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Ami Inuzuka Correspondence: Finding Aid
mssHM 66300-66345
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Title: Ami Inuzuka Correspondence
Dates (inclusive): 1942-1988
Collection Number: mssHM 66300-66345
Creator:
Inuzuka, Ami.
Extent: 50 items in 1 box
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2129
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection contains letters written by Japanese-American Ami Inuzuka to her friends Hardin and Raemond Craig,
with 13 letters written while the Inuzukas were interned at the Gila River Relocation Center in Rivers, Arizona, beginning
in 1942 and discussing life in
an internment camp. In the rest of her letters, Ami discusses her life in Los Angeles, her family, and the difficulties of
growing older.
Language: English.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services
Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to
quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such
activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is
one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Ami Inuzuka Correspondence, The Huntington Library, San
Marino, California.
Gift of Raemond Craig, November 27, 1990.
Ami Inuzuka, her husband, Henry, and their three children, Tsuneo, Kazuo, and
Margaret were moved from their home in Pasadena, California, to the Gila River
Relocation Center in Rivers, Arizona, in 1942. After the center closed in 1946, the
family moved back to Southern California.
The letters written by Ami Inuzuka were sent to her friends and former employers Hardin Craig, Jr., and his wife Raemond,
of Pasadena, California.
Ami wrote the first thirteen letters (1942- 1945) while she and her family were interned at the Gila River Relocation Center
in Rivers,
Arizona. These letters give a detailed description of camp. Ami comments upon the living conditions in the barracks, the
extreme weather
of the Arizona desert, the employment situation, her children’s education, sickness, social activities (including her daughter’s
engagement),
and her family’s plan for after the war. She also frequently thanks Raemond Craig for care packages she sent to the Inuzuka
family, consisting of
clothes, books and other items that Ami would request. In the letters after the war, Ami writes to the Craigs, who had moved
to Houston, Texas,
and discusses her life in Los Angeles and La Puente, including the difficulties of growing older. She gives details regarding
her growing family
(children finishing college, grandchildren being born, the death of her husband in 1969, etc.). Hardin Craig, Jr., dies in
1971, which makes
Raemond Craig the only addressee of the letters after 1971. The collection contains a photograph of the Inuzuka family in
the letter dated 1960,
May 29, and a photograph of Mr. and Mrs.
Inuzuka and Mr. and Mrs. Craig in the letter dated 1967, Aug. 18. There is one letter by Ami’s son Tsuneo, thanking the Craigs
for
help with finding employment in California. Also included with the collection are two newspaper clippings, from the 1980s,
about the
internment of the Japanese during World War II.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Inuzuka, Ami.
Gila River Relocation
Center.
United States. War
Relocation Authority.
Japanese American families.
Japanese American women.
Japanese Americans --
California.
Japanese Americans -- Evacuation and
relocation, 1942-1945 -- Personal narratives.
Arizona -- Description
and travel.
California, Southern --
Description and travel.
Los Angeles (Calif.) --
Description and travel.
Letters (correspondence) -- West (U.S.)
-- 20th century.