Name/Title
Folder about return of Japanese residents, 1945Entry/Object ID
2011.62.14Scope and Content
Acc. No. 11.62.14
Subject Category: City of Alameda; Japanese Internment /ethnic groups; WWII
Date or Period: 1945
Object: File Folder
Description:
Acid-free legal size file folder with documents, including an old folder with green label on the tab stating: “JAPANESE - Return to Alameda? January 1945-”
Size folders: L 14 3/4” X W 9”
History of Object: Copy of Public Proclamation No. 24, September 1945, rescinding the ‘exclusion’, and two letters from Mr. M. Yamasaki, to the Mayor, first from January 1945 then May, asking opinion about returning to Alameda. Mayor Godfrey (January), and Mayor Braunscheid (June) discouraged Mr. Yamasaki, claiming difficulty in finding housing because of increase of population because of the military personnel. Also stating that the Buddhist Mission was indefinitely being used as training facility for industrial personnel, and suggesting the family wait until after the war.
The first letter was written after the December 18, 1944, ‘Ex parte Mitsuye Endo’ ruling by the Supreme Court, which set a precedent stating a loyal citizen could not be detained against their will; this theoretically meant residents could be released from the internment camps.
Documents were found in the attic of City Hall in the 1990s in an old folder, which was discarded in 2011 upon donation to the museum.
Acquired from: City of Alameda
Date Cataloged: 9/3/11