San José State University Japanese-American Internment Research Collection
Content Description
The San José State University Japanese-American Internment Research Collection, 1935-2010 (bulk 1942-2010) first documents the number of Japanese-American students attending San Jose State College prior to the internment. Photocopies of student directories and lists of graduating students provide this information. Some photocopies of newspaper clippings document activities of Japanese-American students at San Jose State College during the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Next, the collection documents the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and the subsequent impact of internment policies on public and political memory both city-wide and nationally. This part of the collection consists of newspaper clippings, magazines, correspondence, memorabilia, brochures, government reports, and photocopied excerpts from books and periodicals. Included are brochures for the Japanese-American National Museum and literature and mailings from the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee and the Tule Lake Committee, organizations dedicated to preserving public memory of the internment. Also featured are clippings from the San Jose Mercury News and some editions of the West Magazine supplement. The clippings concern topics such as the personal stories of detainees, the history of the Japanese-American Citizens League, the relocation and detainment of Japanese Peruvians in the United States, and the story of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. There are two articles by Marjorie Fernandes, one entitled, "From Salinas to Poston: One Woman's Journey" and the other, "Japanese-American Women: Immigration and Evacuation". (The publisher of these articles is unknown.) Also contained are a published presidential message and reports and legislation from the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the California Senate, all concerning the Japanese-Americans and their forced resettlement.
The collection also contains information about the Nisei Diploma Project at San José State University. Included are materials that document SJSU's efforts to locate and contact the former students and includes samples of the application to receive the degree, SJSU memos communicating progress on the project, spreadsheets compiling data on the former students, correspondence from the university to the students, and photos of those awarded degrees during the Commencement ceremony.
Dates
- Creation: 1935-2010
- Creation: Majority of material found in 1942-2010
Language of Materials
Languages represented in the collection: English, Japanese
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright has not been assigned to the San José State University Library Special Collections & Archives. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Special Collections & Archives as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader. Copyright restrictions also apply to digital reproductions of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.
Biographical / Historical
On February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 providing broad powers for the War Department to create exclusion zones and to initiate an evacuation program for the Western Defense Command (WDC). Under the leadership of General John Dewitt of the WDC, the Civil Affairs Division (CAD) and the Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA) were created in order to provide for the transition of voluntary evacuees, enemy aliens and United States citizens alike, from exclusion areas to other parts of the country. The failure of the voluntary evacuation plan led President Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 9102, which established the civilian run War Relocation Authority (WRA). The WRA was mandated to institute enforced evacuations. Due to the recalcitrance of states on the interior of the country to accept the Japanese evacuees or to provide for their safety, the WRA also constructed internment centers in order to house the evacuees. Between 1942 and 1945, the WRA, the WCCA, the CAD and the Office of the Commanding General of the Western Defense Command segregated and housed approximately 120,000 Japanese-American men, women and children.
Approximately 20,000 Japanese-Americans living in the Bay Area were forced into the camps in the interior of the country. Most Santa Clara County residents were sent to Heart Mountain, Wyoming. Businesses, properties, and possessions were lost. The people were given little time to organize their belongings and they were given a limit to how much they could carry with them to the relocation centers. By 1945, the executive order was revoked, and the Japanese-Americans were left to either go back to their respective cities and towns, or scatter across the country, to attempt to resume normal life.
The San José State University Japanese-American Internment Research Collection, 1935-2010 (bulk 1942-2010) was compiled in connection with the passage of the Japanese-American Reparation Act of 1988, which offered financial reimbursements and a formal apology from the U.S. government for violations of the internees' civil rights.
The California State University Board of Trustees voted in September 2009 to award honorary bachelor's degrees to former Japanese-American students whose education was disrupted by the forced internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. In October of 2009 the Governor of California signed AB 37, an Assembly bill that called upon California's higher education institutions to honor this group of former students. The CSU worked with the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC) to locate Nisei students. San José State University presented honorary degrees to eighteen Nisei students during the Commencement of May 2010.
Extent
1 Box ; 0.5 linear feet
Abstract
The San José State University Japanese-American Internment Research Collection, 1935-2010 (bulk 1942-2010), documents the internment of Americans of Japanese descent from 1942-1945, the presence of Japanese-American students at San Jose State College in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and the awarding of honorary degrees to some of those students by San José State University in 2010 by the Nisei Diploma Project. The records consist of brochures, correspondence, government reports, magazines, memorabilia, memos, newspaper clippings, photocopied articles, photos, and spreadsheets.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged chronologically.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Tom Hewitt and reviewed by Danelle Moon (2010). Collection re-processed and finding aid revised by Grace Song in 2016.
Topical
- Title
- Guide to the San José State University Japanese-American Internment Research Collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Tom Hewitt and Grace Song
- Date
- 2010, revised 2016
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the SJSU Special Collections & Archives Repository
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library
San José State University
One Washington Square
San José, CA 95192-0028
(408) 808-2062
(408) 808-2063 (Fax)
special.collections@sjsu.edu