American Heritage

CASED DAGUERREOTYPE OF FELIX G. BUTLER, CORPORAL, COMPANY G, 4TH ALABAMA INFANTRY, IN CIVILIAN ATTIRE. LABEL UNDER METAL FRAME MARKED: GENUINE UNION CASE, IMPROVED. - FINE GILT AND BURNISHED HINGE. - S.PECK & CO., MANUFACTURERS." INSCRIPTION IN PENCIL ON SAME LABEL READS: "FELIX G. BUTLER WAS WOUNDED IN THE FIRST BATTLE OF MANASSAS ON THE 21ST DAY OF JULY 1861. AND DIED IN BRENTSVILLE, VIRGINIA ON OCT 8TH, 1861, FROM HIS WOUNDS. HIS SISTER

Letter from Ruth Brockhouse of Emerson Junior High School to the Honda family. Personal relationships, as well as economic livelihoods were impacted by the removal of Japanese Americans. Rose Honda had turned 13 and entered 7th grade at Emerson Junior High in West Los Angeles when she received the shocking news that her family would be uprooted and confined at Manzanar. The impact of this separation affected not only Rose, but her teachers and school mates at Emerson. They took the opportunity, through this letter, to express their gratitude and respect for Rose and her family and urged her “to be Emersonian loyal to all our ideals.”

Shutaro Matsumura, a 54-year-old Issei assessed Manzanar a year after it opened: “Camp life is creating people with lazy habits, people without initiative or incentive. Working conditions are not strict and favor indolent and slovenly work.” During his three and a half years at Manzanar, Matsumura worked in the mattress factory, housing department, agriculture section, and finally, as a policeman in the Internal Security division. He earned the respect of his Caucasian supervisors for his superior work ethic and dedication to helping his community, despite very low pay.

This form letter notified the Matsumura family that they were permitted to live anywhere in the United States and that reloaction centers would close by January 3, 1946. In stating why he was going to relocate, Shutaro Matsumura observed, “Concentration camp life is an abnormal wartime manner of living which is definitely hindering the progress in education of the Nisei evacuee.” The gates to limited freedom for Japanese Americans began to swing open in 1943 when the WRA settled on a relocation policy. Internees had to secure employment and a sponsor in the community where they intended to settle, as well as a spotless security record. Many Caucasians, especially the Quakers, helped to find communities ready to accept Japanese Americans. Unable to return to the West Coast until January 1945, many internees settled in Midwestern and Eastern cities where there was more employment and less prejudice. Shutaro Matsumura was one of 3,500 internees from Manzanar who applied for, and obtained “leave clearance.” He chose to go to New York. As these forms illustrate, the paperwork associated with relocating was mountainous, and took months to process. On October 24, Mr. Matsumura and his wife met the bus outside Manzanar with a rail ticket, $25 in expense money, and the good wishes of the United States Government.