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Title: Manzanar Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1942-1994,
Date (bulk): (bulk 1942-1946)
Collection number: MS 026
Creator:
Murakami, Miriko Nagahama, 1922-
Wada, Honey Mitsuye Toda, 1921-2007
Wada, Honey Mitsuye Toda, 1921-2007
Extent:
2 boxes. 1.55 linear feet
Languages:
English
English
Repository:
Special Collections, Robert E. Kennedy Library
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, California 93407
Abstract: Materials relating to the forced relocation to Manzanar, California, of Miriko Nagahama and Honey Mitsuye Toda, including
correspondence, photographs, and newspapers, donated in 1981 and 1995.
Donated in 1981 and 1995.
Collection is open to qualified researchers by appointment only. For more information on access policies and to obtain a copy
of the Researcher Registration form, please visit the Special Collections Access page.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
In order to reproduce, publish, broadcast, exhibit, and/or quote from this material, researchers must submit a written request
and obtain formal permission from Special Collections, Cal Poly, as the owner of the physical collection.
Photocopying of material is permitted at staff discretion and provided on a fee basis. Photocopies are not to be used for
any purpose other than for private study, scholarship, or research. Special Collections staff reserves the right to limit
photocopying and deny access or reproduction in cases when, in the opinion of staff, the original materials would be harmed.
Manzanar Collection, Special Collections, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Calif.
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which allowed military commanders to designate
"military areas" as "exclusion zones," from which "any or all persons may be excluded." The order affected approximately 120,000
Americans of Japanese descent living on the West Coast to one of ten internment camps — officially known as "relocation centers"
— in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas. It is estimated that 62 percent of those interned
in the camps were American citizens.
Miri Nagahama, Honey Toda, Betty Salzman, Wilda Johnson, and Lorraine Paulsen were friends who grew up and attended school
and joined the Girls Scouts together. When their friends Miri and Honey were interned at Manzanar, Betty, Wilda, and Lorraine
corresponded and visited their friends and assisted Nagahama and Toda's efforts to be released.
Miriko Nagahama Murakami
Miriko Nagahama Murakami was born in Los Angeles on April 1, 1922, to Harry and Yuri Nakamura Nagahama. She had a brother,
Junichi, and a sister, Kazuko, who were also born in California.
In the spring of 1942, Miriko Nagahama and her family were forced to leave their home in Los Angeles for the Manzanar Relocation
Center, run by the War Relocation Authority (WRA).
After she left Manzanar, Nagahama worked at the Centenary Methodist Church of Los Angeles as the pre-school and church school
coordinator, a position which was funded by the Women's Division of the Methodist Church at $150 per month.
On January 8, 1949, she married Rev. Harry Murakami and began a family with him.
Honey Mitsuye Toda Wada
Honey Mitsuye Toda Wada was born in Fresno County on January 23, 1921. Her parents were born in Hiroshima, Japan, and emigrated
to the United States in 1917. Toda had two brothers, Roy Tetsuo and Akira, who were also born in the San Joaquin Valley.
On April 28, 1942, Honey Toda and her family were forced to leave their home in Glendale, California, for the Manzanar Relocation
Center, run by the War Relocation Authority (WRA). While in Manzanar, Toda worked as a secretary to Dr. Genevieve Carter,
the center's Superintendent of Education.
Through the efforts of National Student Relocation Council, Honey Toda was allowed to leave the camp after one year. She enrolled
at the University of Maryland and graduated with an A.B. in Sociology with honors.
In the spring of 1945, Toda moved to New York City to work at the Bureau of Applied Social Research. There she worked as a
research assistant for Dr. C. Wright Mills, professor of sociology at Columbia University, compiling the occupational statistics
for Mills' book
White Collar, published by Oxford University Press in 1953.
In 1947, Toda married and began working at home, raising three children. In 1976, she became a Japanese bilingual teacher
for the Fort Lee Public School System, where she was named teacher of the year in 1989. That same year, Wada was selected
as one of 20 teachers and administrators from the New York area to participate in the U.S. Educators program, visiting and
observing schools in Japan to better understand the cultural and education background of children coming from Japan to the
United States.
In 1991, after 15 years of service, Honey Wada retired from the For Lee Public School System. She continues to reside in New
Jersey.
Sources
California Birth Index, 1905-1995, ancestry.com
California Passenger and Crew Lists, 1893-1957, ancestry.com
Japanese Americans Relocated During World War II, ancestry.com
Wilda N. Johnson
Betty Salzman Liebscher
Miri Nagahama Murakami
Honey M. Toda Wada
The Manzanar Collection contains materials relating to the forced relocation to Manzanar of Miriko Nagahama and Honey Mitsuye
Toda. It includes correspondence, photographs, and newspapers from Manzanar during the period of Ms. Nagahama and Ms. Toda's
internment by the War Relocation Authority.
The provenance, or original organization, of the papers has been preserved for the most part in the organization of the collection.
The Manzanar Collection is divided into three series:
Series 1. Correspondence, 1942-1946
Series 2. Photographs, 1942-1994
Series 3. Newspapers, 1942-1943
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Japanese Americans -- Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945.
Murakami, Miriko Nagahama -- Archives
Wada, Honey Mitsuye Toda -- Archives
United States. War Relocation Authority.
World War, 1939-1945.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Evacuation of civilians.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Concentration camps -- United States.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Archival resources.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Japanese Americans.
Correspondence
Photographs
Newspapers
Related Collections
Special Collections, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo:
Smith Family Papers on World War II, 1936-2005 (MS 62)