Japanese Latin American Internment, 1942-2010, bulk 1970-2010
Scope and Contents
The Japanese Latin American Internment series, bulk (1980 - 2007), covers Inouye’s efforts towards producing awareness of Japanese Latin American interned in the United States. He developed the Latin American Commission Bill, which established a federal commission to investigate and determine the facts surrounding the wartime deportation, internment and relocation of Latin Americans of Japanese descent by the U.S. government and recommend any appropriate remedies. Other series like “Japanese American Redress” and “Case Internment” relates to Inouye’s work towards redress for Japanese who had been interned during World War II. The four sub-series “Case Internment”, “House Judiciary Hearing”, “Japanese American Redress” and “Japanese Latin American Commission Bill”, as well as subseries, are in the original file system found within the collection prior to processing. There was little imposed order on the arrangement of records. Within the series, there are memorandums, testimonies by internees and their family members, staff correspondence, some of which are requests for support for the bills, draft reports, and declassified military and Department of State documents regarding Latin American Japanese.There are instances where records are duplicated in other files.No efforts were made to relocate material into the same folder; rather the context of the material is maintained.
Dates
- Creation: 1942-2010, bulk 1970-2010
Conditions Governing Access
Access restrictions apply to certain records in the papers that have been determined to contain sensitive personal or government information. Series assessed to contain sensitive information will remain closed until 2028 with the exception of Constituent Services Case Work, which contains high levels of personal identifiable information. Constituent Services Case Work will be available to requesting individuals upon review and approval of the archivist or librarian managing the Property. Individual files or records assessed to contain sensitive information may also carry restrictions. Series assessed with medium risk may be made available to the researcher after the files are reviewed for sensitive information or formats. Series assessed to be of low risk of disclosing sensitive information may be open and available to researchers.
Low risk: The following series pose little risk of revealing sensitive information and could be made available to the public with little harm: Administrative Files, Campaign Files, Constituent Services(Correspondence and Projects), House Records, Kaho’olawe, Native Hawaiian Issues, Japanese Latin American Internment, Personal, Political Affairs, Speeches, Scheduling Files, Medal of Honor, Legislative Files, Photographs, Public Relations, Books, and Subject Files.
Medium risk: ABSCAM, Staff Files, Born-Digital (format-based), Microfilm.
Series with sensitive information: Constituent Services (Case Work), Watergate, Iran-Contra, and subseries containing records related to military and defense appropriations.
This collection may be accessed in the John Troup Moir Jr. and Gertrude M.F. Moir Archives Reading Room on the fifth floor of the Hamilton Library addition. Reading room hours and policies can be found on the archives website: https://manoa.hawaii.edu/library/research/collections/archives/visiting-us/. If you have questions, please contact the archives by email: archives@hawaii.edu or phone: (808) 956-6047.
Biographical / Historical
During World War II, the United States interned thousands of Japanese, Germans, and Italians deported from Latin America to internment camps operated by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Most Japanese Latin Americans ended up at INS camps in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Kennedy, Seagoville, and Crystal City, Texas, before the United States repatriated them to Japan. After the war, a few internees returned to Latin America while several hundred remained in the United States as undocumented "immigrants." Decades later, the United States government maintained that it was not responsible for the internment of Japanese Latin Americans, and they were excluded from the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which granted Japanese Americans redress and an apology from the government for their incarceration during World War II. Japanese Latin Americans mounted a campaign in the 1990s and 2000s to educate the broader public about their own wartime experiences.
Extent
4.17 Linear Feet (10 archival document boxes)
Physical Location
HL A553c, 17-1-4 through 17-1-5
Repository Details
Part of the University of Hawaii at Manoa Libraries Repository