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Manuscripts

Letters received

Description

Letters dated 1939 and 1941 to 1946 were originally stored together in a file box; the bulk of these were sent to Sumi and sometimes multiple Sakai family members while incarcerated at Manzanar and are primarily from personal and family friends. Some were sent from other camps including Poston, Gila River, and Tule Lake, or from elsewhere in the U.S. following the sender's release, describing their current lives, schooling, and work, in New York, Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago, and elsewhere. These correspondents performed secretarial work, domestic labor, and farm labor; some were involved in resettlement efforts by the Advisory Committee for Evacuees in Chicago and the American Friends Service Committee; or served in the U.S. Army. There are several letters from friend Sunao Imoto, who was released from Poston to work for poet Carl Sandburg and his wife, Lilian Sandburg. Also present in this group are letters from friends and neighbors in Los Angeles, including Galetta Van Valkenburgh, and a request from Yuki Sakai to a Father Lavery for assistance in transferring her parents from the Santa Anita Sanitarium near the Santa Anita Assembly Center, dated 1942 June 17. Letters were possibly originally filed by sender and there are several index cards with correspondents' names and addresses present.

Some letters from 1940 and 1941 were sent to Sumi Sakai while she was traveling in Japan. Post-war correspondence is from family and friends in the U.S. and Japan and includes greeting cards and holiday snapshot cards, especially from the Kawakami family; some letters and cards are addressed to multiple family members.

Type
Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date
1939-2012
Call number
mssSK
Provenance
Gift of Kozawa Family Trust, February 2020.
Restrictions
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.
RESTRICTED: Box 48: housed in cold storage; extended retrieval and delivery time required.
Rights
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining permission rests with the researcher.
Associated people
Kawakami (Family),
Kozawa (Family),
Sakai (Family),
Find out more
View in the Library catalog(Opens in new tab)

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    Sunao Imoto

    Manuscripts

    Photo album titled "Abroad with My Camera and Me" of family friend Sunao Imoto's travels to Japan via San Francisco and Hawaii onboard the Kamakura Maru with Sumi Sakai, departing April 8, 1940. Snapshots document shipboard activities, a lengthy stay of study in Tokyo, and tourist and family visits to Kyoto, rural Southern Japan, and Manchukuo (Manchuria); Imoto's travels around Japan appear to be without Sumi Sakai. Album was created as a gift to Walter and Galetta Van Valkenburgh in December 1941 and contains extensive captions and commentary, including observations on the lives of Japanese women, both urban and rural. Several snapshots depict Imoto's return trip onboard the Montevideo Maru with its mostly European refugee passengers, arriving in Los Angeles on June 11, 1941. Sumi Sakai photo album, 1920s to 1941, also includes snapshots of the same journey to Japan, including Kamakura Maru shipboard images. Also present is a loose War Relocation Authority publicity photo of Sunao Imoto working as a secretary for poet Carl Sandburg following her release from the Poston War Relocation Center, dated May 1944.

    mssSK

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    Immediate family

    Manuscripts

    Portraits of Asakichi and Ura Kawakami, Yuki Sakai and children, Sumi Lillian Sakai Kozawa, Frank Ukio Kozawa, and Susie Kozawa. Includes baby portraits of Sumi Lillian Sakai Kozawa and of her in Japan, 1941 (box 35, folder 1) and numerous Susie Kozawa school portraits. Also present are formal photos of the funerals of Ura Kawakami at Manzanar, 1942 (box 38) and of Dan Sakai (box 42); a group portrait of Yuki Sakai and her children, 1930s (box 42); and portraits of Sumi and Miyoko Sakai in kimonos, 1930s (box 43).

    mssSK

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    Early family

    Manuscripts

    Snapshots of the Sakai family, bulk most likely in the San Diego area in the 1920s, including images of Masao Sakai, Sumi and other Sakai children, beach excursions, polo matches, a car race, and other activities. There are several small loose snapshots in an envelope of Japan that appear to be from a later date.

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    Family papers

    Manuscripts

    Bulk is material for family members Yuki Sakai, Sumi Lillian Sakai Kozawa, Frank Ukio Kozawa, Susie Kozawa, and Etsuko Rose Sakai. Includes correspondence, notebooks and school material, publications, ephemera, and artifacts. Filing names reflect most common usages and variations.

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    Sumi Lillian Sakai Kozawa

    Manuscripts

    Primarily photographs of Manzanar, including numerous reproductions of Ansel Adams photos as well as snapshots of Sumi Sakai and others, some with captions. There are a few images of the library staff in 1943 and several of young men in military uniforms both at Manzanar and in Europe, presumably sent to Sumi. A number of photos depict an excursion of Sumi and friends possibly occurring after the war ended but before return to Los Angeles, along with stock photos of the Mojave Desert.

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    Notebooks

    Manuscripts

    Most likely notes and calligraphy studies of Sumi Sakai while traveling in Japan.

    mssSK