880s to 1945. Though these
materials provided a basis for the writing of his articles and books, there are great deals of primary sources that are untapped
and therefore help researchers pursue original historical studies. Researchers should be also aware that because Ichioka periodically
deposited some of his research acquisitions, especially Japanese American personal papers and rare books, as part of UCLA's
Japanese American Research Project collections, the materials included in this collection constitute only portions of what
Ichioka had collected for over thirty years of his career. Drafts and revision notes of Ichioka's published articles and books
are included in this collection, as the instructional materials that he developed are also available. His professional correspondence,
albeit closed for use for ten years from accession, would be useful for understanding Ichioka's day-to-day operation as a
scholar and teacher, his service to the fields of Japanese American history and Asian American Studies, and his interactions
with scholars and intellectuals in not only the United States but also Latin America and Japan. Others papers pertain to Ichioka's
role in the development of Asian American archival collections at UCLA and the organization of academic conferences
The 2009 addition represents the materials that have been discovered at Ichioka's residence since the original acquisition
was processed in 2005. This collection of 23 boxes consists of Yuji Ichioka's personal files (inc. school materials), papers
relating to the establishment and operation of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, the first Asian American studies course
he taught there in 1969, his involvement in the nascent phase of UC Berkeley's ethnic studies program and community-based
political organizing in northern and southern California, correspondence, materials pertaining to conference planning and
participations, publication manuscripts and drafts, research materials, teaching materials, and miscellaneous subject files.
Most of the listing categories used for the organization of this collection are drawn from the original 2005 collection, though
a few new categories are created. The most notable of those new categories are the first two container lists, which provide
a good glimpse into Ichioka's formative education at UCLA and UC Berkeley, as well as his role in the development of the UCLA
Asian American Studies Center. Because his involvement in-and commitment to-community activism was closely tied to his scholarly
activities with the Asian American Studies Center, the materials relating to these matters are placed side by side in the
second category of Container List, and researchers should be aware of their inseparable nature. It is also notable that the
materials in the same category include those produced by and relating to Emma Gee, who worked together with Ichioka in the
Asian American movement. The materials pertaining to the planning of and the networking for a comparative study of Japanese
in North and South America would be also valuable in light of Ichioka's pioneering vision for this area of transnational historical
research. Whereas the 2009 addition supplements the original acquisition with the hitherto unavailable documents covering
the birth of the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA and an international study of Japanese in the Americas, many of the
research papers in this collection overlap with the contents of the latter, and so do the research materials. (The finding
aid provides cross-reference information when necessary.) Still, some of his writings and research materials in this collection
not only reveal a birds' eye view of Ichioka's scholarly endeavor, but they also represent the primary sources that are untapped
and therefore potentially quite helpful for researchers in their own studies. It should be noted that because Ichioka periodically
deposited some of his research acquisitions, especially Japanese American personal papers and rare books, as part of UCLA's
Japanese American Research Project collections and the East Asian Library holdings, the materials included in this-and the
earlier 2005-collection constitute only portions of what Ichioka had collected for over thirty years of his career. The correspondence
files in Boxes 145 and 146, as those in Boxes 1 through 16, are closed for ten years and restricted for use. Eiichiro Azuma
processed both the 2005 and 2009 acquisitions.
Organization and Arrangement
Arranged in the following series:
- Correspondence File
- Conferences and Edited Anthologies
- Publications
- Research Materials
- Teaching Materials
- Archival Development
- Subject Files
- Periodicals
- Asian American Studies & Movement
- Card Catalog
- Personal File
Related Material
The 2005 acquisition of Ichioka's office materials-consisting of 139 boxes-is the backbone of the newly-expanded Yuji Ichioka
Papers. Many other collections of manuscripts were also deposited by Ichioka as part of the Japanese American Research Project
collections at UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Library, UCLA.
Japanese American Research Project Collections at Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Library, UCLA. See Yuji Ichioka, el al.,
A Buried Past: An Annotated Bibliography of the Japanese American Research Project Collection (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974); and
Yuji Ichioka and Eiichiro Azuma, A Buried Past II: A Sequel to the Annotated Bibliography of the Japanese American Research
Project Collection
(Los Angeles: UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 1999).
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Japanese Americans -- History -- Archives.
Ichioka, Yuji--Archives.