About this collection

This digitized collection documenting the history of Japanese Americans who were sent to incarceration camps during World War II brings together the Success through Perseverance collection from the Fresno County Public Library and the JACL-CCDC Japanese American Oral History collection, TOMO Foundation and Japanese Americans in World War II collections from the Special Collections Research Center at California State University, Fresno. The digitized collection contains oral histories, newsletters and photographs.

This digital collaborative project was made possible by a grant from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program (CCLPEP) in 2008-2009 as funded by the state legislature and administered by the California State Library. CCLPEP also funded the taping of nine additional oral histories through a previous 2004-2005 grant.

The original Success through Perseverance project was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1979-1980 and was directed by Yoshino Hasegawa and Keith Boettcher.

For more information about the JACL-CCDC Japanese American Oral History collection, please see the finding aid at: http://archives.library.fresnostate.edu/repositories/2/resources/18

Additional information about the TOMO Foundation collection can be found in the finding aid at: http://archives.library.fresnostate.edu/repositories/2/resources/14

The finding aid for the Japanese Americans in World War II is also available at: http://archives.library.fresnostate.edu/repositories/2/resources/13

Special thanks to Ralph Kumano and Grace Kimoto for all of their work on the JACL-CCDC Japanese American Oral History collection. They ably continued the work started by the late Dr. Izumi Taniguchi. Extra thanks to Ralph Kumano for spending many, many hours editing and correcting all of the transcripts. Many thanks to Carlene Tinker for painstakingly scanning and describing many of the camp newspapers and other documents as well as spending hour upon hour of her volunteered time to edit the scanned text of each newspaper.

To order digital reproductions of items in this collection, please consult our and send requests to scrc@mail.fresnostate.edu

View captioned excerpts funded by a 2009-2010 grant from the Fresno Regional Foundation "Honoring the Japanese American Experience in the San Joaquin Valley."

Life Before the War - Saburo Masada

Looking for Work - George Okada

Detention Centers for Subversives - Izumi Taniguchi

Life at Fresno Detention Center - Norio Masuda

Family Camps - Izumi Taniguchi

"No-No Boys" - Izumi Taniguchi

Discrimination after the Camps - Saburo Masada

No Complaining - Anne Moore

Just not the Same - Saburo Masada

Sacrifices of Nisei Servicemen - Marion Masada

How Could this Happen in our Country - Saburo Masada