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Finding Aid for the Clarence Gillett Papers, 1942-1948
130
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Title: Clarence Gillett Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1942-1948
Collection number: 130
Creator:
Gillett, Clarence
Extent:
8 boxes (4 linear ft.)
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of 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 the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Language:
English.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections. 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.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Advance notice required for access.
Additional Physical Form Available
A copy of the original version of this online finding aid is available at the UCLA Department of Special Collections for in-house
consultation and may be obtained for a fee. Please contact:
- Public Services Division
- UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections
- Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
- Box 951575
- Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
- Telephone: 310/825-4988 (10:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m., Pacific Time)
- Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
Source of Acquisition/Provenance
Gift of Congregational Committee for Christian Democracy, 1948.
[Identification of item], Clarence Gillett Papers (Collection 130). Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
1470567
Collection was originally part of Manzanar War Relocation Center Records (Collection 122) and was separated to form the Clarence
Gillett Papers (Collection 130).
Gillett graduated from Union Seminary and received a doctorate in education from Columbia University; he served as a missionary
in Japan for 20 years, returning to the United States shortly before World War II; served as Congregational minister for a
Japanese congregation in Santa Maria, California; in March 1942 he became executive secretary of a new committee set up by
Congregational churches to aid Japanese members who were being relocated; the committee was originally known as Congregational
Christian Committee for Work with Japanese Evacuees, then in 1943 it used the name Citizens' Committee for Resettlement, and
in 1945 changed its name again to the Congregational Committee for Christian Democracy; Gillett also served as a representative
on the Protestant Church Commission for Japanese Service; he was active in the Los Angeles Coordinating Committee for Resettlement
and the Community Relations Committee of the Welfare Council of Metropolitan Los Angeles; in 1947 he returned to missionary
work in the Pacific, and Seido Ogawa took over the work of the Committee.
Collection consists of correspondence, minutes, reports, essays, and publicity materials generated, received and distributed
by the Congregational Committee for Christian Democracy for which Clarence Gillett served as executive secretary. Includes
related materials from other groups working to assist relocated Japanese Americans, including the Protestant Church Commission
for Japanese Service, the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council, the Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles
and Fair Play, and others.
I. Committee For Christian Democracy
- A. Procedural papers, 1942-48
Box 1
Folders 1-4 - B. Correspondence, 1942-47, arranged by subject category:
- 1. Internal organization and administration
Box 1
Folders 5-6 - 2. Religious services to evacuees
Box 1
Folders 7-14 - 3. Resettlement of evacuees
Box 1
Folders 15-22 - 4. Student relocation aid
Box 2
Folders n/a - 5. Publicity and information
Box 3
Folders 1-10 - 6. Clarence Gillett personal correspondence, miscellaneous notes and clippings
Box 3
Folders 11-12 - 7. Miscellaneous
Box 3
Folders 13 - C. Publicity material, 1942-46
Box 3
Folders 14-29 - II. Protestant Church Commission for Japanese Service
- A. Procedural papers, 1942-45
Box 4
Folders 1-2 - B. Correspondence, 1942-45
Box 4
Folders 3-4
III. National Japanese American Student Relocation Council, papers, 1942-46
- Box 4
Folders n/a
IV. Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles and Fair Play, papers, 1942-46
- Box 4
Folders 8-9
V. Los Angeles Coordinating Committee for Resettlement
- A. Procedural papers, 1945
Box 4
Folders 10-12 - B. Corresopndence, 1945
Box 4
Folders 13-14 - C. Publicity material, n.d.
Box 4
Folder 15
VI. Other Organizations
- A. Welfare council of Metropolitan Los Angeles Community Relations Committee, papers, 1946
Box 4
Folder 16 - B. Southern California Council of Protestant Churches, 1944-45
Box 4
Folder 17
VII. Miscellaneous Typed Materials
-
Box 5
Folders 1-5
VIII. Duplicated Materials (most mimeographed; some typed, some printed)
- A. Relocation center church materials
Box 5
Folders 6-10 - B. Other center materials
Box 5
Folders 11-12 - C. Other religious materials
Box 5
Folders 13-14 - D. Non-center serial publications
Box 5
Folders 15-17 - E. Individual items
Box 6
Folders 1-7
IX. Organizational Publications
-
Box 6
Folders 8-14
X. War Relocation Authority Materials
-
Box 6
Folders 16-19 -
Box 7
Folders 1-13
XI. Miscellaneous Printed Materials
-
Box 8
Folders 1-10
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Gillett, Clarence--Archives.
Congregational Committee for Christian Democracy.
United States--War Relocation Authority.
Congregational churches--Clergy--California--Archival resources.
Japanese Americans--Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945.
This collection consists of the correspondence, procedural papers and publicity materials kept by Clarence Gillett during
his special service as executive secretary of the Congregational Committee for Christian Democracy during and immediately
after World War II.
Little is known about Clarence Gillett aside from the information contained in this collection. A graduate of Union Seminary,
he also received a doctorate in education from Columbia University. He served as a missionary in Japan for twenty years, apparently
returning to the United States shortly before the war. In the immediate prewar period, he was apparently a Congregational
minister serving a Japanese congregation in Santa Maria, California. In March, 1942, when it became obvious that all people
of Japanese ancestry would have to leave the West Coast, he became executive secretary of a new committee set up by the Congregational
Christian Churches to aid members of the Japanese Congregational churches who were being relocated.
The committee was originally known as the Congregational Christian Committee for Work with Japanese Evacuees; in 1943 it also
used the name Citizens' Committee for Resettlement, and in 1945 it changed again to the Committee for Christian Democracy.
During the war, the committee moved its offices twice: once at the beginning of 1943, when it moved from Santa Maria to Saint
Louis, Missouri, and again in 1944, when it returned to Los Angeles to prepare for the return of the evacuees to the West
Coast. During the entire period covered by these records, however, its activities fell into the same three areas of emphasis:
religious service to evacuees, assistance in resettling evacuees, and public relations work on behalf of the Japanese Americans
in general.
In the course of this work, the committee as an organization and Gillett as its principal representative were frequently involved
in formal and informal cooperation with other organizations which had similar intents. In the area of religious service, Gillett
served as the Congregational representative on the Protestant Church Commission for Japanese Service, an interdenominational
committee formed in 1942 to oversee Protestant religious services in the relocation centers. In the area of resettlement,
the committee, of course, worked closely with the War Relocation Authority (the Federal agency responsible for operating the
relocation centers), but it also worked to develop individual and group sponsorship throughout the Midwest; one of its major
efforts grew to be the assistance of college students to leave the relocation centers to attend school. This latter effort
was in large part channeled through the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council, a special organization formed
to funnel money from a number of private agencies (mostly churches) to needy Japanese American students.
The committee did much public relations work on its own, but it was also associated with the Pacific Coast Committee on American
Principles and Fair Play, a private social action group formed to encourage fair treatment of Japanese Americans. In the late
days of the war and in the immediate postwar period, Gillett was also active in local Los Angeles social action groups, most
motably the Los Angeles Coordinating Committee for Resettlement and the Community Relations Committee of the Welfare Council
of Metropolitan Los Angeles.
Gillett continued as executive secretary of the committee after the war for a short period of time; in 1947 he returned to
missionary work in the Pacific islands, and Seido Ogawa took over responsibility for the committee's work. Shortly thereafter
the committee donated its records, including Gillett's records of his work with the related organizations, to the Library.
This collection fits into the broad area of Japanese American studies represented by other collections, most notably Collection
2010. Materials specifically related to the committee's work can be found in this and other collections:
War Relocation Authority: Collection 122.
Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles and Fair Play: Collection 2010, Box 153 (Ruth Kingman)
Prewar activities in Japan: Collection 2010, Box 153 (DeForest Papers).
National Japanese American Student Relocation Council: (The official records of this organization were deposited at the Hoover
Library on War and Peace, Stanford University.
by Hugh Stocks
June 1979
Title: Japanese American Research Project Collection of Material about Japanese in the United States
Identifier/Call Number: (Collection 2010).
Available at the Department of Special Collections, UCLA.
Title: Japanese American Research Project -
Fading Footsteps of the Issei
Identifier/Call Number: (Collection 2010).
Available at the Department of Special Collections, UCLA.
Title: Manzanar War Relocation Center Records
Identifier/Call Number: (Collection 122).
Available at the Department of Special Collections, UCLA.