Finding Aids Online
The Japanese American National Museum is home to over 700 linear feet of archival materials making it one of the largest repositories of primary resources representing Japanese American culture and experience.
The following list represents only those collections that have an online finding aid available. If a collection or subject of interest is not included below, please inquire with the Hirasaki National Resource Center about available related materials. Online finding aids are made accessible through the Online Archive of California.
Access to archival collections is by appointment only. Please contact the Hirasaki National Resource Center at least two weeks prior to your preferred date of visit.
George Hoshida Papers
George Hoshida (1907-1985) was an incarcerated artist who documented camp life with pencil and brushwork in a series of notebooks he kept between 1942 and 1945. This collection consists of his autobiography, artwork, and correspondences.
Jiro Kozai Papers
Jiro Kozai, an Issei from Tottori Prefecture who immigrated to the United States in 1911, was one of the early Japanese pioneers of New York City. He was the president of the Japanese Association of New York and was the publisher and owner of Japanese-American, a Japanese American newspaper in New York. The collection contains account books, correspondence, financial records, leaflets, photographs, and scrapbooks spanning from 1919 to 1940.
Paul T. Minerich Papers
The Paul T. Minerich Papers document the court cases of draft resisters who were court-martialed in 1944 in Ft. McClellan, Alabama. The resisters, also known as DB Boys (Detention Barracks Boys), were court-martialed and sentenced to a dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of pay. In 1981 their sentences were overturned. The papers comprise of court-martial documents, correspondences, and notes that were collected by their lawyers, Charles Edmund Zane and Paul T. Minerich.
Norman Y. Mineta Papers
The papers of Congressman Norman Y. Mineta cover the period from 1975 to 1996 and measure approximately 45 linear feet. These materials document Congressman Mineta's involvement in the redress movement, civil rights issues, and materials that document his campaign activities. These papers represent only a part of Mineta's congressional office files.
Rev. Kogan Yoshizumi Papers
Rev. Kogan Yoshizumi (1894-1975) was the Buddhist priest of the Soto Mission of Aiea in Hawaii on Oahu. Rev. Yoshizumi was arrested and detained at Sand Island after the attack on Pearl Harbor and was subsequently transferred to a series of detention centers on the mainland. This collection documents his World War II journey through his collected correspondence.
Chica Sugino Papers
Chica Sugino was an Issei research analyst for Alexander Leighton, head of the War Relocation Authority's Sociological Research Bureau at Poston Relocation Center. Her research contributed to Leighton's book, The Governing of Men, one of the first monographs published on the Japanese American wartime experience. The collection contains photographs, correspondence, research notes, manuscript drafts, newspapers, audio recordings, and WRA publications spanning from the 1910s to the 1980s.
