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Text / Letter from Usami Terada to Mr. and Mrs. A.W. Thomas, October 3, …

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Title
Letter from Usami Terada to Mr. and Mrs. A.W. Thomas, October 3, 1943, transcript
Creator
Terada, Usami: author
Date Created and/or Issued
1944-10-03
Contributing Institution
California State University, Dominguez Hills, Archives and Special Collections
Collection
CSU Japanese American Digitization Project
Rights Information
Permission to publish the image must be obtained from the CSUDH Archives as owner of the physical item and copyright. In instances when the copyright ownership is not clear it is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain copyright permission.
Description
A transcript of a letter from Usami Terada, an incarceree at the Rohwer incarceration camp, to Mr. and Mrs. A.W. Thomas in Lawndale, California. The letter discusses the Japanese American incarcerees returning to California and the West Coast. He describes the returning people as "half bred or wife of Caucasian" and a female attending Pasadena Junior College. He expresses his fear that it would be hard to return and restart their farm in Lawndale, California because of the lack of resources, such as tools, machinery, and money, and that his family needs to start over again. He also describes the situation when his family was forced to leave, leaving his trunk in the Thomas' garage and asking him to send it to him in Santa Anita. He is concerned about his farm, which was being operated by the Chinese, as well as his properties in Lawndale, and asks Thomas to take pictures of his house and yard to see how they look after two and half years. Transcript was provided by the donor; the original form is available: csudh_nis_0019.
The James H. Osborne Nisei Collection contains mainly correspondence between Emiko and Usami Terada, incarcerees in the Rohwer incarceration camp, McGehee Arkansas, and the Thomas family in Lawndale, California, and photographs of the Teradas and the Thomases. The letters describe the trip from the Santa Anita Temporary Assembly Center to the Rohwer incarceration camp, their lives and conditions in the camp, and their concerns about their properties in Lawndale, California. Also included are photographs taken in the camp, some issues of "The Rohwer outpost," and fliers published during wartime.
Type
text
Format
Correspondence
1 page, 11 x 8.5 inches, typescript
application/pdf
Identifier
nis_06_020_transcript
csudh_nis_9019
http://cdm16855.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16855coll4/id/57759
Language
English
Subject
World War II--Leaving camp--Returning home
World War II--Economic losses
World War II--Incarceration camps
Place
McGehee, Arkansas
Incarceration Camps--Rohwer
Source
CSU Dominguez Hills Department of Archives and Special Collections;
Relation
California State University Japanese American Digitization Project
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8h1377p/
James H. Osborne Nisei Collection

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