Charles Kikuchi papers, 1941-1988

Collection context

Summary

Creators:
Kikuchi, Charles
Abstract:
Charles Kikuchi (1917- ) worked for the California State Employment Service, surveying Nisei occupations. He was recruited by Berkeley sociologist Dorothy Swaine Thomas for the Japanese Evacuation and Relocation Study (JERS). He began to keep a diary and completed field surveys at the Tanforan Assembly Center in Northern California and at the Gila River Relocation Center in Arizona and in 1943 chronicled camp resident settlement in Chicago. He was drafted into the United States Army just before the bombing of Hiroshima. The collection consists of Charles Kikuchi's diaries, correspondence, and related printed material about Japanese Americans and their relocation during World War II. Many diaries include clippings and programs related to the career of Kikuchi's wife, Yuriko Amemiya, a professional dancer and a member of Martha Graham's dance group.
Extent:
29.0 linear feet (58 boxes and 4 oversize boxes)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Charles Kikuchi papers (Collection 1259). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

Scope and content:

Collection consists of Charles Kikuchi's diaries, correspondence, and related printed material about Japanese Americans and their relocation during World War II. Includes 63 volumes of Kikuchi's original diaries, May 1942-June 1948. Copy diaries span the years 1941-79. Also includes materials related to Kikuchi's work and surveys for the Japanese Evacuation and Relocation Study (JERS) and his study of Japanese American relocation to Chicago, Illinois. Contains various War Relocation Authority (WRA) publications, National Defense Migration reports, various issues of the Gila News Courier, and related publications. Many diaries include clippings and programs related to the career of Kikuchi's wife, Yuriko, a professional dancer and a member of Martha Graham's dance group.

Biographical / historical:

Kikuchi was born in 1917 in the San Francisco Bay Area; his father was an Issei barbershop owner; he was placed in an orphanage when he was 8 years old; in 1934 he headed for San Francisco; BA, San Francisco State College, 1939; anonymously published an autobiographical essay, A Young American with a Japanese Face, in Louis Adamic's anthology titled, From Many Lands (1939); worked for the California State Employment Service, surveying Nisei occupations; attended School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley, and received certificate in social work in 1942; recruited by Berkeley sociologist Dorothy Swaine Thomas for the Japanese Evacuation and Relocation Study (JERS); Kikuchi began to keep a diary and completed field surveys at the Tanforan Assembly Center in Northern California and at the Gila River Relocation Center in Arizona; began chronicling camp resident settlement in Chicago, 1943; he was drafted into the United States Army just before the bombing of Hiroshima; received master's degree in social work, New York University (NYU), 1947; worked as a social worker with the Veterans Administration, New York; married Yuriko Amemiya, a professional dancer, in 1946; died September 25, 1988.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Charles Kikuchi, 1981-83. Gift of Yuriko Kikuchi, 1991. Gift of Warren Tsuneishi, 1981. Gift of Arthur Hansen, 1989.
Processing information:

Processed by UCLA Library Special Collections staff. Additions processed by Dydia DeLyser, January 1989 and Dan Luckenbill, January 1998.

Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.

We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Problematic Content and Description in UCLA's library collections and archives.

Arrangement:

Arranged in the following series:

  1. Original diaries (Boxes 1-10).
  2. Copy diaries (Boxes 11-44).
  3. Loose items from diaries (Box 56).
  4. Correspondence and writings (Boxes 45, 57-60, 62).
  5. Japanese Evacuation and Relocation Study (JERS) (Boxes 46-49, 54).
  6. Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles and Fair Play (Box 54).
  7. Photographs and biographical data (Box 54).
  8. Printed material (Boxes 50-53, 62).
  9. Relocation center news publications (Box 55).
  10. Reports (Box 61).
  11. Proclamation documents (Box 61).

Physical / technical requirements:

PORTIONS OF THIS COLLECTION HAVE BEEN DIGITIZED. See the Existence and Location of Copies note for the link to the digitized materials.

Physical location:
Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Charles Kikuchi papers (Collection 1259). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988