Manuscripts
Letters received
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Letters received
Manuscripts
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.
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Extended family
Manuscripts
Extended Kawakami, Sakai, and Kozawa families; bulk is of Saichi and Chizu Kawakami, their children and grandchildren, especially Kawakami family weddings. Some portraits represent early years in California as well as family in Japan (box 36, 38), and Sakai family funerals, 1920s.
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Snapshots
Manuscripts
Snapshots depict Sakai, Kozawa, and Kawakami family homes, excursions and travels, holidays and events, friends, and pets. Many of Etsuko Rose Sakai's photos depict Galetta Van Valkenburgh and family, and her Pasadena property where Etsuko also lived. A number of photos document early years in California as well as family in Japan, primarily in box 29. Also in box 29 is a snapshot of the Japanese Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko, after 1959 (folder 6).
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Letters received
Manuscripts
Bulk is notes and thank you notes, some including Tokio Florist invoices, from customers remitting payments. Most envelopes have check marks, invoice numbers, or notes written on them; many are empty but have markings or notes on them.
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Letters received
Manuscripts
One letter from a pen pal in Japan; one letter from her mother while in college. 1998 item is addressed envelope only.
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Sumi Lillian Sakai Kozawa
Manuscripts
Includes snapshots of the Sakai and Kawakami families, including Ura Kawakami, Yuki Sakai and the Sakai and Kawakami children, and pets. Images depict the Roscoe ranch, flower gardens and greenhouses at Roscoe and Los Feliz; excursions to Santa Monica, Long Beach and San Pedro, and Glendale; and brother Akira Dan and his racing car. There are numerous snapshots of Sumi's 1940 to 1941 trip to Japan, traveling with Sunao Imoto onboard the Kamakura Maru with stops in San Francisco and Hawaii, and of her extended stay in Japan visiting multiple locations and Japanese family members. See Sunao Imoto's photo album for other photos of this trip, especially aboard the Kamakura Maru (box 23). Also present are a few earlier photos of Masao Sakai. Several photographs are missing, most are captioned.
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