The events, descriptions, and details in this story are based on hours of interviews with Min Imamura, Gayle Imamura Huffman, Kara Huffman Beaton, Cary Kaba, and Anika Kaba. They’re also based on photographs, documents, and memorabilia the family generously shared. Numerous scholars have been consulted for their perspectives, as were research materials, oral histories, and archival collections.
The definitions for key terms featured in this story are in part derived from the Japanese American Citizens League’s “Power of Words Handbook, ” the Densho Encyclopedia, and Densho’s Curriculum Guide, “Examining Racism and Discrimination Through Oral History.”
Archives and Manuscript Collections
Brethren Archives - Japanese Relocation Collection
Chicago Japanese American Historical Society
Densho Digital Repository
Japanese American Service Committee
National Archives
UC Berkeley Bancroft Library - Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records
Bulletins
"Evacuee Bulletin to Minister-Counsellors [sic]," Folder "Chicago Church Federation and United Ministry to Resettlers," box 3, Japanese Relocation Collection, Japanese Relocation Collection, Brethren Archives, Elgin, IL.
Instructions to Hostelers, The Brethren Relocation Hostel.
Books
Cahan, Richard, et al. Un-American: the Incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. CityFiles Press, 2016.
Clark, Bonnie J. Finding Solace in the Soil: An Archaeology of Gardens and Gardeners at Amache. University Press of Colorado, 2020.
George, Stephanie, and Carlota F. Haider. Sowing Dreams, Cultivating Lives: Nikkei Farmers in Pre-World War II Orange County. Center for Oral and Public History, California State University, Fullerton, 2009.
Hatta, Julie. “Exploring the Japanese American Internment through Film and the Internet.” Exploring Japanese American Internment, National Asian American Telecommunications Association , caamedia.org/jainternment/.
Harden, Jacalyn D. Double Cross: Japanese Americans in Black and White Chicago. University of Minnesota Press, 2003.
Lillquist, Karl. Imprisoned in the Desert: The Geography of World War II-Era, Japanese American Relocation Centers in the Western United States, www.cwu.edu/geography/sites/cts.cwu.edu.geography/files/ja_relocation.pdf.
Murata, Alice K. Japanese Americans in Chicago. Arcadia, 2002.
Myer, Dillon. Uprooted Americans: The Japanese Americans and the War Relocation Authority. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1971.
Osako, Masako. “Japanese Americans: Melting into the All-American Melting Pot.” Ethnic Chicago: a Multicultural Portrait, by Melvin G. Holli and Peter d'A Jones, Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2007, pp. 409–435.
REgenerations. Oral History Project: Rebuilding Japanese American Families, Communities, and Civil Rights in the Resettlement Era. Japanese American National Museum, 2000.
Weglyn, Michiko Nishiura. Years of Infamy. William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1976.
Dissertations and Theses
Doi, Elizabeth. (2016). What Happens to a Dream Conferred? Japanese American race, space, and place in Chicago, 1945-1965. [Unpublished Master's thesis]. University of Chicago.
Films and Videos
War Relocation Authority in cooperation with the Office of Strategic Services, director. The Way Ahead, Department of the Interior, 1943, www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZLDHd_7tnM.
Government Documents
People in Motion: The Postwar Adjustment of the Evacuated Japanese Americans, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1946.
The Evacuated People: A Quantitative Description, Department of the Interior, 1946.
United States, War Department. Leave Clearance Interview Questions - 25 August 1943, Assistant Secretary of War, 1943.
United States, War Relocation Authority. When You Leave the Relocation Center, War Relocation Authority, 1945.
Journal Articles and Reports
Charlotte Brooks, In the Twilight Zone between Black and White: Japanese American Resettlement and Community in Chicago, 1942–1945, Journal of American History, Volume 86, Issue 4, March 2000, Pages 1655–1687, https://doi.org/10.2307/2567582
Clark, Bonnie. Legacies of Space and Intangible Heritage Archaeology, Ethnohistory, and the Politics of Cultural Continuity in the Americas, by Fernando Armstrong-Fumero and Hoil Julio Gutierrez, University Press of Colorado, 2017, pp. 79–96.
Miyamoto, Shotaro Frank. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study, 1944, Interim Report of Resettler Adjustments in Chicago.
Shibutani, Tamotsu. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study, 1944, The First Year of the Resettlement of Nisei in the Chicago Area.
Social Analysis Committee. Chicago Resettlers Committee, 1947, Chicago Resettlement 1947 A Report.
Takeshita, Yumika. “Resisting Integration: Japanese-American Recreational Activities and Development of Civic Identity in Postwar Chicago.” Clio's Scroll, vol. 17, no. 2, 2016, pp. 47–60.
Tanaka, Togo. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study, 1944, Adjust Problems of Chicago Resettlers.
Newspapers, Periodicals, and Serials
New York Times
Interviews, Speeches, and Memoirs
Imamura, Minoru. Interview by Anna Takada. September 21, 2017, in Chicago, Illinois. Japanese American Service Committee.
Ralph E. Smeltzer, "Present Status of the Community Integration Program in Chicago," typescript, July 9, 1943, box 4, Japanese Relocation Collection, Brethren Archives, Elgin, IL.
Private Collections
Imamura family papers and photos
Huffman family papers and photos
Kaba family papers and photos
Websites
Hatta, Julie. “Exploring the Japanese American Internment through Film and the Internet.” Exploring Japanese American Internment, National Asian American Telecommunications Association , caamedia.org/jainternment/.
Matsunaga, Erik. “Japanese Americans on Chicago’s South Side - Oakland/Kenwood 1940s-1950s - Part 1.” Discover Nikkei, 1 Dec. 2015, www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2015/12/1/oakland-kenwood-1/.
Matsunaga, Erik. “Japanese Americans on Chicago’s South Side - Oakland/Kenwood 1940s-1950s - Part 2.” Discover Nikkei, 2 Dec. 2015, www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2015/12/2/oakland-kenwood-2/.
Matsunaga, Erik. “Japanese Americans on Chicago’s South Side - Oakland/Kenwood 1940s-1950s - Part 3.” Discover Nikkei, 3 Dec. 2015, www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2015/12/3/oakland-kenwood-3/.