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Philco Service Shop
Photograph of the Philco Service shop, ca. 1950. Radio repair was another job open to skilled resettlers. An unidentified resettler poses in his…
Water Pipe
Brass water pipe, used for smoking tobacco. On one side, Shou Lao, God of Longevity and his deer, stork and pine tree, all expressing wish for long life. On other side, Chinese character 壽 (longevity)
Adoption Certificate
Rare adoption document during times of famine. The translation reads:
"This is the document that gives our own son away, by Chen Dian-yuan, village of Heng-mei. During this time of famine, there is no way to feed all family members. Therefore,…
"This is the document that gives our own son away, by Chen Dian-yuan, village of Heng-mei. During this time of famine, there is no way to feed all family members. Therefore,…
Paper Sons Cheat Sheet
The purely Chinese-American concept of "paper son" originated after the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Chinese-born men came to America adopting the name of another family and claiming to be sons of Chinese U.S. citizens. To pass the rigorous questions…
Santa Anita Pacemaker
The Santa Anita Pacemaker was the newspaper of the Assembly Center located on the famous raceyrack in California. From March through October 1942, 19,348 persons of Japanese descent who had been removed from their homes in Los Angeles, San Diego, and…
Mary Tanaka & Robert Omori
Mary Tanaka and Robert Omori pictured in front of Billings Hospital at The University of Chicago on the city's South Side.
Girls Club Leaders
Thousands of Japanese Americans resettled in Chicago after being released from the "internment camps" where they were held in segregation during World War II. To help each other rebuild their lives in a new environment, many young people formed…
Turtle Lake Barbell Club Patch
This fabric patch belonged to Koki Kumamoto, who was incarcerated at the Tule Lake (California) Relocation Center during World War II. Kumamoto eventually resettled in Chicago and established a successful dental practice.
Scrapbook Page
This page (titled "Garden of Eden," referring to a town near the Minidoka [Idaho] Relocation Center) is from Mikisaburo Izui's scrapbook of internment camp illustrations and botanical renderings. Japanese Americans who were removed from Oregon,…
Autograph Book
Keiko Takemoto used this "Autograph," or memory book, to document her time in the Tule Lake (California) Relocation Center. The hinged plywood cover contains an ink illustration of barracks set against the Castle Rock mountain.
Bird Sculpture
This hand-painted pine cone, wood, and metal bird sculpture was created in Topaz (Central Utah) Relocation Center by Shizue Tamura. About 2.5 inches in length, this little bird is typical of the items crafted from found materials by incarcerated…