Contact Information
Wayne Shoaf
shoaf@usc.edu
(213) 740 4090
Location
Online
Overview
This collection of photographs, from the Hearst Collection of the Los Angeles Examiner, part of the USC Regional History Collection, documents the relocation of Japanese-Americans in California during World War II. These 222 photographs provide a glimpse into the lives of Japanese immigrants and native born Japanese Americans (aka. Nisei) residing in California from 1921 to 1958, with primary emphasis on 1941-1946. Much of the coverage documents scenes of the relocation process; life in camps at Manzanar, Santa Anita, Tanforan, and Tule Lake; and post-war repatriation to Japan.
The original captions from the photographs, many of which were published in the Los Angeles Examiner, have been transcribed into the Japanese-American Relocation Digital Archive to enhance subject-specific retrieval; the cultural references reflect the 1940s terminology.
USC's Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive was funded by a grant from the Library Services and Technology Act to the California Digital Library, administered by the California State Library, as part of an initiative to assemble a statewide Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive (JARDA). JARDA includes access to more than 25 different collections from four (eventually nine) institutions. It features newly digitized photographs, documents, manuscripts, paintings, drawings, letters, oral histories and inventories of archival collections. When complete, it will bring together more than 10,000 digital images and 20,000 pages of electronic transcriptions of documents and oral histories, illustrating daily life in the camps.
For more information, visit the collection overview.