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Finding Aid for the Charles Kikuchi papers, 1941-1988
1259
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Title: Charles Kikuchi papers
Date (inclusive): 1941-1988
Collection number: 1259
Creator:
Kikuchi, Charles
Extent:
58 boxes (29 linear ft.)
4 oversize boxes
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.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections
for paging information.
Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library
Special Collections for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary 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.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
- Gift of Charles Kikuchi, 1981-83.
- Gift of Yuriko Kikuchi, 1991.
- Gift of Warren Tsuneishi, 1981.
- Gift of Arthur Hansen, 1989.
Finding aid and digital representations of archival material
funded in part by a grant from the Library Services and Technology
Act (LSTA).
Digital Representations Available
Digital image files of the journal of Charles Kikuchi were made from the originals by UCLA's Office of Instructional Development
Photographic Services using a Fuji FinePix S1-Pro digital camera with a maximum resolution of 3,040 x 2,016 pixels. The camera
was equipped with a Micro-Nikkor flat field lens. Images of the individual pages of the journal were captured as uncompressed
24-bit RGB TIFF files. These archival images were used to create JPEG user images to the specifications of the MoAII viewer.
[Identification of item], Charles Kikuchi papers (Collection Number 1259). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young
Research Library, UCLA.
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.
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.
Arranged in the following series:
- Original diaries (Boxes 1-10).
- Copy diaries (Boxes 11-44).
- Loose items from diaries (Box 56).
- Correspondence and writings (Boxes 45, 57-60, 62).
- Japanese Evacuation and Relocation Study (JERS) (Boxes 46-49, 54).
- Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles and Fair Play (Box 54).
- Photographs and biographical data (Box 54).
- Printed material (Boxes 50-53, 62).
- Relocation center news publications (Box 55).
- Reports (Box 61).
- Proclamation documents (Box 61).
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Kikuchi, Charles--Archives.
Yuriko, 1920- .
Tanforan Assembly Center (San Bruno, Calif.)
Gila River Relocation Center.
Japanese Americans--Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945--Archival resources.
Diaries.
Title: apanese American Research Project collection of material about Japanese in the United States (Yuji Ichioka papers) - Collection
number 2010.
Available at the Library Special Collections, UCLA.