Manuscripts
The letters written by Ami Inuzuka were sent to her friends and former employers Hardin Craig, Jr., and his wife Raemond, of Pasadena, California. Ami wrote the first thirteen letters (1942- 1945) while she and her family were interned at the Gila River Relocation Center in Rivers, Arizona. These letters give a detailed description of camp. Ami comments upon the living conditions in the barracks, the extreme weather of the Arizona desert, the employment situation, her children's education, sickness, social activities (including her daughter's engagement), and her family's plan for after the war. She also frequently thanks Raemond Craig for care packages she sent to the Inuzuka family, consisting of clothes, books and other items that Ami would request. In the letters after the war, Ami writes to the Craigs, who had moved to Houston, Texas, and discusses her life in Los Angeles and La Puente, including the difficulties of growing older. She gives details regarding her growing family (children finishing college, grandchildren being born, the death of her husband in 1969, etc.). Hardin Craig, Jr., dies in 1971, which makes Raemond Craig the only addressee of the letters after 1971. The collection contains a photograph of the Inuzuka family in the letter dated 1960, May 29, and a photograph of Mr. and Mrs. Inuzuka and Mr. and Mrs. Craig in the letter dated 1967, Aug. 18. There is one letter by Ami's son Tsuneo, thanking the Craigs for help with finding employment in California. Also included with the collection are two newspaper clippings, from the 1980s, about the internment of the Japanese during World War II.
mssHM 66300-66345
