Category: Asian Pacific American Heritage

The Beginnings of the United States Army’s Japanese Language Training: From the Presidio of San Francisco to Camp Savage, Minnesota 1941-1942

by ddancis, posted in Asian Pacific American Heritage, Military Records, World War II

Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives at College Park The United States Army, realizing the need for Japanese language specialists, in 1908, began a language program in Tokyo, with four officers, including George V. Strong. When they completed their program in 1911, a new group began that … Continue reading The Beginnings of the United States Army’s Japanese Language Training: From the Presidio of San Francisco to Camp Savage, Minnesota 1941-1942

Documents of Loss: Dave Tatsuno’s Records in the San Francisco Branch Evacuee Property Files

by ddancis, posted in Asian Pacific American Heritage, Electronic Records, Genealogy, Interior/Environment, WWII Home Front

Today’s post is written by Jana Leighton, an Archivist in the Electronic Records Division at the National Archives at College Park with support from Kaitlyn Crain Enriquez, Archives Technician in the Still Pictures Branch at the National Archives at College Park. In February of 1942 the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank was tasked with the … Continue reading Documents of Loss: Dave Tatsuno’s Records in the San Francisco Branch Evacuee Property Files

Japanese American Evacuee Property Letters

by ddancis, posted in Asian Pacific American Heritage, WWII Home Front

Today’s post is written by Jana Leighton, an Archivist in the Electronic Records Division at the National Archives at College Park. On February 19, 1942, two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 that allowed the Secretary of War to designate military areas and order evacuation of … Continue reading Japanese American Evacuee Property Letters

black and white photo showing Lt. General DeWitt with a stenographer in the background

A Slap’s a Slap: General John L. DeWitt and Four Little Words

by US National Archives, posted in Asian Pacific American Heritage, Military Records, WWII Home Front

Today's post is written by Alan Walker, a processing archivist at Archives II in College Park. Lt. General John L. DeWitt was in charge of the U.S. Army’s Western Defense Command in 1942 and was instrumental in the development of Executive Order 9066, which directed the internment of all Japanese Americans living on the West … Continue reading A Slap’s a Slap: General John L. DeWitt and Four Little Words

Halloween at the Tule Lake Relocation Center

by jclingerman, posted in Asian Pacific American Heritage, WWII Home Front

By Jason Clingerman 70 years ago today, Japanese Americans at the Tule Lake Relocation Center celebrated a harvest festival by wearing costumes. At the Tule Lake Relocation Center, later the Tule Lake Segregation Center, over 24,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned because of suspected disloyalty to the U.S. government under Executive Order 9066.  Starting in 1943, Tule … Continue reading Halloween at the Tule Lake Relocation Center

Image of Encarnacion Alzona’s passport application.

The “Re-Encarnacion” of NARA’s Records

by US National Archives, posted in Asian Pacific American Heritage, Digitization Projects, Genealogy

Today's post is written by Monique Politowski, an archives technician who works on the NARA/Ancestry digitization partnership project in Silver Spring, Maryland. Millions of records have been converted to digital form since the partnership between NARA and Ancestry.com began in 2008, and some of the most popular records digitized as a result of this union … Continue reading The “Re-Encarnacion” of NARA’s Records