Extensive WWII Japanese Family Internment Archive
Japanese Internment
California and Colorado, ca. 1940s
Extensive WWII Japanese Family Internment Archive
Archive
Kawauchi family World War II Japanese Internment archive. Approximately 33 documents,
a mimeographed newspaper, high school yearbook and commencement program recording the internment of the Kawauchi family at the Tule Lake Segregation Center and Granada Relocation Center during the years 1942 to 1945. The archive also includes 14 studio photographs dating as far back as the late 19th century with photo stamps from Hawaii, Sacramento, Oakland, and Boonville, Indiana. Together with pamphlets, newspapers clippings, forms and other ephemera from the 1960s to circa 1990, including two letters from George H.W. Bush with printed signatures regarding restitution (in total, about 1.5 linear inches). Overall condition is very good, most with flattened folds. Newspapers clippings are fragile. Photographs vary in condition, with some mounts and holders showing wear.
Please see our Terms and Conditions regarding large lots of five or more items.
Signed on February 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 granted Secretary of War and military commanders the authority to designate "military areas" from which any persons could be excluded, ostensibly for national security purposes. Although no ethnic group was identified in the text of the Order, it was applied almost exclusively to Japanese Americans, including both U.S. citizens (Nisei) and Japanese nationals (Issei). In late March 1942, Japanese Americans on the West Coast were given 48 hours' notice to leave their homes and report to assembly centers, temporary facilities such as fairgrounds and racetracks.
A two-page typed affidavit dated April 18, 1942 evidences the Kawauchi family's attempt to avoid internment. In it, Iwao Sam Motoyama gives a sworn statement that he is an American citizen by birth, and that he is "desirious of bringing his sister and brother-in-law [Alice and Toshio Kawauchi] and their three children to Indiana to make their home with him." Motoyama states his employment as a "chicken sexuer" and that his salary of $75 a week makes him financially capable of providing for them. Signed, "Iwao Sam Motoyama".
There is a second sworn statement by Thomas Howard, "a hatcheryman and poultryman", stating that he has known Motoyama for approximately four years and can attest that he is able to provide for his family and secure employment for them. The two sheets of paper are stapled along the top.
Two additional single page affidavits dated May 9, 1942 give additional support to Motoyama's attempts to relocate his family. The two affidavits are identical statements signed by the principals of four hatcheries attesting that Motoyama has worked for them "for more than four years and that his work of sexing of baby chicks which necessitates Mr. Sam Motoyama to work twenty-four hours a day." They pose that the relocation of the Kawauchi family to Indiana is a defense matter as Toshio Kawauchi's employment as a chick sexer would assist in "the increase of meat and egg production."
The Kawauchis were not successful in their efforts to relocate to Indiana, and the family was moved into the Tule Lake Relocation Center in May. Tule Lake was the largest and most restrictive of the camps; it was designated as a maximum-security segregation center for people labeled "disloyal" by the U.S. government. And within this setting, the interned residents established the Tule Lake Cooperative Enterprises, Inc. as a means to self-govern, allowing them to manage food distribution and provide services for the community. Evacuees in each block could elect managers to represent their interests and coordinate with the central cooperative. It appears that the Kawauchis were the managers for their block, as the archive includes twenty-one receipts dating from May 28, 1942 to September 30, 1943 recording contributions and disbursements by various internees. There are two lists recordi
Estimate
Reserve
Time, Location
Auction House
Japanese Internment
California and Colorado, ca. 1940s
Extensive WWII Japanese Family Internment Archive
Archive
Kawauchi family World War II Japanese Internment archive. Approximately 33 documents,
a mimeographed newspaper, high school yearbook and commencement program recording the internment of the Kawauchi family at the Tule Lake Segregation Center and Granada Relocation Center during the years 1942 to 1945. The archive also includes 14 studio photographs dating as far back as the late 19th century with photo stamps from Hawaii, Sacramento, Oakland, and Boonville, Indiana. Together with pamphlets, newspapers clippings, forms and other ephemera from the 1960s to circa 1990, including two letters from George H.W. Bush with printed signatures regarding restitution (in total, about 1.5 linear inches). Overall condition is very good, most with flattened folds. Newspapers clippings are fragile. Photographs vary in condition, with some mounts and holders showing wear.
Please see our Terms and Conditions regarding large lots of five or more items.
Signed on February 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 granted Secretary of War and military commanders the authority to designate "military areas" from which any persons could be excluded, ostensibly for national security purposes. Although no ethnic group was identified in the text of the Order, it was applied almost exclusively to Japanese Americans, including both U.S. citizens (Nisei) and Japanese nationals (Issei). In late March 1942, Japanese Americans on the West Coast were given 48 hours' notice to leave their homes and report to assembly centers, temporary facilities such as fairgrounds and racetracks.
A two-page typed affidavit dated April 18, 1942 evidences the Kawauchi family's attempt to avoid internment. In it, Iwao Sam Motoyama gives a sworn statement that he is an American citizen by birth, and that he is "desirious of bringing his sister and brother-in-law [Alice and Toshio Kawauchi] and their three children to Indiana to make their home with him." Motoyama states his employment as a "chicken sexuer" and that his salary of $75 a week makes him financially capable of providing for them. Signed, "Iwao Sam Motoyama".
There is a second sworn statement by Thomas Howard, "a hatcheryman and poultryman", stating that he has known Motoyama for approximately four years and can attest that he is able to provide for his family and secure employment for them. The two sheets of paper are stapled along the top.
Two additional single page affidavits dated May 9, 1942 give additional support to Motoyama's attempts to relocate his family. The two affidavits are identical statements signed by the principals of four hatcheries attesting that Motoyama has worked for them "for more than four years and that his work of sexing of baby chicks which necessitates Mr. Sam Motoyama to work twenty-four hours a day." They pose that the relocation of the Kawauchi family to Indiana is a defense matter as Toshio Kawauchi's employment as a chick sexer would assist in "the increase of meat and egg production."
The Kawauchis were not successful in their efforts to relocate to Indiana, and the family was moved into the Tule Lake Relocation Center in May. Tule Lake was the largest and most restrictive of the camps; it was designated as a maximum-security segregation center for people labeled "disloyal" by the U.S. government. And within this setting, the interned residents established the Tule Lake Cooperative Enterprises, Inc. as a means to self-govern, allowing them to manage food distribution and provide services for the community. Evacuees in each block could elect managers to represent their interests and coordinate with the central cooperative. It appears that the Kawauchis were the managers for their block, as the archive includes twenty-one receipts dating from May 28, 1942 to September 30, 1943 recording contributions and disbursements by various internees. There are two lists recordi
Estimate
Reserve
Time, Location
Auction House
