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Description
Ayame Okine writes from Bartlett, Illinois, to her parents-in-law, Seiichi and Tomeyo Okine in Hawthorne, California. She states that she is glad to hear that they have returned to California safely and would be able to spend winter holidays at home. She also describes the Japanese community in Chicago, making mochi for new year's day. The arrival date of the letter is recorded on the back of the envelope: December 20, 1945. The Okine Collection contains materials collected by Seiichi and Tomeyo Okine who were Issei flower growers in Whittier, California. It includes correspondence, photographs, financial documents, and a photo album. A large portion of the collection consists of family correspondence with Seiichi and Tomeyo Okine, including letters from their Nisei children, Masao and Makoto Okine, both soldiers overseas during World War II, to their Issei parents incarcerated in the Rohwer incarceration camp in McGehee, Arkansas. The correspondence also includes letters from their relatives and friends who are former incarcerees in the camps during the war and have “resettled” in Chicago, Illinois as well as letters from the Okines’ family members in Hiroshima, Japan during the Allied occupation of Japan. In addition, the collection includes a family photo album compiled by Dorothy Ai Aoki, a Nisei daughter to the Okines.
World War II--Leaving camp--Returning home Geographic communities--Illinois--Chicago Community activities--Festivals, celebrations, and holidays--New Year festivals Community activities--Festivals, celebrations, and holidays--Mochitsuki Identity and values--Nisei
Place
Bartlett, Illinois Incarceration Camps--Rohwer
Source
CSU Dominguez Hills Department of Archives and Special Collections
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