Kiyoshi Sasaki Papers

Collection — Box: 1-5

Identifier: MANUSCRIPT-M00043

Staff Only

Scope and Content Note

The Kiyoshi Sasaki Papers contain scrapbooks, photo albums, and various documents and ephemera compiled by Sasaki.

The first scrapbook, located in box 1, is actually an autograph book with each page dedicated to one of Sasaki’s classmates at the Military Intelligence Service Language School at Camp Savage and Fort Snelling, Minnesota. Most pages contain a photograph of one of Sasaki’s classmates, an inscription written by the classmate, and the person’s autograph. The back of the book contains photographs of and inscriptions by some of Sasaki’s female friends from the area. These photographs and inscriptions date from 1944 and 1945.

One folder of assorted documents (including timelines of Sasaki’s life and wartime career compiled by his wife, Hanayo Sasaki)is located in box 2 along with the second scrapbook, which features memorabilia and documents collected during Sasaki’s World War II career, including his training period at Camp Savage; trips to New York City, Boston and Washington; further training at Fort McClellan, Alabama, and Fort Snelling, Minnesota; trip on the USS Greely across the Pacific to India; service in the China Theater; break in Shanghai after the Japanese surrender; and life in Japan as an interpreter and translator during the occupation. These documents and memorabilia date from 1944 to 1949, with the bulk from 1944 and 1945.

Boxes 3 through 5 contain unprocessed additions. The materials include two photo albums (one labeled "Kiyoshi Sasaki 1944-1948" and one labeled "1947 Camp Maizuru, Kyoto") and, in box 5, documents and ephemera such as news clippings, photographs, patches and badges, commemorative event programs, brochures, and speeches.

Dates

Creation: 1944-2003
Creation: Majority of material found within 1944-1949

Creator

Sasaki, Kiyoshi (Person)

Restrictions

Some fragile items may be handled by staff only.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in this collection, their descendants, or the repository if copyright has been signed over, as stipulated by United States copyright law. It is the responsibility of the user to determine any copyright restrictions, obtain written permission, and pay any fees necessary for the reproduction or proposed use of the materials.

Literary Rights Notice

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the University of Hawaii Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must be obtained by the researcher.

Biographical Sketch

Kiyoshi Sasaki (1921-2016) served in the American Military Intelligence Service (MIS) in China and worked as a translator in occupied Japan. Sasaki was the fourth child of Shotaro and Katsu Sasaki, who had previously settled in the Moiliili District of Honolulu after emigrating from Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. The family returned to Japan when Sasaki was a toddler, but after one year, Sasaki and his father came back to Hawaii. Sasaki attended Hawaii public schools (including McKinley High School) and McCully Japanese School. In November 1939, Sasaki moved to Japan to attend Meiji University in Tokyo. In July 1941, however, he returned to take jobs on Oahu.

Sasaki volunteered for the Army and was sent to Military Intelligence Service Language School at Camp Savage, Minnesota, to improve his Japanese language skills in January 1944. He went to Fort McClellan, Alabama, for basic training in September and returned to Minnesota (this time to Fort Snelling) for further language training from November through April 1945. Sasaki became a staff sergeant and was sent to Kunming, via Australia and Calcutta, as the leader of a team to be attached to the Chinese 71st army. They saw action at Kweilin before the war ended in August. He disarmed Japanese Army units at Hankow and rested at Shanghai before proceeding to Tokyo to head a translation team at the Allied Translating and Interpreting Section (ATIS). In December 1946 he became a second lieutenant and interviewed Japanese prisoners of war just returned from Siberia. He started working for the civilian Civil Censorship Detachment in Tokyo in December 1947 and worked there until he returned home to Hawaii in November 1949.

Sasaki married Hanayo Kurosawa, who had also been employed with the Civil Censorship Detachment, on Oct. 14, 1950. He resigned his army commission in 1953 to take a position with the Central Intelligence Agency in Tokyo; he returned to Hawaii on his retirement in 1973. Sasaki continued working for construction companies on Oahu until his full retirement in 1990.

Extent

2 Linear Feet (5 flat boxes)

Language

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Kiyoshi Sasaki (1921-2016) served in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Service (MIS) in China and worked as a translator in occupied Japan. The collection consists primarily of an autograph book filled with photographs and inscriptions by Sasaki’s classmates at the MIS Language School, and a scrapbook containing memorabilia and documents collected during Sasaki’s World War II career, but especially during his training period on the U.S. Mainland.

Arrangement

The Kiyoshi Sasaki Papers comprise two groups of material: the original 2007 accession of two scrapbooks and one folder of general documents (boxes 1-2) and a latter accession of two photo albums and various other materials (boxes 3-5). The second accession has not been arranged beyond placement in and numbering of boxes. Notes on the boxes are dated May 11, 2009.

Provenance

Donated by Kiyoshi Sasaki of Honolulu in November 2007. The scrapbooks were kept in the personal collection of the creator until given to the Japanese American Veterans Collection.

Additions beyond the initial two scrapbooks and accompanying folder of documents were received in 2009, presumably from the same source.

Related Materials

For related material, see the Hawaii War Records Depository, the bibliography of titles on Japanese Americans in World War II, and the other collections in the Japanese American Veterans Collection.

Physical Description

The pages of the two books, and some of the scrapbook content, are yellowed and brittle, but the material is in otherwise good condition. Acid-free, thin-leaf paper has been placed between pages containing items especially susceptible to acidification and decay.