Primary Sources - Japanese American Internment - Research Guide

Overview: Finding Primary Sources

Primary sources can be found in a variety of library tools:

UC Library Search allows you to find primary sources in physical libraries like The Bancroft Library and the Main Stacks, as well as online sources
Online book and text collections
Primary Source databases provided by the Library
includes databases for finding newspaper articles, such as Historical Newspapers (ProQuest) or magazine articles, such as Reader's Guide
Vetted sites on the web:

For specific search strategies, see the Library's Guide to Finding Historical Primary Source s

Learn more about your topic in advance:

names of relevant individuals and organizations
dates of events
places
what terminology was used at the time by participants and observers? (ex: negro or colored instead of african american)

Use the bibliographies of secondary sources and reference sources to find citations to specific primary sources; search UC library Search to locate them on campus, or ask for assistance at the Library.

Online primary sources: Japanese American Internment

Websites

Bancroft Library Guide to Japanese American Internment, Relocation and Resettlement Records

Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives (multiple California libraries and museums)

UC Berkeley Oral History Center: Japanese American Confinement Sites: oral histories (scroll to the bottom)

UC Berkeley Oral History Center: Japanese American Intergenerational Narratives: oral histories

Berkeley Remix: podcast "From Generation to Generation’: The Legacy of Japanese American Incarceration"

National Archives: Japanese American Relocation and Internment

Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco (see: San Francisco - Japanese)

and see: San Francisco News coverage

Library of Congress - Ansel Adam's photographs of Manzanar

Library of Congress - primary source set and Teacher's Guide

Japanese American National Museum: Museum Collections Online

Japanese American Museum of San Jose: Manabu Oral History Project (short oral histories)

Densho Digital Repository: Browse Collections

California State University Japanese American Digitization Project

Smithsonian Museum of American History: A More Perfect Union - browse photos of their collections

Japantown Atlas - Drawing from historic maps, business directories, and photos, we show a variety of Japantowns as they existed in 1940.

Clara Breed Letters - Includes over 300 letters and cards received by Breed from Japanese American children and young adults during their World War II incarceration.

Library databases:

Japanese American Relocation Camp Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Searchable full text database of 25 newspapers written and produced by Japanese Americans interned during World War II.
"Although subject to censorship the newspapers document the day to day life of the internees. Titles includes: Rohwer Outpost, Poston Chronicle, Gila News Courier, Tulean Dispatch, Granada Pioneer, Minndoka Irrigator, Topaz Times, Manzanar Free Press, Denson Tribune, and Heart Mountain Sentinel. (1942-1945)"
Personal Justice Denied: Public Hearings of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment This link opens in a new window
Testimony and documents from more than 750 individuals involved in the Japanese American Internment during World War II.
"Includes material from more than 750 Japanese-Americans and Aleuts who had lived through the events of World War II, as well as government officials who ran the internment program, public figures, organizations such as the Japanese American Citizens League, interested citizens, historians, and other professionals who had studied the internment. Documents include personal stories, publications, reports, press releases, photographs, newspaper clippings, etc. (1981, principally covers 1942 - 1945)"
Rafu Shimpo Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Rafu Shimpo began in 1903 and is the longest running Japanese American newspaper in the U. S. During WWII, it was suspended from 1942-1945, and was revived in 1946. The digital archive contains all obtainable issues from 1914 through 2018.
ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Indexing and full-text access for publications of the United States Congress such as hearings, committee reports and prints, CRS reports, as well as executive branch documents. (Congressional Publications) [dates vary]
One stop shopping for all U.S. congressional publications. Provides indexing and abstracts of congressional publications back to 1789, including the full-text of published Congressional Hearings (1824-present; unpublished hearings until 1979), Committee Prints (1817-present), Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports (1916-present), Congressional Record and its predecessor titles (1789-present), U.S. Congressional Serial Set and Maps (1789-present), Executive Branch Documents (1789-1932), Presidential Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations (1789-present), and Legislative Histories (1969-Present; earlier legislative histories are available via ProQuest's Legislative Insight).
San Francisco Chronicle Archive, Complete (historical and current) This link opens in a new window
Two searchable databases comprising the complete San Francisco Chronicle, Northern California's largest circulation newspaper. 1865-1984, page images from the print edition. 1985 onward, full-text from the electronic edition, lacking graphics.

Video and Art: Japanese American Internment

Kanopy streaming media: Japanese Internment (Calnet ID required)

The Art of Gaman by Delphine Hirasuna; Terry Heffernan (Photographer); Kit Hinrichs (Designed by)
Call Number: see UC Library Search for other editions
ISBN: 1580086896
Publication Date: 2013
In 1942, Executive Order 9066 mandated the incarceration of 110,000 Japanese Americans, including men, women, children, the elderly, and the infirm, for the duration of the war. Allowed only what they could carry, they were given just a few days to settle their affairs and report to assembly centers. Businesses were lost, personal property was stolen or vandalized, and lives were shattered. The Japanese word gaman means "enduring what seems unbearable with dignity and grace. "Imprisoned in remote camps surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by soldiers with machine guns, the internees sought courage and solace in art. Using found materials at first and later what they could order by catalog, they whittled and carved, painted and etched, stitched and crocheted. What they created is a celebration of the nobility of the human spirit under adversity. THE ART OF GAMAN presents more than 150 examples of art created by internees, along with a history of the camps.
The View from Within by Karin M. Higa
Call Number: see UC Library Search for other editions
ISBN: 0934052212
Publication Date: 1992-01-01
Through Innocent Eyes by Vincent Tajiri (Editor); Eddie Kurushima (Illustrator); Mike Nakayama (Illustrator); Yuji Ichioka (Introduction by); Lane Hirabayashi (Introduction by)
ISBN: 0962445010
Publication Date: 1990-02-01
In 1942, some 120,000 Japanese Americans, without benefit of due process, were removed from their homes & confined to stark internment centers in desolate areas of the United States. Of the Japanese Americans interned, 30,000 were school age children. For the first time, the writing & artwork of these young people have been compiled into a single volume to bring us their voices & visions. In this return to a historical time of racial stereotyping & hatred; war hysteria & paranoia, one finds the voices surprisingly restrained. There is little anger here--no bitterness or despair. Here are pages that are key to the young--vibrant with optimism & hope. Ray Franchi, a teacher at Poston (one of the ten internment camps) & Paul Takeda, a Red Cross worker compiled the original scrapbook of sketches & writings so that other school-aged children could become familiar with the plight of the Japanese Americans during the war. However, the scrapbook remained submerged until 45 years later. Keiro Services, a non-profit organization providing long-term care to the Japanese American elderly decided to make the collection available to increase awareness & education among the general public. Edited by Vincent Tajiri, the book contains the illustrations & sketches of fifty children along with contributing works by other known authors of the camp experience. Also included is a brief interview with the schoolteacher, Franchi. The audio version of THROUGH INNOCENT EYES was produced by Family Media with an introduction by George Takei (of Star Trek fame). Published by Keiro Services, PO Box 33819, Los Angeles, CA 90033-0819. Telephone: 213-263-5693.
Chiura Obata by Shipu Wang (Editor)
ISBN: 9780520296541
Publication Date: 2018-01-13
Chiura Obata (1885-1975) was one of the most significant Japanese American artists working on the West Coast in the last century. Born in Okayama, Japan, Obata emigrated to the United States in 1903 and embarked on a seven-decade career that saw the enactment of anti-immigration laws and the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. But Obata emerged as a leading figure in the Northern California artistic communities, serving not only as an influential art professor at UC Berkeley for nearly twenty years, but also as a founding director of art schools in the internment camps. With a prodigious and expansive oeuvre, Obata's seemingly effortless mastery of, and productive engagement with, diverse techniques, styles, and traditions defy the dichotomous categorizations of American/European and Japanese/Asian art. His faith in the power of art, his devotion to preserving the myriad grandeur of what he called "Great Nature," and his compelling personal story as an immigrant and an American are all as relevant to our contemporary moment as ever. This catalogue is the first book surveying Chiura Obata's rich and varied body of work that includes over 100 beautiful images, many of which have never been published. It also showcases a selection of Obata's writings and a rare 1965 interview with the artist. The scholarly essays by ShiPu Wang and the other contributors illuminate the intense and productive cross-cultural negotiations that Obata's life and work exemplify, in the context of both American modernism and the early twentieth-century U.S. racio-ethnic relations--a still-understudied area in American art historical scholarship. Published in association with the Art, Design and Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara. Exhibition dates: Art, Design and Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara: January 13-April 29, 2018 Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City: May 25-September 2, 2018 Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan: January 18-March 10, 2019 Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento: June 23-September 29, 2019 Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.: November 27, 2019-May 25, 2020 ]

How can I tell if something is a primary source?

See the Books and Media tab for search examples.

How can you tell if something is a primary source by looking at UC Library Search? Sometimes you can't, but here are some ideas:

was it created by a person or organization involved with the events? (ex: Fred Korematsu, Japanese American Citizens League)
was it created during the time period of the events? (ex: 1939-1945) - note that not all primary sources were created during the time period - some, like interviews and memoirs, were created later
is the item the type of material that has been created by participants in the event - specialized newspapers, memoirs, interviews, diaries, correspondence, etc.?
is the item the type of material that has been created by witnesses of the event - mainstream newspapers and magazine articles, for example?

If you're not sure, ask for assistance!

Sample Searches - Finding Historical Newspaper Articles

Sample searches in Historical Newspapers (ProQuest): (mostly primary sources)

1. Japanese american* internment

2. advanced search

Remember to use the terminology of the time period!

japanese (anywhere)
evacuation (anywhere)
alien* (anywhere)

publication date: specific date range > 1/1/1942 12/31/1945

Note: read the help screens before trying to print!

Sample Searches in Readers Guide (primary sources - major American magazine articles)

1. Japanese (keywords)
internment (keywords)

2. Japanese Americans evacuation (subject)

limit by date: from year 1942 to year 1945

click on UC e-links to find library location

Also try searching specific names and events: General DeWitt; Executive Order 9066, Civilian Exclusion Order 346, etc.!

Secondary menu

Japanese American Internment - Research Guide

Overview: Finding Primary Sources

Online primary sources: Japanese American Internment

Video and Art: Japanese American Internment

How can I tell if something is a primary source?

Sample Searches - Finding Historical Newspaper Articles